Yet this spirit does not belong to the world in which it finds itself. It has fallen into a dense, material realm where it encounters the resistance of physical laws and societal structures. It is young, unshaped, and vulnerable. Recognizing this, the elders—those who have navigated existence before—introduce the spirit to technique. In its many forms—language, social norms, customs, and rituals—technique becomes the means by which the spirit learns to survive and thrive amid the rigidities of mundane existence.

At first, the technique serves as a necessary ally. It provides predictability, security, and order. It creates routine—a comforting monotony that mimics the safety of the maternal womb, alleviating the deepest existential fears. But as time passes, the technique begins to overshadow the spirit. It is deemed more reliable, prudent, and controllable. With its chaotic and unpredictable nature, the spirit is cast aside and seen as alien to the world of function and efficiency. The individual thus becomes something akin to a machine governed by patterns and habits severed from the primal force that once defined them.

This is the birth of the golem, the archetype of the mechanized human, driven by fear and an amnesia of its spiritual essence. The golem is efficient but hollow, capable of functioning within societal norms yet incapable of transcending them. It is the product of an over-reliance on technique—a being that has forgotten its original nature.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the fool, the archetype of the individual whose spirit has consumed technique entirely. The fool is ruled by impulse, existing in the eternal present like a child but without the grounding force of societal norms. They are dynamic, unpredictable, and often misunderstood. Society views the fool through two lenses:

The Optimistic Lens: The fool is revered as a beacon of the primal spirit, a reminder of what has been lost in the pursuit of order and predictability. They are envied for their freedom and authenticity. Unshackled by technique, the fool embodies the potential for genius. They can drive extraordinary breakthroughs that push humanity forward if their energy is channeled correctly.

The Pessimistic Lens: The fool is feared by those who cling to the security of technique. They are seen as disruptors of order and threats to predictability. The golems of society, having fully surrendered to technique, seek to control the fool, often through medication, confinement, or social marginalization under the guise of “normalization.”

The Glitch Within Modern Existence

In the modern world, we are caught in a paradox. We are born with hunger—a primal instinct to seek, to consume, to experience. As infants, we seek nourishment from our mother’s breast. As we grow, our hunger expands. We devour art, science, emotions, competition, and ideas. Yet we are never satisfied. The world offers infinite stimuli, and we remain perpetually engaged yet never truly fulfilled.

This insatiable hunger is the essence of the glitch. It is the disruption within the system, the irregularity, that defies predictability. The glitch is the spirit’s rebellion against the monotony of technique. It is the impulse to transcend the mundane, to break free from the constraints of routine and mechanization.

The modern world, with its relentless stream of entertainment and passive consumption, exacerbates this glitch. We are taught to receive without questioning and to consume without creating. This leaves us empty, disconnected from our true nature. Our alienation is not merely a symptom of a particular society or political system—it is woven into the very fabric of modern humanity. We are creatures of flesh and bone, yet we harbor the appetites of demigods, yearning for experiences that transcend our mortal limitations.

Some see this as a transitional phase, a step toward post-humanity. The glitch, then, is not a flaw but a signal—a call to evolve, to embrace the tension between spirit and technique, and to forge a new synthesis.

The Path Forward

The solution does not lie in rejecting technique outright nor in allowing it to dominate us completely. True liberation emerges from the integration of the two. The magician is the archetype that embodies this balance. They understand the laws of the material world (technique) but remain guided by the primal force of spirit. They are interpreters and channelers of the fool’s chaotic energy, transforming it into something meaningful and transformative.

To navigate the glitch of modern existence, we must wield technique as a tool, not as a crutch. We must embrace the spirit’s hunger—its desire for transcendence—while remaining anchored in the material world. This requires wisdom: the ability to discern the essential from the trivial, the authentic from the imposed.

Ritual provides a way forward. It is the sacred space where spirit and technique converge. In ritual, the individual becomes the center of a vast ocean of possibilities. Every neuron, every fiber of the body, and every emotion is woven into the process. The ritual is a dance with the infinite, a disruption of the limitations imposed by external forces. It is the closest we come to apotheosis—a merging with the divine essence from which we sense we originate. It is not merely a return but a remembrance of the fullness of our being.

Conclusion

We live in an age of glitches, where the tension between spirit and technique defines our existence. The challenge is not to eliminate this tension but to embrace it, to find harmony between the primal energy of the spirit and the structured order of technique. In doing so, we can transcend the limitations of the mundane and move toward a fuller, more authentic existence. The glitch is not our enemy—it is our guide, pointing us toward the infinite possibilities that lie beyond the predictable and the ordinary.

In this integration of infinity, we are truly free.

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On the one hand, Holly represents an allegory of the immutability of a sense of justice inherent throughout circumstances, the understanding of the need to rise above passions and personal ties in favor of transcendent and timeless justice capable of asserting authority even over friendship. But on the other hand, it leads us to ask, what kind of justice allows you to turn your best friend over to the police?

In this sense, the film’s conclusion expresses that the value of justice represents the foundation of a pyramid upon which other values, such as friendship or loyalty, must be built. The idea conveyed by this ending is that there can be no legitimate friendship above what is just, and one cannot be loyal to an outcast and set aside the commitment and sense of responsibility to the community in order to defend a friend.

In The Third Man, community commitment takes on vital importance, being a key pillar of civic virtue that gives the individual the ability to act according to a strict moral compass and in favour of the common good, of which they are both a participant and a recipient. To prioritize universalism over personalism in the ethical system, it is essential for individuals to recognize themselves as part of a civic society and, therefore, be entitled to both commitments and rights.

