Comments by "TheDionysianFields" (@TheDionysianFields) on "Academy of Ideas" channel.

  1. "We cannot go forward except from the place where we happen to be." That hit hardest for me.
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  2. You're saying aggressiveness is a virtue?
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  3.  @ivann9924  People don't compromise out of self-control, they compromise because they want to improve their social standing...to get ahead. The only virtue in play is competition, but personally I won't compromise in the name or competition.
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  4.  @Dan0TheMano  Do it right where you are. Start today.
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  5. Sounds like physical escape to me. I think we need to remain integrated to a degree and exploit technology in the interest of effecting widespread change. In a sense, we need to become a cancer within the process of forward escape. It's difficult to do that if you're isolated from mainstream society.
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  6.  @nemo2327  Except that artists and those left of center represent the majority of the puer aeternis. They have little respect for order, authority or the conventions of society. They dissolve the sacred and the ceremonial. And while they might be more inclined to protect the rites and rituals of tribal peoples, that doesn't mean they see value in any such rituals. You're speaking in direct contrast to the thrust of the video.
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  7. Clawless
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  8. Almost every video they make is a home run.
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  9.  @ljay3379  I don't know but ask anyone on the left and I'm sure they'll give you some reason.
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  10.  @Vitorruy1  What about the master vs slave dichotomy, ala F. Nietzsche?
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  11. Society's job is to maintain order and stability without regard to the freedom or realization of the individual. Anything that threatens order or stability serves as an existential threat to society which will respond aggressively with all resources (people) at its disposal. Self-preservation isn't limited to individual organisms.
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  12.  @juliekay6527  Well, I'm the one arguing for standing our ground rather than hiding in the woods. Did you not get that?
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  13.  @madwilliamflint  I think it has greater relevance today. The herd was never so organized in past times.
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  14.  @naitzab  I don't believe he was distanced at all or he wouldn't have been able to be so keen and prescient. Sure, there's the thought that not everyone can be an ubbermensch but Nietzsche's fear was that ALL greatness would be extinguished by the encroaching herd. And while the herd has accomplished a lot, it's easy to see how each contributing member has fallen far short of their individual potential.
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  15. "Vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires." "We have assumed control. We have assumed control. We have assumed control."
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  16.  @bbeeaauu  When a rich and sophisticated mythos is abandoned, a shallow and impoverished one comes in to fill the void.
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  17. Another home run. This channel distills all that is healthy and positive in Western thought and points to a world that could have been. It's a veritable freight train of wisdom, and as of today, immortalized in my mind.
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  18.    What if it's not?
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  19. ​@Mark Onstad I appreciate the candor and thoughtfulness but I think we have to make a definitive call on whether a society can be healthy with any significant percentage of puer eternis (at least among the male population). We also need to recognize that maturity is a very hard line. There's really no spectrum, you either make it or you don't. Anyway, I welcome your leftist opinion, but with a skeptical ear. Too many on the left today seem to believe that a society can function without any grown-ups...even that it *should*. One last thing, and this is just me thinking out loud. Doesn't it seem that conformity is society's job? And that if someone is fully conformed by the time they reach a certain stage, that they never know what they're missing? Don't we need a stable core group to keep the machine running? There will always be the few who simply can't be conformed but imagine a whole world of free-thinking loose cannons (mature or not). Complete chaos.
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  20. @Mark Onstad "To be mature is to know how far from mature one still is." No, that's just being honest with oneself...which of course is vital (and the first step toward maturity). I agree with you about the paradox, but in a different sense. Maturity is like courage. You can't learn courage from a book, you have to go out and practice it; but you can't practice it until you first possess it internally. On the other hand, I completely disagree that maturity is a spectrum. In any given situation, there's the choice between the mature course of action and the immature one. There's no acting 50% mature. I will concede that you can synthesize maturity even if you're not there yet (young children often accomplish this), but it's a much harder way to go because you're always having to override your initial impulse (i.e. the immature response). There's a lot more to say here but it's a conversation that we almost need to start over in order to get it right. P.S. I believe the "machine" is what gives society its stability, good or bad. If we were to break into small, decentralized villages as Gandhi envisioned, maybe we could get by without it. Maybe.
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  21.  @chrislowe8746  Everyone is on the track, whether they want to be or not. But I would agree that it's not entirely fair. Neither is life, though, right?
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  22. Action reaction
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  23. @skippy6086 This video does NOT promote "rational analytical thought processes" to solve this problems of this world. Clearly, those are left hemisphere.
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  24.  @Dan0TheMano  Dangerous how? Why not just move to a safer neighborhood?
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  25. Makes me think of the book Shutter Island. (Dennis Lehane)
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  26. Phenomenal. This channel has made the distillation of ideas an artform. In my own model, left and right hemispheres correspond to masculine and feminine modes. Such makes this video even more striking in that it promotes a feminine theme in a masculine space (I've always seen this channel as part of the manosphere). In a word...bravo.
