You mirrored so many of my thoughts and much more in a more cohesive way. Thank you so much because I feel many times I am an alien in a strange world.
I always remember the Krishnamurti quote which I am going to paraphrase. "It is no great thing to be seen as well adjusted in a profoundly sick society"
To exist is to suffer and humans have a unique capacity for suffering. To remain in the moment of what is and to take joy in the brief moments provided by life and nature without wanting to be somewhere else or some other time is difficult, naturally. But to put the past and future away and allow your senses to slow down and take in the present where ever that may be can offer some bit of joy if you can quiet your mind and keenly observe. My Buddhism is my pathway to peace.
For some the realization of the utter indifference of the universe to human existence is terrifying violence and chaos. That is the nature of the universe and being part of the universe that is the nature of man. The tension between what we are and what we could be, what we think we ought to be, what we think we should aspire to be is the human condition.
To me the reflections of Ligotti, Nietzsche, Jaspers etc are delightful points of view of the human condition and helps us understand the world and ourselves. What is more important?
Of all the writers that you mention, Julius Bahnsen has to be the most obscure, neglected, and forgotten. Thank you for keeping his memory alive as extremely few others, except perhaps in footnotes to Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, are inclined to do so. It has been almost 150 years since his death and his works will probably never be translated into English. There are two reasons for this that I can see: his absolute and subversive pessimism along with his difficult and impenetrable style. There seems to be more interest in him in the Spanish-speaking world.
I have to give Thomas Ligotti a lot of credit for mentioning him in his great book,The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. That section can be found here.
There is no entry for Bahnsen in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. By far the best discussion and analysis of his life and work is to be found in the final chapter of Frederick C. Beiser’s highly regarded book, Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900. For those not wanting to purchase it, a summary can be found here.
For some inexplicable reason, Bahnsen is not even mentioned in Joshua Foa Dienstag’s otherwise excellent work, Pessimism: philosophy, ethic, spirit. But as if to compound this omission, neither is the better known Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Peter Wessel Zapffe, who is treated by Ligotti at length. I would love to hear your views on Zapffe and especially his marvelous essay, “The Last Messiah.” However, I certainly would not wish to unduly burden you, taking into consideration Bahnsen’s self-chosen epitaph: Vita mea irritus labor.
I feel (and this is completely subjective) that when I was a kid reading science fiction in the late 80's the major themes across authors tended to run along the lines of "How can humanity be saved?"
Anymore, most of what I read tends to lean more towards "Is humanity worth saving?"
It seems that you have correctly surmised that their are only two things that can motivate us - what is and what should never be...
We, as a race, have obviously gone down the wrong road and are in desperate need to turn around, go back to where we came from and consciously and willingly choose 'what is' to guide us...
But to face that fact and to make that choice seems like the most difficult thing to do!
We generally prefer to 'soldier on' towards the abyss, as if, only by going totally over the edge can we learn the folly of the direction we are so obviously heading in!
You mirrored so many of my thoughts and much more in a more cohesive way. Thank you so much because I feel many times I am an alien in a strange world.
I always remember the Krishnamurti quote which I am going to paraphrase. "It is no great thing to be seen as well adjusted in a profoundly sick society"
To exist is to suffer and humans have a unique capacity for suffering. To remain in the moment of what is and to take joy in the brief moments provided by life and nature without wanting to be somewhere else or some other time is difficult, naturally. But to put the past and future away and allow your senses to slow down and take in the present where ever that may be can offer some bit of joy if you can quiet your mind and keenly observe. My Buddhism is my pathway to peace.
For some the realization of the utter indifference of the universe to human existence is terrifying violence and chaos. That is the nature of the universe and being part of the universe that is the nature of man. The tension between what we are and what we could be, what we think we ought to be, what we think we should aspire to be is the human condition.
To me the reflections of Ligotti, Nietzsche, Jaspers etc are delightful points of view of the human condition and helps us understand the world and ourselves. What is more important?
Of all the writers that you mention, Julius Bahnsen has to be the most obscure, neglected, and forgotten. Thank you for keeping his memory alive as extremely few others, except perhaps in footnotes to Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, are inclined to do so. It has been almost 150 years since his death and his works will probably never be translated into English. There are two reasons for this that I can see: his absolute and subversive pessimism along with his difficult and impenetrable style. There seems to be more interest in him in the Spanish-speaking world.
I have to give Thomas Ligotti a lot of credit for mentioning him in his great book,The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror. That section can be found here.
There is no entry for Bahnsen in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. By far the best discussion and analysis of his life and work is to be found in the final chapter of Frederick C. Beiser’s highly regarded book, Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860-1900. For those not wanting to purchase it, a summary can be found here.
For some inexplicable reason, Bahnsen is not even mentioned in Joshua Foa Dienstag’s otherwise excellent work, Pessimism: philosophy, ethic, spirit. But as if to compound this omission, neither is the better known Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Peter Wessel Zapffe, who is treated by Ligotti at length. I would love to hear your views on Zapffe and especially his marvelous essay, “The Last Messiah.” However, I certainly would not wish to unduly burden you, taking into consideration Bahnsen’s self-chosen epitaph: Vita mea irritus labor.
I feel (and this is completely subjective) that when I was a kid reading science fiction in the late 80's the major themes across authors tended to run along the lines of "How can humanity be saved?"
Anymore, most of what I read tends to lean more towards "Is humanity worth saving?"
It seems that you have correctly surmised that their are only two things that can motivate us - what is and what should never be...
We, as a race, have obviously gone down the wrong road and are in desperate need to turn around, go back to where we came from and consciously and willingly choose 'what is' to guide us...
But to face that fact and to make that choice seems like the most difficult thing to do!
We generally prefer to 'soldier on' towards the abyss, as if, only by going totally over the edge can we learn the folly of the direction we are so obviously heading in!
https://substack.com/home/post/p-140838315