In Holly’s case, there was initially some reluctance toward the justice system of that place, as he was a foreigner. It took a process of sensitization and community empathy (such as learning about the children’s decease caused by the drugs his friend was selling, with his full knowledge) to trigger in him the impartiality of a transcendent justice capable of making him set aside affection and passions. This, for example, did not happen with Anna, Harry’s lover, who, even after learning the horrible truth, remained blinded by the indiscipline and senselessness of her emotions.

In Anna’s case, we can see what Second World War survivor and philosopher Hannah Arendt called the “banality of evil.” Since Anna was never in direct contact with the evil (after all, she never actually saw those children perish), it became a simple secondary consequence of her pursuit of selfish well-being. This realization at the end of the film adds to its tragic aspect, as it opens Holly’s eyes to the people he has been spending time with. In Harry’s case, it was much worse, as he justified his actions from the heights of the Viennese Ferris wheel, referring to the human lives below as “dots,” making this trivialization of evil even more grotesque and evident.

On the other hand, it is crucial to highlight Holly’s impeccable, though distant, gentlemanly treatment of Anna throughout the film, maintaining his firm standard of justice despite feeling an evident attraction and being able to detach himself from a romance that he ultimately saw as harmful to exercising the law in its purest and most transcendent form. In this sense, when analyzing the ethical hierarchy structure mentioned earlier, we can infer that for Holly, friendship is not an autonomous value in itself but a consequence of having acted with legitimate justice.

Thus, we could say that the friendship between Holly and Harry never truly existed, as Holly was entirely unaware of Harry’s misdeeds. Therefore, one could deduce that the bond was illusory, and only through the lens of justice could reality be seen as it truly is.

As I mentioned, this is something Anna never managed to do, as she remained trapped in her own illusion and her immature and frivolous trivialization of evil. That conflicting tension finally erupts in full view during the final confrontation between Holly and Harry in the Viennese sewers, where Holly must hide his emotions and guide his actions based on what is right.

This scene gives the film one of its most tragic yet profound and reflective moments in cinematic history, honouring the inherent genius of The Third Man. Ultimately, when Holly makes the final decision to accept the authorities plan to turn in Harry, he completes the transition from loyal love to collective justice.

Finally, in the film’s last scene, when Holly exchanges silent, tense glances with Anna, it represents the underlying dichotomy between Holly and Anna: Holly aligned with justice, Anna clinging to her selfish feelings for Harry. The tragedy of this ending is that it contains many other endings within it: the end of the filial feelings between Holly and Anna, the end of the friendship between Holly and Harry, and finally, Holly’s initiation as a man of honor and principles.

We can conclude, therefore, that in The Third Man, justice serves as the essential foundation of all hierarchies, as it is the only value capable of giving reality to things; otherwise, all those virtues—from friendship, romantic love, and loyalty to compassion—would fall into the realm of fallacy and self-deception, as perfectly exemplified by the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Hell may be paved with good intentions, but fortunately, our beloved protagonist, Holly, did not fall into it, nor will those who understand that before true justice, no emotion or muse should take precedence. All that’s left is to give infinite thanks to The Third Man and director Carol Reed for this masterful ending and this masterful lesson.

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The Dual Realms of Existence

Imagine yourself as a divided entity, existing simultaneously within two distinct yet interconnected realms:

The Macro Realm: This is the high, godly space reminiscent of Nirvana or the Garden of Eden. It’s a world of pure ideas, dealing with everything macro – including imagination, infinity, and endless possibilities. This is where our highest aspirations and deepest spiritual connections reside.

The Micro Realm: This is the mundane world we navigate daily. It’s the realm of chores, work obligations, and societal expectations – where we’re often told to simply comply and “go with it.”

These realms aren’t merely abstract concepts; they represent the dual nature of our lived experience. Staying focused towards the micro realm provides a sense of security and predictability. It allows us to feel integrated with the day-to-day affairs of life, to meet societal expectations, and to navigate the physical world with relative ease.

On the other hand, aligning oneself with the macro realm offers infinity and transcendence. It opens doors to spiritual growth, creative inspiration, and a deeper understanding of existence. However, this alignment often comes at a cost – it can make us forget or struggle with mundane existence, leading to more hardships than our peers who remain firmly rooted in the micro realm.

The Ontological Colonial Dynamic

If you find yourself drawn to these ideas, chances are you’re already sympathetic to the macro realm. You might even regard macro-living as the superior way of existence simply because it is different from our mundane reality and, therefore, includes new, fresh bits of information. Still, you may also lack a clear notion of what the mere existence of this realm entails. Whatever the case, it’s crucial to understand that these realms aren’t truly separate or in opposition. The macro realm is, in fact, a larger, all-encompassing sphere that includes within itself all aspects of the micro realm.

This relationship resembles a form of “ontological colonialism,” where the micro realm exists as a “colony” within the larger macro realm. But how do we address this colonial dynamic in a manner that serves both realms?

The answer lies in communication and humility. The micro realm needs to recognize that the macro works for the betterment of all things within itself. Simultaneously, the macro realm must allow the micro to have its own individual development, acting as a safe haven rather than an oppressive force. This mutual acceptance and understanding – particularly the micro’s acknowledgment of the macro – is an act of humility that marks the beginning of true integrated living for the bleeding-heart souls.

The Nature of Macro-Managed Micro-living

But what does a macro-managed (and therefore optimized) micro-living realm actually look like in practice? The answer isn’t universal – each individual’s experience is unique. For some, it might manifest as a tranquil retreat in the woods, allowing for deep contemplation and connection with nature. For others, it could be a wild night at a casino, embracing the chaotic dance of chance and possibility.

