Wow that was such an excellent piece and has really helped me get a better view of the various "intellectual" trends of our time that apply a hard shell of pseudo-scholarly jargon over a soft gooey center of metaphysical mush.
Now I'm seeing gnosticism everywhere!
I would love to see a gnostic breakdown of Freud, who also has a whiff of Kabbalist in him.
under 25 is a very good point...there is something about youth and its vitality, optimism and idealism (especially if you're in any way prone to thinking or dreaming), that it often seems impossible that we're just these temporal creatures encased in mortal flesh.
It's easy to see how the idea of a "soul" is rooted in all this, that there must be some eternal internal particle that survives us, that we are some sort of higher being cruelly locked in the prison of the flesh.
I think this is one of the benefits of aging, the inescapable realization that we are embodied beings, psychosomatic in all ways, and I think this also explains why our modern gnosticisms are clung to so passionately by college kids and the permanent adolescents who sell them fantasies of being so special they can transcend the limitations of biology: these ideas have eternal appeal to the youth and to the Pied Pipers who want to lead them.
"This is why I think there cannot be a verbal prescription for our current predicament, as at this point it looks to me like it was inevitable with the current technological development and paralleling it cultural evolution..." for sure!
I don't know if you're American or not, but our country/culture really is possibly the greatest Petri dish ever invented for the creation and cultivation of all sorts of fantasies, personal or otherwise, from our addiction to Progress and technology, to our get-rich-quick ethos, to our modern worship of the Self and all its manifestations as glimpsed through the mirrors of our phones. It almost feels like we've come full circle to a state of pre-civilization where every man has his own god, his own Bible, his own fiefdom (virtual or otherwise), his own proclaimed singular essence.
There really must be something in us that is drawn to the Gnostic, or else it wouldn't be one of the rich threads running through the tapestry of our history.
Thank you for writing this. This is very well researched and puts a lot of things into clarity. I believed things like n*zism we're ultimately part of the gnosticism you described and now I can understand how. Definetely subscribing.
Very good. I recommend Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, that starts, citing by memory, with these words: Marx was a XIX Century German Philosopher... that is, neither economist, nor social scientist... exactly in the way that you have analized... maybe it’ll be interesting
Wow that was such an excellent piece and has really helped me get a better view of the various "intellectual" trends of our time that apply a hard shell of pseudo-scholarly jargon over a soft gooey center of metaphysical mush.
Now I'm seeing gnosticism everywhere!
I would love to see a gnostic breakdown of Freud, who also has a whiff of Kabbalist in him.
Thanks so much, is much appreciated.
under 25 is a very good point...there is something about youth and its vitality, optimism and idealism (especially if you're in any way prone to thinking or dreaming), that it often seems impossible that we're just these temporal creatures encased in mortal flesh.
It's easy to see how the idea of a "soul" is rooted in all this, that there must be some eternal internal particle that survives us, that we are some sort of higher being cruelly locked in the prison of the flesh.
I think this is one of the benefits of aging, the inescapable realization that we are embodied beings, psychosomatic in all ways, and I think this also explains why our modern gnosticisms are clung to so passionately by college kids and the permanent adolescents who sell them fantasies of being so special they can transcend the limitations of biology: these ideas have eternal appeal to the youth and to the Pied Pipers who want to lead them.
"This is why I think there cannot be a verbal prescription for our current predicament, as at this point it looks to me like it was inevitable with the current technological development and paralleling it cultural evolution..." for sure!
I don't know if you're American or not, but our country/culture really is possibly the greatest Petri dish ever invented for the creation and cultivation of all sorts of fantasies, personal or otherwise, from our addiction to Progress and technology, to our get-rich-quick ethos, to our modern worship of the Self and all its manifestations as glimpsed through the mirrors of our phones. It almost feels like we've come full circle to a state of pre-civilization where every man has his own god, his own Bible, his own fiefdom (virtual or otherwise), his own proclaimed singular essence.
There really must be something in us that is drawn to the Gnostic, or else it wouldn't be one of the rich threads running through the tapestry of our history.
Cheers!
Thank you for writing this. This is very well researched and puts a lot of things into clarity. I believed things like n*zism we're ultimately part of the gnosticism you described and now I can understand how. Definetely subscribing.
Very good. I recommend Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxism, that starts, citing by memory, with these words: Marx was a XIX Century German Philosopher... that is, neither economist, nor social scientist... exactly in the way that you have analized... maybe it’ll be interesting
I know it is high, but I was never given a specific number. It was X+, but don’t remember the X.
What he said!