Submitted by Principle_Beauty in Philosophy

Paralyzed. Overloaded. Flooded with information and unable to act, unable to respond, to contribute.

Do you feel the same? Or maybe, thanks to philosophy, you feel able to contribute theory, or reviews, or commentary, or to better know how to live and what to do?

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celebratedrecluse wrote

fuck theories, we need discerning and informed action.

too many theories, society has progressed beyond the need for theories

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Principle_Beauty OP wrote

Do you really think so? But then what will inform our actions? What if there is some frontier we haven't crossed yet, some moral stance to take to improve our world? For example, some argue for being straight edge because of the link between alcohol and drugs and capitalist domination.

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throwaway wrote (edited )

I think you're absolutely right. Education goes before action, as long as it doesn't quell action. A struggle without any thought behind it is nothing more than a struggle. Discovering the evils behind evils and fighting those evils is to no avail, if you hold no bedrock idea of what is to keep people alive after the hand that feeds has been cut off.

Or maybe cr is right, maybe we just have to roll with it, stand up against those who'd like us not to, and the rest will happen organically, as the dominator is forced to retreat and make room for creativity and cooperation.

No matter what's what, for now I'll stick to borderline insanity, mushroom trips and Terence McKenna audio files. Nobody knows what's going on anyways, and certainly not me. Those who claim to are either lying, or have been lied to; perhaps both.

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darkecology wrote

The two have to go together. Theory should guide practice, and our practice needs to reflexively inform our theory. You can't do without one or the other.

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Principle_Beauty OP wrote

I'm not so sure that psychedelics lead somewhere nice. One can commune with nature and temporarily self-isolate without mind-altering substances. Indeed, perhaps they get in the way of mindful awareness.

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throwaway wrote

It can be done without, of course, psychedelics doesn't give you superpowers - it does, however, allow you to percieve your mind in a whole new way, bending your mind inwards and exposing things you might not have realized otherwise.

I don't think it's a universal truth at all, I just know from my own experience that it's a wonderful tool, and, if done properly, can be just as healthy as the stigma would have you believe it is unhealthy.

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Ennui wrote

Philosophy is one of the few things that make me excited, not because I think it’s some life-improvement pill, but because it’s just real fucking frood.

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Principle_Beauty OP wrote

You mean that like in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

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Ennui wrote

Yes. However, I used "frood" in an imaginary adjective sense, as opposed to its usual usage as a noun.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

There's always more to learn. I start with by balancing what seems most interesting and what seems most appropriate (in terms of my own weaknesses, for example maybe I haven't read enough about disability and need to take time to work on that). You can only do it bit by bit. After several years you might find yourself feeling grounded in your work, at least enough that you can say that you're confident you've put a substantial amount of effort into understanding important things that you weren't complacent and can hold your own when asked to examine your views.

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darkecology wrote

A book on this topic which I enjoyed recently was Jennie Odell's Resisting the Attention Economy. It's not explicitly Anarchist but it's left-wing and connects up this paralysis of information overload and overcoding with thinkers like Deleuze as well as Berardi and others, who are somewhere between anarchist and anarchist-sympathetic.

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Principle_Beauty OP wrote

Thanks, guess I have yet another book to add to my reading list, although that might be a bit more urgent for me to read ^_^;;

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Principle_Beauty OP wrote

Thank you guys so much for all the thoughtful comments and discussion. I appreciate the constructive nature of dialogue on this website.

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