On Being a Philosopher-Writer...

You can ignore me, alienate me, ex-communicate me, dissociate yourself from me, disenfranchise me, temporarily suppress me -- but I won't go away...

When you leave Hegel's Hotel, ideally, you won't look at your world exactly the same way you did before you entered Hegel's Hotel...

Because I will rattle you, shake you, test your innermost philosophical and psychological foundations...

And hopefully, when you leave Hegel's Hotel, those of you who were 'righteously, narcissistically, and/or one-sidedly mummified' before you entered my philosophical premises, will start to become more 'dialectically and wholistically integrated' as you capture more and more of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of The Dialectic Mind and Spirit.


No promises...

But that is my goal...

Sometimes I will aim to do this softly with 'diplomatic balance'.

At other times I will aim to hit the target of my anger with my rhetorical 'Nietzschean Hammer'...

Or hang onto my most righteous point...

With a Pit Bull bite....

Other times I may just rage around...

Like a Bull caught in a China Shop...

Until I have your undivided attention...

If I have not philosophically affected you...

In one way or another...

Then as a philosopher and a writer...

I have probably not done my job..

As well as I wanted to...

But we will try again in the next essay...

Or re-write the ineffective one...

Then move on to new philosophical territory...

The world -- and the narcissistic hypocrisy of man -- is my philosophical oyster...

(Schopenhauer just rolled over in his grave.)

-- dgb, June 1st, 2011,




-- David Gordon Bain




-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...




-- Are Still in Process...

On The Courage To 'Be'...and To 'Become'....

It has been a while since I wrote this following piece...maybe a good ten years ago, give or take a couple of years...

Every once in a while it is worth re-writing for its motivational inspiration and thrust... So here it is again...

.....................................................

Under construction...April 30th, 2011...

The Courage To Be...and To Become...

Life is a race against death...
Don't let it slip away from you...
Without embracing it with your fullest passion...
Live and celebrate each day as if it is your last...
After all, none of us are likely to know which day...
Will be our last...

There is beauty in even the smallest things...
Each day is both a blessing and a challenge...
If you view it as a 'curse',
Then you are doing something wrong...
And you need to do something different...
Probably starting with an attitude adjustment...
From negative and destructive,
To positive and constructive...

Make the most of your 'daily blessing'...
And meet each daily challenge head on...
No side-stepping, avoiding, dancing around...
A problem that needs to be solved...
And/or a conflict that needs to be resolved...

Choose a project that is important to you...
Has meaning for you...
And embrace it with your fullest passion...
Invest yourself in the project -- totally.
Meet your project with preparation, courage, energy, effort --
And action...
Be proactive, not reactive...

Reactive people go the way the daily wind blows...
And are easily pushed off course...
Proactive people walk strongly with purpose...
And direction...
Through even strongly challenging windstorms...
Or at least take shelter...during the windstorm...
Only to regain their purpose and direction...
As soon as the wind has blown by...

They say that 'life is what happens to you...
While you are busy making other plans'...
But the strongest people don't discard their plans...
As long as their passion for their mission and their plan... Remain strong...

To Be or Not to Be?....What to Say and What Not to Say?...What To Write and What Not To Write?....These are The Questions...(Extrapolations on Hamlet's/Shakespeare's Famous Question...)

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

Cyril Connolly

(1903 - 1974)

If There is One Thing Good To Be Said About Global Capitalism...

If there is one thing good to say about Global Capitalism...it is perhaps this:




I am suffering such that millions of people in some of the poorest countries in the world --- who are much more impovertized and desparate than me -- can work -- and at least take something home to feed their families...




-- dgb, April 25th, 2011




-- David Gordon Bain

Don't Let A Theory Over-Rule You, Over-run You...

Don't let a theory over-rule you, over-run you, and squash your open-mindedness, squash your ability to see outside your own particular restrictive, one-sided box; let the facts lead you to an undetermined conclusion -- don't let your theory lead you to a pre-determined conclusion.

-- dgb, April 25th, 2011,

-- David Gordon Bain

Embrace The Day

Embrace the day -- before it gets away -- and never comes back again...dgb

On 'Faith' and Taking That First, Anxiety-Provoking Step....

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the
whole staircase."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.