These diverse micro-world experiences aren’t meant to be escaped or transcended. Instead, they’re meant to be fully embraced and infused with the essence of the macro realm. When we allow our micro-level experiences to be permeated by the frequency of the macro realm, they begin to function optimally. This infusion prevents decay and propels us forward on a path of growth and fulfillment, as above, so below.

Micro-living vs. Mindfulness

This is where integrated micro-living distinguishes itself from mindfulness. While mindfulness is undoubtedly beneficial, it requires active, conscious attention. The reality is that no one can be mindful of everything, all the time. Micro-living, on the other hand, recognizes that we’re constantly engaged in microprocesses – from sipping our morning coffee to taking a breath, to embarking on a global adventure.

When we look closely, we realize that all these microprocesses, which appear to be solid matter, are actually not. They’re disguises, veiling a deeper reality. Integrated micro-living invites us to see through these disguises without getting lost in them. It encourages us to recognize the macro realm’s influence in every aspect of our micro existence.

Bridging the Realms

Those who aspire to live in the macro realm and seek transcendence must allow this higher reality to permeate their micro world. We can’t expect a higher power to operate solely on an abstract level, detached from our everyday existence. Yet, in our earthly dwelling, many prefer to believe that their lives aren’t contained within an ultimate macro sphere. But just as the Earth is round, this all-encompassing sphere can be perceived everywhere if we choose to see it.

Historical Precedents and Future Potential

Throughout history, we’ve seen examples of “lucky” individuals or “Mozart-like geniuses” who have successfully engaged with both the macro and micro realms. These exceptional beings have not only enhanced their own lives but have also improved the world around them. Their deep engagement with the macro realm led to an effortless mastery of the micro, allowing them to “pave the bridge” between these two modes of existence and achieve greatness beyond the average.

The challenge, then, is for us “ordinary” individuals who may struggle to maintain that delicate macro-micro balance. The path to optimal micro-living requires a deeper, more immersive embrace of the macro realm, allowing it to permeate and inform our micro-level experiences and processes. This approach has the potential to harmonize our actions with our deepest individual desires, offering a way to repair or boost our psyche to new levels of development.

The Industrial Challenge and New Horizons

It’s important to acknowledge that the influence of the macro can sometimes seem limiting due to the density of human existence, a condition that has intensified since the industrial revolution. The Unabomber manifesto, while extreme, touched upon legitimate concerns about the impact of rapid industrialization on human consciousness and connection to deeper realities.

However, we need not succumb to pessimism. Instead of rejecting technological progress outright, we can envision the emergence of a new form of science – one that enhances our ability to connect the micro with the macro, potentially catalyzing a major evolutionary leap for humanity.

The Alchemical Work

For those seeking to bridge the micro and macro realms, vigilance is key. Understanding that connecting these realms is a fine alchemical work is crucial. Once this process is set in motion properly, it has the potential to turn the engines of history. The question remains: Who is ready to undertake this transformative journey?

The Power of Choice

It’s essential to understand that the “chosen ones” in this context are not predetermined by any external force. Rather, they are those who choose themselves.

This choice to embrace the path of micro-living and seek harmony between the macro and micro realms is available to all. Yet, not everyone will make this choice. The reasons for this remain a mystery, adding another layer of complexity to our understanding of human nature and spiritual development.

Conclusion

Integrated micro-living for the bleeding heart souls is more than a philosophical concept – it’s a way of being that recognizes the dual nature of our existence and seeks to harmonize it. By embracing both the transcendent macro realm and the tangible micro realm, we open ourselves to a fuller, richer experience of life.

This path is not without its challenges. It requires us to navigate the tensions between security and transcendence, between mundane responsibilities and spiritual aspirations. Yet, for those who choose to embark on this journey, the potential rewards are immense – a life infused with deeper meaning, greater creativity, and a profound sense of connection to the wider cosmos.

As we stand at the threshold of new scientific and spiritual frontiers, micro-living offers a bridge between ancient wisdom and future possibilities for an ever growing world. It invites us to see the macro in the micro, the infinite in the finite, and live in a way that honors our earthly existence and our highest aspirations.

The choice to embrace this path is ours. Will we accept the challenge of integrated micro-living, and in doing so, potentially unlock new realms of human potential? The journey awaits those ready to see beyond the veils of ordinary existence and step into a world where the micro and macro dance in harmonious union, one day at a time.

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Bardet argues that thought and movement are intertwined gestures. The intersection of thinking and moving creates a dynamic where movement becomes thought, and thought becomes movement. This abstraction of dance to its most primal form—movement—suggests that thought without movement cannot exist. Echoing Heraclitus, Bardet reminds us that the essence of existence is movement itself.

The movement inherent in dance represents the mind’s journey through the Platonic world of ideas. If we consider parallel dimensions, dance might create a fissure allowing pure ideas to enter reality, ready to be grasped by the dancing thinker. This thinker, through dance, can break free from the rigid structures that bind them to a world of superficial opinions and cognitive biases.

Imagining a philosophy infused with dance that could be studied or even expressed in academic prose is challenging. The impersonal nature of academic writing seems at odds with the spontaneous vitality of dance. This raises several questions: Can philosophy exist without dance? Or is all philosophy inherently a display of movement? How should we judge the work of thinkers who lack this agility?

