The Faith of a Heretic

“Is it reasoning alone that makes a philosopher?”

Half heartedly pondering on esoteric things, ultimate meanings, and running in circles of analysis doesn’t make you a philosopher. Living your words makes you a philosopher. Acting in conformance to your theorems makes you a philosopher. Living without pretension makes you a philosopher. Too much nose-raised talk and not enough action in contemporary academic ‘philosophy’ – nothing is being said, hollow words and empty propositions; blathering without conviction. No concern about doing what’s right or sculpting this realm, just stagnation and elitist segregation.

As Walter Kaufmann so precisely put it in The Faith of a Heretic, philosophy is the quest for honesty: a lifelong campaign of indelible and fanatical resistance against falsity and the often unchecked designs of sophists. Philosophy means making sure your actions, decisions and judgments are honest. Today philosophy degrees seem to be handed out liberally at most colleges to drug using pseudo intellectuals who don’t actually live their words. Instead they drink themselves to a stupor six days of the week and spend the remainder recovering from their escapism. These ‘students’ are a creation of the modern times; in the past philosophy was a way of life (a high duty), not a convenient way to appease angry parents when you couldn’t quite keep that 2.0 GPA in biochemical engineering. Philosophy should be used as a practical vessel to attain wisdom, endure misfortunes, temper our desires, achieve excellence, cultivate clear judgment and conquer life, by storm, by the throat. Cultivate virtues, live them, with no speaking, only actions. Stop talking about changing the world, pour that 40 ounce of Jack Daniels you managed to smuggle into the dorm down the sink and *actually* change the world, starting with yourself.

Ask yourself: what good will this thought bring about? What good will this action bring about? What good will this judgment bring about? What good will this decision bring about?

Philosophy is the serious and dutiful pursuit of honest intentions, actions and virtues. So you want to mold a new order? Act in virtue and inspire others. Stop the meaningless flapping of gums and abstract theorizing, the lifestyle of throwaway statues and throwaway charities, throwaway friends and throwaway cheers. Philosophy is a weapon against the sophists and apologists who seek to dominate the unaware and untrained; it is the sacred waning light in the darkness of public nonthinking and so called ‘faith.’ Our love of wisdom and harmony is a higher truth than fashion and conformance. We are the the bane of liars, corrupt politicians, cheats, and the unjust. Philosophy is wielded to ‘lay bare the encrusted’ and introspect the character; to strip away the tarp that obscures a rotting social foundation. In refining our own character to become more honest we transform into gods that command the actions to whatever we will to be.

Ask yourself: am I spending the time to cultivate a critical thought process that is bound by fierce moral courage? Am I considering every aspect of my life before I assume it to be in harmony with the world? Am I thinking like a child: curious, investigative, truth seeking? Skeptical? Am I being honest?

Life is pointless, dying is meaningless, a duty we must all attend to – sooner or later, makes no difference. No fear.

“Truly, life is only pointless if one does not believe in an afterlife. If no such afterlife existed, why would “reason” or “nature” even matter? They both are bound to death, and are hence, meaningless. Why hold importance in something that is bound to cease existing? There is no point to that, hence if there were no afterlife, life should be about fulfilling one’s desires, to whatever end, a brief moment in time wherein a laugh might be made, a pleasure moan here, a death rattle there, and then time ends. Is that what life is?

I do not believe so, I utterly refuse to believe so, for I am a Stoic and Stoics do indeed hold that there is an afterlife, albeit not as conventional as other religions hold. To live a life according to reason, they say, is to imitate the gods, and to die after living such a life, one’s soul would become part of the “logos”"

No pagan stoic believed in some magical salvation that occured once your lungs and heart stopped, your brain turned to gel; most were functionally atheist, as I am. The metaphysics of Heraclitus states that there is only matter, constantly shifting, and that you are literally reincarnated (not your personality, but the atoms) as you shift into wormfood, eventually comprise greater organisms and structures again and are absorbed by plants, eaten by animals and defecated out again and again.

The stoics who were influenced by Plato literally believed in unending reincarnation of the soul into a new mortal form at death – no resting place, only eternal recurrence.