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  27. Except the wrong people are going to embrace this notion and run with it.
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  28.  Michael Freed  Integrity is a "childish impossibility?" Tell that to Marcus Aurelius or any of the great men/women of history. Interdependence only works after personal integrity has been achieved. A world full of Howard Roarks wouldn't have the problems this one does. Character is real.
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  29. That's some serious self-awareness right there. Props.
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  30.  @bb7407  Absolutely. But society only needs (and can handle) a small number of such non-conformists. Instead, we're creating a system that churns them out in mass, upsetting what I see as a very delicate balance. Those who understand the paramount need for stability will always lean to the right.
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  31.  @whygohome172  They're immature in their own way but they lack influence. Artists have serious power to shape our world. The "sexual revolution" wasn't a group of feminists hoping to liberate women, it was all Hollywood hoping to dissolve more psychological borders (to gain more access to our desires so that we might be manipulated even more easily).
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  32.  @vaibhavgaur5268  Does NOT present itself as groundbreaking or profound. Merely offers one simple technique that could be effective in tricking one's brain into not overinflating the gravity of a situation. It's about training your mind to see an accurate picture so that you don't do cowardly things even when there's no good reason to (cowardly things such as trolling a message board of people who are sincerely interested in improving their lives). But I see no pretense whatsoever, it's more of a "take it or leave it" affair.
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  33. Usually only if you let it.
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  34. Kudos. But so few will make the transition.
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  35.  @Spark-In-The-Dark  Classic excuse-making. Slave on.
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  36.  Michael Freed  Yes, that's why there can be honor among thieves and dishonor (so often) among "upstanding citizens." And, yes, it's basically what you said (it's in writing). Personal integration = consistency among oneself. The only other possibility is personal disintegration, which doesn't work. You're making this stuff too difficult.
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  37. I'm not sure how Jung would feel about that rapid of a transformation. "In filth, it shall be found."
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  38.  @natrelacoustix  Maybe, but a hamster with a strong and sound mind at least has a chance. Or do you see some current way out that the OP is overlooking?
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  39. I think you have to be near a city to keep your resistance up. If you get too out of touch you become soft-minded. The Amish are homesteaders but they have no clue about China, EMPs or biometric sensors...like lambs to the slaughter.
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  40.  @JimKernix  Never said to live IN the city. Never said rural life makes one soft-minded. Never said the CIA isn't worth keeping tabs on. I said that if you go off-grid you'll be a lamb to the slaughter because you won't see what's coming until it's there. And unless you're moving to Mars, you WON'T be outside of it. Do whatever you want.
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  41.  @sagittariusa3603  That's true. Aggressiveness is certainly not an unequivocal virtue and can easily be used to manipulate. But we might also say: If one doesn't discover and harness their aggression, someone else will.
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  42.  @chrislowe8746  I think people romanticize the hunter-gatherer days. Imagine you're in the first tribe to discover fire. Are you going to share that discovery with other tribes? Hell no. You're going to keep it for you and yours, and if it helps you build an empire and crush the rival tribes, great! We take care of our own, for better or worse. I myself am a deplorable capitalist. I also started the race 60m behind...or at least 30. But as long as it's still possible for someone to start out behind and end up ahead, I don't think the system is completely broken. My guess is that capitalism was an antidote to the utter boredom that came with the agricultural revolution. I have no reason to believe people would be any happier without it.
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  43. I kind of like, "No one is coming."
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  44.  @zninz5368  No, introversion is great. It just takes some getting used to in a hyper-socialized society.
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  45.  @phaedrussmith1949  Just a personal theory I've been working on. Basically, the goal is always for homeostasis through conformity and when things start to break down, conformity is enforced at the expense of rights and freedoms.
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  46. It's society's job to maintain stability and order. Seems to big of a risk to promote shadow work.
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  47. "It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope." -J.R.R. Tolkien
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  48.  @corning1  We can still find meaning in our own principles and relationships, and we can still enjoy the little things. The real question is, how can we avoid philosophy? What I just wrote was full-on philosophical.
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  49. ​ @Gfjancnslsdvv.ft1  As a Peterson fan (admirer), I found your argument against him well-stated. However, I would like to assert that Peterson's not responsible for the Youtube algorithms. Further, those who go down the alleged rabbit hole were usually already leaning into it so maybe it's better to speed up the process and hopefully they'll wake back up sooner. Note: none of this is to say that I don't think the West is a more advanced and interesting civilization.
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  50.  @Winteriscomn  But the daughter wasn't the one asking him to remove his teeth/claws. That's where the story is flawed. The woodman should have just sent the lion back to his daughter at the end and let her reject him as she almost certainly would. It should have been that the woodman was testing the lion's character, to see whether he could stand up to him and refuse such ridiculous demands. The lion was cowardly and failed, hence he didn't deserve the daughter. Recommended: Iron John by Robert Bly
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