In this light, philosophical prose would require a style akin to the Socratic-Dionysian dance. The aesthetic character of dance would become essential to philosophical writing and philosophy itself. Consequently, the relationship between philosophy and aesthetics would shift; aesthetics would no longer be a mere branch of philosophy but its backbone, especially in an era of widespread skepticism and disillusionment.

It is also crucial to understand dance as an individual phenomenon and see how its essence infiltrates the philosophical realm. From a Nietzschean perspective, Martinez Gallardo describes dance as an intrinsic quality of God, portraying a being vital and transcendent beyond conventional morality. Dance emerges as a significant element in an epistemological quest and a quality that brings life and connects humans with a higher aspect of themselves. This understanding gains even more importance in the modern era, marked by the death of God and the triumph of philosophical skepticism. Thus, dance, with its total bodily engagement, can revitalize the art of thinking and bring us closer to a new conception of divinity.

In this new vision, the divine arises from human willpower, guiding us across the abyss. This god is rooted in an archaic substrate beyond rationality, embodied in the pure expression of creativity—an unstoppable cosmic instinct. This divine presence shines brightest during the wild, unrestrained Dionysian festivals, outside the established order and Apollonian restraint, where blood, wine, desire, and dance merge in vigorous communion.

The convergence of dance and philosophy, as Bardet suggests, occurs in a setting that is not necessarily civilized. Dance offers an escape from the ordinary, Apollonian, and confined civilization. There is perhaps a connection between dance and madness, as both can open the field to new forms of understanding reality. Physicist Vadim Zeland notes that excessive seriousness and importance attributed to an idea create a kind of resistance that hampers the free flow of vital consciousness energy. This resistance, termed potential excess, dissolves through concrete action, particularly when it involves both body and mind. In this sense, dance acts as a perfect solvent for potential excess and, thus, the primary opponent of the free flow of consciousness and thought.

Dance, therefore, becomes a medium through which we can transcend the limitations of rigid, schematic thinking. It allows for a fluid, dynamic interaction with truth, mirroring the perpetual motion of life itself. Through dance, the thinker can break free from the chains of dogma and preconception, embracing a more holistic and embodied approach to philosophy. It is not a surprise, then, that even in the most authoritarian of environments, dance is usually the last thing that can be prohibited. Perhaps this is a signal of the intrinsic freedom that is found within the rhythmic movement, which has not only a liberating power but also the capacity to elevate the morale of whoever allows himself to go with the flow

From the movement of molecules to the explosion of the Big Bang, life in retrospect seems to be nothing more than a grand, majestic dance that transcends language itself and reconnects the individual with their true self. And if the thinker of the most abstract order dares to learn this discipline, perhaps they may reach places where few dare to venture. And perhaps it is this never-ending dance that is destined to take us there. Thus, we must think, dance, and think once more.

References:

Alvaro, D. (2016). Articulating gestures: Review of Bardet, M. (2012). Thinking with movement: An encounter between dance and philosophy. Buenos Aires: Cactus. In Diferencia(s) Journal, 3(2), 223-230. ISSN 2469-1100.

Bardet, M. (2012). Thinking through movement: An encounter between dance and philosophy. Buenos Aires: Editorial Cactus.

Martinez Gallardo, A. (2018). Why every philosopher should know how to dance. Retrieved from Pijama Surf.

Zeland, V. (2004). Reality transurfing, vol. 1: The space of variants. S.l.: Obelisco Editions.

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But who dare look directly at the maelstrom of flesh, beings, and spirits circling in the confines of time? It takes some courage. The pigeons colliding against the glass of airplanes are the perfect metaphor for what, at some point, human beings become. Collision should incite excitement, not death. Where does life come from, if not from the collision between two organs? Those afraid to collide, to collide minds, spirits, saliva and thorax, are building their prison cell. Yet, this is the default mode of existence. Some call them NPCs (Non Playable Characters) in a videogame-like metaphor. This is the type of humans who live on autopilot, repeating the same behaviors without questioning the why or the cultural elements given to them since birth. The opposite is those who take anomalous action daily, comparable, perhaps, with the Fool archetype we have all seen in card decks.

This foulness imposes itself as a disruptive force that has decided to look directly at life outside the womb rather than evade it through NPC behavior. In European culture, there is a term known as “the village´s fool” to describe nothing less than the genius who flies above the regular and predictable and brings new colors and shapes to the world in an opposite way to that of the average Joe. In many ways, he is blessed. Yet, he doesn’t have the apparent certainty of day-to-day life, nor can he enjoy a receptive attitude from his peers. Whether he cares about that depends highly on his extroverted or introverted nature, but that would be a theme for another analysis.

On the other hand, nature will not bless with the gifts of life those who do not wish to emulate life itself. Love will not come for the one who does not emulate love. All the possibilities of blissful and enlightening universes are open, but who takes them? Who dares, with all his essence and vitality, to throw himself into the circle of flesh and beings that spin incessantly in time? Who dares to return to himself, to singularity? Who of us, excited beings in the process of enlightenment, would dare to enter the forbidden realm? We would dwell into it again, and again, and again, and again, and again until the end is indistinguishable from the beginning; perhaps then the singularity of existence would be attracted enough to devour us, and perhaps this time, just this time, it would never throw us out again.

It is important to consider that the concept of thrownness, as understood by Heideggerian terms, is quite confusing. The search for depth beyond the ephemeral and sensual instant is even more confusing. Let’s imagine for a second that, indeed, romance is an existential patch meant to heal existential anxiety temporarily, that intimacy is nothing short of a transactional good, that friendships are small false idols that we build to feel accepted within the confines of an unpredictable world, that entheogens are brief glimpses of death, that family relationships are biological arbitrariness meant to restrict our minds from flying too far away from the tribe, that reason is sophisticated sophistry capable of justifying anything, and finally that emotionality is a rude child crying out for a pinch.

