On The Random, Evolving Coherence of My Essays

There is no logical rhyme or reason for the order of my essays -- in essence, they belong to 'Chaos Theory'.

But there is method to my madness; order to my chaos. You just have to be a little bit patient while I get there.

I predict that the 37 blogsites that I now have listed in my table of contents will be close to the finished table of contents. Only I would like to cap it off at around '40 floors' of 'Hegel's Hotel'. Maybe 45.

Putting aside any judgment of the quality of my philosophy work, character-wise, I am the anti-thesis of Immanuel Kant -- more like Schopenhauer (without the nastiness), Nietzsche (without the extremism), Perls (without the existential courage). Hegel, is my main philosophical mentor, followed behind by Nietzsche, Perls, Korzybski, Freud, Spinoza, Fromm, Rand, Jung, Adler, Locke, Bacon, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, Russell, and more...

Perhaps one of the philosophers I am hardest on, in some ways, I am most like him -- Plato, the idealist, and a worshipper of the Idol of The Cave. Not in the Baconian sense but in the DGB sense that I will use it here, and in all following contexts that I may later mention it: someone who gets lost inside his own private, narcissitic world -- he or she is to a greater or lesser extent a worshipper of 'The Idol of The Cave'.

Somewhere near the top of the list, you have to put Dylan in there as well...It was Dylan who indirectly got me caught up in all of this 'idol' stuff...But be he a good or bad idol, Dylan's songwriting-poetry is worth quoting in its own right...

Paraphrased and/or quoted from my good or bad memory...off the top of my head...are a few of his tunes that have stood out for me...

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'Crawl out your window, babe,
Use your arms and legs, it won't hurt you,
You can go back to him any time you want to...'

-- Bob Dyan, Crawl Out Your Window
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I can't understand,
You let go of my hand,
And left me here facing the wall.
I'd sure like to know,
Why you did go,
But I can't get close to you at all.
Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime,
You said you would never forget...
But now morning is clear,
It's like I ain't here,
You just act like we never have met.

-- Bob Dylan, I Don't Believe You

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It ain't no use to sit and wonder why babe,
If'n you don't know by now,
And it ain't no use to wonder why babe,
It don't matter anyhow.
When the rooster crows at the break of dawn,
Look out your window and I'll be gone,
You're the reason I'll be travelin' on,
But don't think twice, it's alright.

-- Bob Dylan, Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

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Yes, if only I could feel you lyin right beside me,
And if only I could feel your heart a softly poundin',
I'd lie in my bed once again.

-- Bob Dylan, Tomorrow is a Long Time

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Yes, Bob Dylan is one of my favorite idols, a modern day Nietzsche of sorts...

And randomly, chaotically if you will, it was something on Facebook that I noticed about a month ago that got my creative, philosophical juices flowing in a new direction.

On Facebook, I noticed a Dylan t-shirt being advertised that said: 'Kill Your Idols'.

I clicked the Dylan icon that sent me to a Dylan blogsite where numerous fans were offering there own personal comments regarding the content of what was being said on the t-shirt. I said that the phrase could be partly connected to Nietzsche's 'Twilight of the Idols'. Someone else significantly before me, had written that the message had a connection to Francis Bacon's 'Four Idols' or 'False Idols'. That comment triggered some vague memories of Francis Bacon's philosophy on my part, which in turn, triggered a need for me to do further research...

My research sufficiently completed, the result has been an evolving smorgasboard of about 10 aphorisms and/or essays on 'idols' this month culminating likely in the next one I plan to write before week-end called:

'Gods, Myths, Archetypes, Idols, and Self-Energy-Centres -- A DGB Post-Hegelian Perspective on The Health, Pathology, and Self-Contradiction of Religion'

That may be the last time you see the title in its entirety; the next time you see it -- and the essay -- the title is likely to be smaller.

And I do not know what my fixation with religion is because I am not a very religious person. Still, something is driving me to complete what I am about to complete here...a very strange, convoluted, philosophical-psychological-romantic-spiritual-post-Spinozian, post-Hegelian, post-Freudian, post-Jungian, view of religion.

We shall see how it turns out.

Either my recipe might work for you -- or it might not work for you. If you like it, keep it. If you don't, then throw it out and find or stay with what you like better, what works for you better. I am partly a pragmatist too.


-- dgb, August 26th, 2008.