Aristotle and traditional Greek thought believed in Hades – which was a dark, depressing, cold, resting place under the surface of the earth where your ‘dust’ turned into a shade-like form of your earthly self. In Hades there is no judgment – neither reward nor punishment. It is not a place to look forward to. Hades is the place where many Greek heroes travel to in Homer’s epic poems. This plane of existence is the only one that matters – since no matter what happens everyone is going to Hades: the most vile, the most virtuous. The fate is the same.

Your fate on earth is the paste used to patch walls, or if you manage to sink lower, fossil fuel. You will cease to exist, there is nothing else, no soul and no palace in the sky. Lets assume for a moment that there is a christian salvation. How would you know that? Even if a mortal could experience that, how could that mortal convey or explain it to the rest of the tribe? There is no way, so you must live as if such things did not exist, even if they possibly could. Anything could possibly exist, believing in arbitrary things is a form of nonthinking, and its called faith.

Life only becomes meaningful when we attach meaning to it, it is inherently meaningless, and belief in imaginary gods belittles the wonder of nature and the cosmos. Existence is much more complicated than the binary, dictated and illogical world of the canon. The morality presented in the canons of the abrahamic faiths is a warped one that establishes a fierce binary world of black and white while enforcing illogical, arbitrary rules like the genocide of nonbelievers, homosexuals and fiesty women.

The virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice are important to me. They appeal in my opinion to the natural morality of humans, which have evolved from ape times into our modern incarnation. That being said, there is no inherent virtue. I have to select virtue for the sake of virtue and than persue them with dutiful resolve.

Its better to talk about temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice without bringing up unnecesary speak of ‘stoicism’ – the actual ideas are more important than the labels. Even better, let your actions speak for you and provide yourself as an example to the world.

Prudence (wisdom)
Fortitude (courage)
Temperance (self-control/moderation/’know thyself’ and ‘nothing in excess’)
Justice (righteousness/honesty/truth)

What’s more important is what is being said, not who said it.

The Enchiridion is the bridge between the old radical schools of Stoicism in the tradition of Zeno of Citium which taught to deny desire and defeat emotion to achieve ‘eudaimonia’ (excellence in temper) and the late era Stoicism which teaches us not to defeat emotion and desire but simply not to let it dominate prudent judgments, decisions and actions.

Epictetus’ Stoic philosophy is a practical philosophy for life that focuses on understanding what causes us grief in our life and then detaching ourselves from that grief; removing from our lives unnecesary pains. The Enchiridion offers insightful and straightforward wisdom on how to endure misfortune by developing character and apatheia (clear judgment) by training ourselves in the Socratic lifestyle. The four cardinal virtues of such a lifestyle are sophrosyne (temperance/self-control), dikaiosyne (justice/righteousness/honesty/authenticity), sophia (prudence/wisdom), and andreia (fortitude/courage). When we dedicate our lives in the pursuit of virtue and not in the pursuit of gratifying our emotions, not only do we fulfill our duty within nature in achieving harmony amidst the community and earth but we also find how meaningless a good deal of the constant bickering, drama, dishonesty and insincerity of the mob really is.

A Stoic philosopher removes himself from addictions, a life centered around sex, inauthenticity, falsity, selfishness and actions which would unbalance the natural order or damage the community. At the heart of the Epictetus’ philosophy is a sort of civic virtue that transcends nations and borders:

“If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Men be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did:–never, when asked one’s country, to answer, ‘I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,’ but ‘I am a citizen of the world.’”

A Stoic looks beyond silly and proud displays of nationalism and instead accepts everyone for what they are, while striving to attain righteousness within himself. Stoics were the first philosophers to detest slavery. For Epictetus slavery is a thing which only occurs in the mind, when we allow ourselves to become a slave mentally. In fact all misfortunes are illusory things which only become misfortunate when we define them as being such. The core of the Stoic philosophy of the Enchiridion is realizing that nothing bad can happen to us, that we have no control over external things, and can only be concerned with controlling our own actions, decisions and judgments.