If all the elements, which we find in the totality of the 3D world, are ephemeral manifestations of creation from nothingness, then only nothingness and its infinite emptiness are the only sources of depth. This is just a logical conclusion.

In other words, beyond the Thanatos drive, death itself, and nothingness themselves, there is no depth of any kind. What we will always remember until the last of our days will be those small encounters with the annulment of our being: the absorption of our consciousness in an exquisite aesthetic experience, the Dionysian dementia of bliss, the mystical ecstasy even in the darkest of times, for they foretell the coming of a much-promised judgment day. Even the relational contact with the beloved other whose company is pleasing to us constitutes a forgetfulness of the self, a daring, a distraction, a mere rest from what constitutes the existential anguish of day-to-day life.

The consciousness of thrownness towards life, the constant intertwining with death, and the supremacy of emptiness help us gain a certain orientation and flee from the clutches of the false daily dichotomies. It delivers us from the phenomena that come, go, return, and torment us. There will be moments of maximum enjoyment, of maximum oblivion of life itself, and it is in those moments that we must be grateful to the infinite matrix that underlies everything else, but which is itself the most brutal black matter, destroyer of everything, creator of everything, absent of absolutely nothing. Among our existential thrownness, we must always be grateful for the dark bliss underlying it all.

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Videogames, video clips, anime, and Tarantino movies could be considered the four horsemen of the apocalypse: those ready to extirpate the world and psychological understanding of all its substance, to reduce neuronal connections to their minimum expression, to turn us into easily conditioned Pavlovian creatures. However, in more than one respect, such prophecies seem not to have been fulfilled but to have unfolded as the exact opposite of what they preached in the first place. Yes, it is true that, to a large extent, we resemble a bunch of overstimulated beings with less attention span than a mosquito. But couldn’t the overstimulation be a greater energetic capacity? A return to Dionysian sacredness?

As for lack of concentration (and that obscure stigmatization that turned out to be the 90s epidemic of ADHD), in most cases, it is a matter of “being everywhere and nowhere at once,” a role that may quietly grant us some reminiscence of the altered states of consciousness acquired through meditation. Overstimulation has made us immune to it, in the same way a snake becomes immune to the venom it carries within its body every day. We are all city dwellers with the brains of hyped squirrels.

We surpass the speed of light, we travel through time, and images become substance. After all, why should we fall into this arbitrariness in which only in written words is substance found? Few remember that Plato himself was worried about the propagation of books, for they would mean the undermining of oral tradition. This meant a warning to the young to only use books moderately as a secondary helping tool, perhaps. The old becoming scandalized by youngster´s behavior: a tale as old as time.

Our substance, our existential stimulus, is different from our parents’: now it is pure image. It is more colourful: We generate neon gods almost daily. We have as many gods as musicians, publicists, graphic designers, filmmakers, photographers, and so on. All of these constitute a creative act, which requires a certain potential: whatever this potential capacity is, it has been exponentiated.

Television parodies, dank memes, acid humor, and ecstatic nights in the desert allow us to lighten our inherited karmic weight. A lot of weight has been thrown at us. Still, the culture of massive information and accelerated images has given us the necessary tools to drain it, to cut with a millenary chain that has been the yoke of the human being. This has happened spontaneously; we could call it the natural course of events. What for older generations is vanity, stupidity, superficiality, and lack of “metaphysical depth” (keeping in mind that wars waged during the 20th century by the heirs of the Enlightenment, it would be necessary to analyze whether the metaphysics they used were not, at their root, corrupt), for us represents a certain redemption.

If the entire millennial and centennial population chilled with the expectations of a world not built for us but that, nonetheless, we shall inherit sooner or later, existential dread levels would decrease. The deflation of all promised to be so much more than it is would bring us a new world that is fresh, relaxed, and immune to false messiahs. Spontaneous, childlike sensitivity and intuition would break through as the new values.

If we are accused of being a childlike generation, then praise be, for this translates as VIP passes into heaven. However, heaven, understood as a separation from our natural organic life cycle, poses more dangers than blessings.

This leads me to the second part of the argument: the upcoming globalized world for the benefit of the common youth. I believe the extinguishing of any civilization has arisen from separating our lives from our deaths or expecting death as a distant event to redeem us from all the accumulating miasma. We are dying, the emptiness lies beneath us, and such an event gives us space to continue generating wild gods capable of promising only what they are at that moment. The blank space of the canvas emerges as the promise of a great work. The purge of all the tortuous elements that have been tormenting us could be considered our priority, no longer as a matter of intellectual pride but of pure survival instinct.

I will elaborate next. Human power has exponentiated to titanic levels, a third great war would end each and every one of us, or leave us in a cavernous age followed by a nuclear winter. As I mentioned, our surrender to the seemingly superfluous and childish is a metaphysical deflation. This deflation is not casual: it arises from the deepest and most visceral survival instinct. It is a “relax or die” taken to the extreme; our early exposure to images of violence has brought us to a heightened awareness of all that we can become if we are not careful. Romance is not dead, but it has entered a certain repose. This repose is waiting to end once the conditions for its resurgence are propitious. We will not poke our heads in until the last tyrant has faded away from old age and his son enjoys the radical simplicity of an afternoon eating Lays and playing Xbox with his friends.

