Hybrid Real
To live alone
one must be an animal
or a god
–says Aristotle.
There is yet a third case;
one must be both
–a philosopher.
Twilight of the Idols, By Friedrich Nietzsche, Trans. by R. G. Collingdale Maxims and Arrows 3
…philosophy once again pose(s) the same question(s) as they did 2,000 years ago:
How can something originate in its opposite, for example
rationality in irrationality,
the sentient in the dead,
logic in illogic,
disinterested contemplation in covetous desire,
living for other in egoism,
truth in errors?
Human All To Human by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by R. G. Collingdale 1
I was tempted briefly to proclaim to the world, “happy Friday” a typical end-of-the-week affirmation, a note of “victory”… That satisfaction felt at having finished one more work-week, — anticipating the weekend does elevate one’s sense of being alive, not to mention a positive outlook is a “gift” to all others.
What do I owe myself, owe others? Surely at minimum, expressing pleasure to know, so-far-so-good, at this juncture in my life-journey!?
The will to seize today as a finish to a work-week was diminished upon learning that Aleksei Navalny, the irrepressible critic of Putin’s brutal rule, has died in prison. No doubt Putin’s SVR felt reluctant to invite Navalny to throw himself out of an upper story window because of his international reputation. His death diminishes each one of us that despise authoritarian realpolitik, the might-makes-right exercise of power without moral consideration.
Why do I bother? I wrestle, vex myself with philosophy. I have a friend of many years who has offered from time to time her disdain for an enterprise that never makes any progress. Why ponder the same conundrums that fascinated my ancestors?
I cannot provide a certain answer, one that would satisfy any questioner. I recognize as a feature of my self-reflection, a field effect of reason as well as the irrational, of a tiny sense of the unknowable mystery of things about me as well as their use-value for me, of how truth depends entirely upon the where and the when of a matter and how often and effortlessly I am thrown off a line of inquiry, diverted from the truth by the sticky-bonds of desire…
I just feel/believe that philosophy is a practice that I cannot do without.
Today is a Friday. I am alive. I have many friends.
What is to be found at hand to appreciate and to do today?
2 thoughts on “Hybrid Real”
Indeed there is a yin and yang quality of the seemingly opposite characteristics you mention above. They only survive in tandem. Does logic exist without its counterpart, illogic or is irrational thought a concept without rational thinking? The insanity of Putin does not exist in a vacuum. If his behavior were standard operating procedure, it should be expected that he act as a monstrous Neanderthal (though I don’t want to give Neanderthals a bad name). His psychotic, sociopathic personality only seems out of balance because we can view it from the opposite perspective. Trump, on the other hand, views Putin’s actions as justifiable since there two creatures are cut from the same cloth. Trump continues to threaten retribution on his political enemies in practically every rally he holds, yet that’s fine with his followers who would love to see the guillotine return to public service. And so the question that we ask ourselves and others over and over and over again is: Can we possibly avoid all out civil war when the sides are so far apart as to be unable to even speak the same language?
Unfortunately, methinks not.
Consider that a Trump-mode of society, one of unbroken corruption, — would provoke another more dark version of being, sectors of abject, routinized cruelty such as punishment camps from which no inmate lives to tell the story. Navalny’s death reminds us that such places already exist in Putin’s Russia.
Guantanamo Bay prison. Sanitize the language as you will,…