If we are not in control ourselves, we are a slave. For Epictetus, who was a slave before being a Roman-era Socrates, slavery is a mindset. We can maintain our diginity, charm, cheerfulness and character in the face of any disaster. He offers a interesting proposition: surely we would be angered if someone tried to control our body like a puppet, so why do we so easily hand our mind over to others when we are angered, in love or jealous? For Epictetus everything must be accounted for – and there is no physical circumstance, including death, which is unfortunate. In this we see a sort of proto-nihilism in the vein of Heraclitus – who was a heavy influence on the Stoics. Although Epictetus and the later Marcus Aurelius acknowledge a inpersonal divine force and logic manifesting itself behind all things (the Logos), they never presume that God has any influence in the roll of events and for all intents and purposes, suggest living as if this matter before us, shifting every constantly, is the only consideration. This nihilistic view which is within the Enchiridion is perfectly summed up in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations:

“Like seeing roasted meat and other dishes in front of you and suddenly realizing: This is a dead fish. A dead bird. A dead pig. Or that this noble vintage is grape juice., and the purple robes are sheep wool dyed with shellfish blood. Or making love – something rubbing against your penis, a brief seizure and a little cloudy liquid.

Perceptions like that – latching onto things and piercing through them, so we see what they really are. That’s what we need to do all the time – all through our lives when things lay claim to our trust- to lay them bare and see how pointless they are, to strip away the legend that encrusts them.”

When we understand the innate nature of things, which is nihilism, we can begin to avoid having our mind disturbed when they are changed or destroyed, for change is the only persistant nature of existence. How can we be disturbed when a our favorite jug is destroyed, Epictetus proposes, if its just a piece of clay that we had no control over in the first place? We have control over nothing, even if our bodies, besides our judgments, actions, decisions and how we decide to temper our lives. Epictetus even says that we should not be disturbed when our wife or child dies – the person hasn’t died, just the body, something we have nothing control over. We have to evaluate why exactly we are being disturbed: because we will miss what they brought to our lives OR because they have gone to glory? The former is a greedy and irrational judgment, the latter should bring us no disturbance, but only joy, in the passing of the body and its rejoining of nature. How are we to ever presuppose what happens after death? For a Stoic this is entirely unimportant, the only thing that matters is a nihilistic philosophy of realism, attending to the matter at hand, as virtously as possible, as well as possible, and leaving the rest up to Fate, blaming no one, forever remaining generous of character, valuing friendship and maintaining our charm, charisma and apatheia (clear judgment) in the face of great disaster and misfortune.

Before this review is concluded I will showcase one quote that I believe is the quintessence of the Enchiridon and all Stoic philosophy. What Epictetus is about to say is also the quintessence of a Socratic life – one based on actions, not pretention and not words:

“Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don’t talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. And when persons came to him and desired to be recommended by him to philosophers, he took and recommended them, so well did he bear being overlooked. So that if ever any talk should happen among the unlearned concerning philosophic theorems, be you, for the most part, silent. For there is great danger in immediately throwing out what you have not digested. And, if anyone tells you that you know nothing, and you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have begun your business. For sheep don’t throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested.”

- Epictetus

Why would you decide to keep a child only to care for it in the stage of pleasant breath? Many times I think most people don’t abort the pre-40 day fetus simply because they fear an imaginary place of torture somewhere under the lithosphere. The fear of being banished to Hell for murder must be the reason why *I* wasn’t aborted at least. How else could such apathy and unkindness be brought out in my so-called mother directed toward me so intentionally and effectively?

She does manage to keep up the facade of a loving family outside of her home but it is cardboard. On the inside she spends most of her days selfishly bustling from one reality TV show to another while casually spouting words of venom in my face and fevering over real estate ads in every publication she can get her hateful fingers on.

That brings us to a greater topic, why is having children neccesary and what are our duties if we do decide to have children? In a past age children were neccesary to sustain the species as most people died young from animal attacks, disease, war or simple famine. Fucking was a neccesary activity – and it helped us outlast the wooly mammoth, plagues and 10,000 years of bloodshed. Children were neccesary companions (tools) which aided us in the operations of daily life. Today the christian neurosis of ‘be fruitful and multiply’ is not only impractical but also the doom of this world. We don’t need farmhands now adays, we don’t need heirs to survive a volley of Parthian arrows and live on, we don’t need children to outlive ourselves, and more broadly, endure the survival of the species. Although be fruitful and multiply might fatten the coffers of the already grossly affluent church in tithes and ‘donations’ in the same thrust (quite literally) it leads more and more to eradication of natural harmony.