Perhaps then our closeness will increase, our lust for destruction will be tamed, and perhaps in that peace, we will gain the confidence to, with great enterprise, bring greater life to a neon polytheism, to greater and more complex nights of euphoria, to more evident poetry in the mundane, and cold beers on a summer sunset.

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Perhaps constant accessibility to things makes them less deep and less impactful, but an artist´s eye cannot be so easily accessed, given, of course, that he is honest about his work. But what does artistic honesty mean? It could simply mean taking the time to express something from within, making the process private and non-dependant on the clichés of the time.

Beauty, therefore, can only be expressed from the depths of one´s internal workshop. In contrast, external mundane reality simply expresses a certain aesthetic form susceptible to change according to different cultural transformations. Without the inspired words of a poet, a flower remains a piece of botanical study, which may appear pretty to the commoner´s eye but is unable to hold transcendence beyond its very existence. A poet shall look within himself to convey the words necessary to exalt a particular aspect of his reality. This process is in itself private and therefore self-affirming.  A form of I am that which I am that soothes the artist from the alienations of mundane life, at least for a short while.

Beauty is developed through an internal workshop that may be influenced by the mundane, but that chooses to transform the mundane and shape it by its own divine right. Artistic beauty is, therefore, born from the privacy of the subject´s mind, something stemming from existential loneliness and quietude. Even if it’s a scenic performance, such a performance which may appear noisy and outwardly in nature, such as a rock concert, for instance, was initially thought of as brewed within the depths of a musician´s creativity, from the songwriting of a lyricist, and in some more sophisticated cases, from the scenic direction of a choreographer.

Just like the photographer had to deliberately focus his attention on a certain image and later on edit it, crop it, and shape it according to his sensitivity, so does the scenic artist need to develop a personal, intimate relationship with sound, script, music, and space itself. It is, above all, an internal action which later on exteriorizes itself. The process of exteriorization of the private sphere can very well corrupt the initial internal image, which is probably one of the artist’s biggest fears, hence leading to the so typical artistic neurosis.

However, the quality of the final delivery has more to do with craftmanship in each discipline, and that is a whole different subject. Much has been written and commented on about the quality and influence of each artistic discipline, but not that much about the spiritual and psychological processes the individual must undergo in order to deliver. As mentioned before, loneliness and isolation are necessary for beauty to be internalized within the artist´s soul. This explains the typical tortured souls found in the art world.

The essence of beauty is the notion that what is typically found is not enough; homogeneity needs to be broken; even if the center of attention is something about mundane life, the interiorization of such stimulus must be done in a fashion similar to a prolonged trance that allows the subject to dwell deep into the many possible variables. If creation ex nihilo, this is, the notion of creating out of nowhere is possible; that is a question for another debate.

But what seems certain is that the exploration that leads to the expression of beauty happens in uncharted, unknown, and intimate dimensions. With the prevalence of social media, the focus has been placed much more heavily on the final, ready-for-delivery product than on the importance of the process itself. The need to keep up with the insatiable demands of digital marketing transforms the artistic endeavor into a sweatshop type of work rather than an actual exploration of the unknown.

It is, however, still possible for contemporary artists to harness the speed of the world wide web and use it as a channelling tool to make the beauty exteriorization process smoother. But in order to attain this the focus must be placed upon the process above all: privacy must be held holy so beauty shall reign supreme.

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I remember that some time ago, a friend had given me boxes with original Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong games for SNES, and I thought of asking the owner how much he would give me for them, you know, like a joke. Anyway, the price offered wasn’t as optimistic as I had initially thought, so I said goodbye politely, but not before looking at every detail of the place.

Something caught my attention; I don’t know if it was partly because of the nostalgia of my first consoles or the fact of being able to find the same Saint Seya figures I had as a kid; the point is that everything seemed to enhance the cheerful melancholic energy of the place.  A question arises here: Why are some of us fascinated by certain collectibles and can pay ridiculous prices to acquire them even if they are totally outdated for today’s age? Why spend on a first-generation Nintendo instead of a PS5?

The answer, in my opinion, would be that it is a resuscitation of sacred fetishism; since everything in this world, regardless of its category, has an attention stream, fetishism is no exception. Sacred fetishism, in this case, would come to be focused on objects, that is, to give them an added value beyond the object itself but, in addition to that, to take this action (which we all perform at some point) to a level of sacredness. What is the difference between going crazy over an Atari console that has never come out of the box or wanting to buy the latest Ralph Lauren perfume? The difference would be in what each one represents, i.e., the background to each object of desire.

In the case of Ralph Lauren, we are talking about a reasonably modern industry based basically on the odoriferous aesthetics and the image that an individual wants to project to his social environment (in this case, that of someone capable of spending a reasonable sum of money to smell well).  However, it would be rare decades from now to find a shop selling this as a collector’s item, i.e., it’s not impossible, but it’s not something you’ll find so easily.

On the other hand, why would you want to buy an Atari? From a pragmatic point of view, it’s got fairly simple games that are quite outdated beyond belief in almost every sense of the word. I say almost because back then, those games were produced with two ingredients that seem extinct today: imagination and affection.

I think the best graphics card is creativity, and the best gameplay is inversion into a good story. When the entertainment industry stops having that paradigm and starts releasing formulaic products, we get the subjugation of substances by form. It is the precise moment when any art form begins to lose its soul.

A large part of the reason why it is becoming more and more feasible to hold festivals of retro video games, series, and toys is because of the call of the desperation of those accustomed to the pursuit of entertainment in sublime, innocent, and sincere. Still, most importantly, it is honest and faithful to the fundamental epicenter, which is the creator’s soul, that is, to be sure that what you are enjoying came straight from the developer´s guts.

The malice in the handling of these kinds of products nowadays, the will to industrialize, corrupt, and distort creative talent, is directly subsidized by the impulse of usury, which has infected our civilization to the core. That is why I believe that sacred fetishism of the object as an act of protest against the usurpation of the purity of the creative act, sacred fetishism would come to represent one of the pillars of the instinct of preservation of the lost ideal, rescuing small pieces of light lost in the darkness (which in a way would also be more or less the aim of this project).

Having reached this conclusion, I invite you to comment: What object of this kind has made you nostalgic? Transport yourself to that place and time and think: What did you find back then that you no longer find now, and that has, as a consequence, triggered your search for the real thing?

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This whole process, I believe, will be nothing more than a continuation of what happened in the last two centuries with the advent of modernity, but it is by no means a dead end nor an exact repetition of what has already happened. In fact, the very process of liberation and extreme democratization of metaphysics will give the discipline more power and influence than ever before. Just like the concept of divinity, metaphysics does not depend on the opinion or attention of a group of the faithful, but it exists beyond the spheres of ordinary reality on its own as a disruptive agent of homogeneity able to break through the thickets of tradition. It is for this reason that I believe that the essence of metaphysics lies not in its capacity to design definite discourses but in carving directly into the rock of reality and ending up generating realities as solid as that very rock.

It is an unrelenting force akin to antimatter and pre-existent to time itself, the mother of philosophy who is in itself the mother of all other forms of knowledge. Metaphysics would thus be the basis and support of reality rather than an appropriable discipline. And if there is a particular idea we have grasped from XX-century schools such as Heiddegger´s, it is that reality tends to work in negative and chaotic ways, tending more towards nothingness than towards something, for in nothingness is found the relief from the burdens and anxieties generated by the infinite multitude of somethingness. A definitive wink to many Eastern traditions, nonetheless, and an opening of dialogue between East and West, which will only enrich and empower the discipline even more.

The idea of a negative metaphysics, which is negative in terms of negation of the absolute regarding worldly phenomena, is not new, but in many ways, self-evident.

The clock of death begins to count down from the moment a human being leaves the womb, and then the rush into that tunnel towards nothingness, a tunnel that we call life, seems to be nothing and meaningless. If we are to live, the search for meaning in life is presented to us as a bad joke. However, when that exact search for meaning is turned inwards, the individual finds his particular flavor, his tendency beyond the influences of the masses. Then, he no longer needs to show his worth or his importance but exists in an extremely light and, in some sense, childlike state of consciousness. The contradictions of the mass cannot enter his mind; he has generated, perhaps even unknowingly, his own metaphysical framework, which is but a particular personalization of the larger and unapproachable whole that is metaphysics as a discipline, that is, reality itself. How can one create a discipline of reality? This can seem a prideful endeavor, easily leading to hubris and excess. But it is precisely the negative, abstract, and, to a certain extent, chaotic essence of metaphysics that prevents such a fall in the first place and humbles us to the point of becoming vessels of something much greater than our mundane egos.

On the other hand, if metaphysics is the discipline of reality itself, then the individual’s metaphysical formation will influence his well-being and contribute to weaving the web of metaphysical constructs around him into a focus of authenticity and freedom from the neurotic anxieties of concerted reality. The world will be in free fall, but in that fall, there will be a cascade of possible worlds, personalized cosmologies, and spirituality turned into a gift as an endless spring to quench the existential thirst of the individual. Free will at its best will either make us happy or drive us mad. What must be avoided, in my opinion, is fanatism for a specific paradigm, as we should always be ready to immerse ourselves in a kind of epistemological chaos that will help open the doors to new horizons.

During the zenith of academia in the 20th century, Cartesian rationalism gave intellectual elites in universities a false sense of security that they retain to this day. The quest for the squaring of thought that is especially prevalent in contemporary academia does not respond to a philosophical conviction but to mere convenience on the part of a kind of intellectual nepotism in which there seems to be a kind of “rite of passage” consisting of spending years and large sums of money on supposedly sophisticated training. This rite of passage, far from the benign initiation that expands the subject’s consciousness and places him in awe of himself and the universe around him, far from achieving that goal, is more akin to a cookie-cutting tool that eliminates any true divergence among the subject´s thinking. Therefore, the future of metaphysics will lie above and beyond academia and above and beyond anything or anyone that tries to cage it into a four-wall room. The future of metaphysics will be free, and so will humanity.

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The Socratic method seeks to question conventional wisdom to transcend it and thus arrive at a true understanding. Denying one hypothesis does not necessarily mean its counter-hypothesis is true. In this sense, the Socratic method can lead us to the conclusion that an idea is not true, and in that case, it would make us wiser, but it is, in any case, a negative wisdom whose main advantage is opening us to new possibilities. The author also points out that at a more advanced stage, we can even see the limitations of reason itself, which always leads to an epistemological break. In a way, Socrates seeks to transcend the mind and reason, listening more to an inner voice and thus reaching a being that goes beyond the mind.

In the article, he mentions that for both Plato and Socrates, the mind has pre-existed our birth. However, Socrates is more focused on reorganizing the knowledge already acquired, as if it were a disorganized jigsaw puzzle. To get there, the Socratic method violently shakes the foundations and questions to the point of dissolution of the causal sequences and looks for more logical patterns. This new pattern, however, will later be questioned again. What is thus sought in philosophy for Goldman is an “ideal architecture” that can encompass all of time and existence. Thus, he proposes that the Socratic method, in a pragmatic sense, always leads inexorably to further questioning in the future: what it ends up bestowing is patience and humility (something more akin to moral character) rather than a foundational answer that could imbue future generations with meaning.