Industrialization and a capitalist society coupling with remnant christian nonsensities is to blame. With the advent of the city a new environment was created for indescriminate rutting. As population soared materialism and instant gratification took place of the importance of civic virtue and quality of character, leading to the download spiral of emotional dysfunction and self-loathing that reached an apex in the 80s and persists to this day, more easily hidden from the dead eyes of the media, but still thriving in suburbs as spoiled pseudogangster children (out of sight, out of mind) spend mommy’s money to create their own culture centered around disease, waste and treachery instituted by daily doses of heroin and alcohol.

This disease becomes more pronounced every generation. The further away we sink from antiquity the more parents become simply spawn points to vommit out new Adidas shirt wearing clones. Intimacy and a education in living well is neccesary for the child, a training the public schools not only avoid but try their best to work counter to, indoctrinating youths with ‘job placement tests’ and yarns about how Columbus didn’t know the world was round and brought iPods for all the little indians instead of obliterating 6 million Arawak indians. An education in the virtues of citizenship, clear judgment, rhetoric, civic duties and how to temper life is neccesary – something that was very much familiar to a 18th century child, but is alien to the contemporary. Blindly sending your children to school is not going to make them feel loved or actually educate them – it just introduces unguided and confused kids to one another, where they can learn how to waste their lives most rapidly together. Although it seems convienient to drop off a person at a concrete building and they grow up to be mature adults – it is simply not reality. Your children are doing things you could not imagine, or could, being a product of the same idols, new name, different face, same babble and nonthink.

Intimacy in the home. A concerned eye. Love. Real love. Soon the bastard generation will be spawning their own – unable to restrain themselves from probing moist places – and the semblance of intimacy and parenthood generation X has so superfically mustered today will be even more faint, or even gone then.

Children should be taught that they are gods, capable of anything, born to accomplish great deeds and conquer great injustices, inspired to be something greater than a anonymous face that so readily sucks a tyrant’s cock by shoveling green papers toward him. You have come to this realm to conquer it, and with a little love and a push in the right direction, that is possible. We must rise above the dead, shuffling faceless. We must appreciate something beyond mediocrity. I shouldn’t be excited about my birthday or be expected to flap my hands together after the 2 minutes hate.

119: ‘Straight, not straightened’

Virtue not vommited into being out of fear of being punished by an imaginary god hand. Ethical for the sake of being ethical. Virtue for the sake of virtue, not a reward, not a punishment. Someone who appreciates prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice. Someone who can be true to themselves in every sense of the word, someone who is actually honest. Or at least someone who tries to be honest with seriousness. Neither salvation or pleasure are the end of the line for what we must spend our lives pursuing.

118: No beginning and no end, in mid verse eternal, we have done what we are doing now forever, a cycle of the same: shitting, rutting, stealing, lying, rushing, breathing, crying, dying. Just as quick as we return to oblivion we are reborn with no escape, pushing boulders up mountains to only have those boulders roll down again, a endless trap of futile efforts, accomplishing nothing, falling forward into complete regeneration. Escape from this tedious droning is not found in probing moist places, the delirium of forever intoxication or the neurosis of cosmic salvation. Liberation from the endless is accomplished in nothing. All you can hope to be is king for a moment then die well. ‘The sun is new each day.’

“People grow so used to fear, to murder, to contempt and hate that they become deaf to whatever in them whispers that maybe they are wriong and their attitude simply reflects what they loathe in their own lives. That is why they prefer drugs to suppress their despair – the illusion of instant cure keeps them going. But the canker which devours them remains.”

- Raoul Vaneigem, The Book of Pleasures

are we the dead shuffling faceless?
an aimless mass of corpses awaiting a not so distant end?
numb to pleasure
numb to pain
overwhelmed by our surroundings and the traps we have laid?

to protect ignorance from arrogance we carve this skin of stone
and as the weights of cast and character layer with the years
we drown at the convergence of rivers poisoned by this world

each second I let slip by
every feeling I sacrifice
the emotions which I deny
drag me down into the depths