This is where the author makes his strongest argument: the skepticism inherent in the Socratic method may be in danger of turning into nihilism since its excessive openness to new horizons would destroy standards and disorient and alienate its disciples from the immediate mundane reality around them. Goldman mentions how, in verses 537 and 538 of the Republic, Plato warns of the possible rebellious reaction of many young people towards their parents once introduced to the dialectical method and how they may decrease both their respect and attention towards their progenitors and confuse them about what constitutes the true essence of justice.

A group of ill-prepared young dialecticians may come to question the foundational and moral bases of a society in a vicious and immature way: this explains why Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth and attacking traditional religious values, which, in my opinion, although not intentionally, may have been caused as a side-effect by the very nature of his method of knowledge.

Inquiry, for Goldman, inevitably leads a society to transformation, which is naturally positive and necessary for its survival. However, he later points out that continuity, a stability that allows it to structure itself, is also necessary. Both inquiring and solid continuity are two necessary parts that must be organically linked and in balance for the proper functioning of a society. On the other hand, Socrates had a strong fixation with inquiring in an inordinate way that ended up being intoxicating, which caused him to end up in court and later pay for it with his life. Goldman thinks that Socrates’ mistake was to ignore, through methodological excess, the human need for tradition, stability, and a past. In this sense, the idea is that Socratic education failed to generate a basic loyalty in its disciples to the values necessary for a democratic society and instead overemphasized criticism.

Young people, Goldman points out, must first be educated in the basics and values of our culture before they are introduced to questioning it. Failure to do so jeopardizes the continuity of our society. While these values are relative to our culture, they are also essential and necessary to be taught for its continuity. However, we must not succumb to the temptation to give them a divine and immovable authority.

Inevitably, these values will change, but educating young people in direct criticism could be very dangerous and irresponsible for educators. This does not mean, however, that we should not give compelling reasons for following our standards and be open to discussion to avoid indoctrination.

Goldman points out that, for a full understanding of the knowledge being acquired synthetically, young people need experience: this experience can be questioned later. However, the level of experience required is one that young people generally do not reach until they reach a particular age. The Socratic method, rather than generating new values, dissolves old ones. However, what “old value” could a teenager have? And even if it were the case, a teenager obviously wouldn’t have the inner solidity to withstand the shaking of his foundation (again, if any).

On the other hand, there is an inexorability to the Socratic method insofar as it is largely simple thinking, something that naturally cannot be forbidden but can be analyzed. Thinking is a dialogue of the mind with itself; the Socratic method externalizes that dialogue, and at the same time, it must not neglect the fact that one is in dialogue with outsiders, that one is engaging in a social process. Thinking, from this perspective, acquires a social dimension. An education focused on ideas rather than technical skills must be careful not to fall into ideologization or be absorbed by the political contingencies of the moment and not to rely too much on thinking itself understood as pure cold analytic reason.

For the Socratic method to be used effectively by teachers, it requires a great deal of openness on the part of the students, as well as a playful nature and an ability to listen and understand in a global and unbiased way. This isn’t easy to find in a society and even more so in a classroom with many students.

However, stimulating thinking can coexist with the cultural preconceptions of each member simply by promoting an informal internal dialogue in the learner indirectly through the presentation of a stable value system, which would paradoxically stimulate informal dialogue with their peers.

This way, the Socratic method’s objective could occur spontaneously in the subject’s daily life. Still, if a school happened to establish this method as the axis of its education, the school itself would lose importance since the objective is already achieved outside of it. In this way, a good school for Goldman is not one whose axis is tolerance towards new ideas but one with strong individuals with already divergent ideas and methods among them who engage in constant discussion: this is how real critical thinking would be generated.

An atmosphere of constant discussion based on strong previous beliefs shows students the importance of critical thinking beyond the classroom climate: critical thinking becomes a component of everyday life and has a transcendent utility. This idea of heterogeneity is difficult to achieve since most schools seek a homogeneous horizontalization of the environment, with the peaceful integration of ideas as a value axis.

Although the article was published in 1984, it is still relevant today. The issue of critical questioning is usually very much left aside in school education and, in many cases, in the universities themselves. The influence of postmodernism (which, through the deconstructive mood, has a certain Socratic element) has sought the dissolution of structures as an end and, in turn, a glorification of negative freedom and the desacralization of the predominant structural values. The excessive Socratization of our mental processes has enabled the homogenizing of the contents of the dialogue through a skeptical axis, which, paradoxically, nullifies the vitality of the dialogue itself.

The lack of external structure weakens the argumentative foundations, making the dialogical processes flabby, vague, or simply redundant. I think Goldman’s idea is correct regarding the fact that to annul tradition is, in some way, to annul the individual as an active subject within the world. Perhaps this last point can be related to the fact that Socrates couldn’t deal with his own economic needs and, sometimes, his friends had to support him.

The irony in all this is that Goldman presents us with a skeptical view regarding skepticism itself, which, seen as a double negation operation, could lead to the exact opposite: a re-sacralization and revaluation of our traditional values to avoid our alienation, an aggressively deconstructive process fueled by globalization.

The dissolution of structures is not immune to itself. The abandonment of one ship leads to drift but inexorably enables boarding a different one. I think the current cultural zeitgeist will have to acquire a certain self-awareness as it will serve as a foundation for creating a more solid social order.

References:
Educational Leadership. Goldman, Louis, 1984
The Republic. Plato, 370BC

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