The absolute state of modern cynicism is peak irony. You're all walking around with this enlightened false consciousness thinking you're galaxy-brained because you see how the system is rigged.>knows it's all a clown show>sees the puppet strings>understands the NPC programming...and then you do fucking nothing but post about it from your wagie cage. Your entire worldview is a reflexively buffered cope, anyone tries to call you out on your inaction and you just shrug because "lol I know, I'm blackpilled". It's not a profound philosophy, it's just functional depression with a superiority complex. You mistake your borderline melancholy and paralysis for intellectual depth but you're just too demoralized by the compulsion to survive to actually have the balls to do anything cheeky or defiant. It's the principle of self-preservation gone so wild it looped back around into a perfect self-imposed slave collar.
What is the alternative?
I didn't get an answer in the other thread you lifted this from, so I'll ask againDo I need to read Kant and Nietzsche before I can appreciate this? I'm interested in this title, but I generally hate philosophy and rarely read any.
>>24780373I assume the title is alluding to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is why I ask, mostly
No I just believe in providence and don't seethe about things that are out of my hands
>>24780369Radical Islamism.
>>24780373I'm the anon from the self-improvement thread (funny coincidence that somebody else is also posting about this book), I'd say familiarity with Nietzsche is helpful but Kant isn't too necessary. If you're not willing to read through Nietzsche's major works as a prerequisite, I'd at least recommend reading Sloterdijk's later book, Nietzsche Apostle, before diving right into CCR. The catastrophe for language described in Nietzsche Apostle gives a good starting point for understanding what exactly cynicism is responding to.
>>24780411Tybby
>>24780369The Erotic Ascent. Boethius' Consolation is a good place to start, or Dante's Commedia.
>>24780350But anons get mad at me for being hopeful?
>>24780441What do you think of Meister Eckhart?
I’m pessimistic about some armed insurrection improving my circumstances
>>24780350>and then you do fucking nothing but post about it from your wagie cage.What would you expect people to do? Start a revolution? That's barbaric. Vote for change? You already admitted the system is rigged. A superiority complex is better than depression because depression has negative effects on your physical health.
>>24780350>and then you do fucking nothingI bought Bitcoin and turned 4chan into Christian nationalists.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56LlsycDEBg
>>24780350>do somethingI get in my car and just drive
>>24780350>kids these days: the bookyawn
>>24780350>>24780369The thing that gets me about cynics in the wild is that they don't actually care about the reason behind what they're bitching about, it's just a knee-jerk assume the worst. And then no matter how much better than that the truth actually is, it's still bullshit because it doesn't measure up to the theoretical (equally impossible) best you'd get if no one had any material concerns and were totally altruistic about everything. Once you really understand how things got here and how much worse they really could be, and what the alternatives really look like, you either find some form of acceptance or you decide the world's intrinsically evil and kill yourself. Either is better than the half-assed dismissive self-torture so many people mistake for realism. It's just as delusional as optimism, except without any of the benefits. And it's fucking annoying to anyone around you who has the misfortune of engaging you. It's bad faith and you're not even capable of recognizing it.
>>24780350How cheeky! How defiant!
>>24780369just rebel and get incarcerated and/or executed bro
>>24780948You're straight up acknowledging you think acceptance is the best option. If you believe that then do the emotional work of accepting your lot. If not, find some purpose in trying to make rebellion into a viable long term alternative. A shitty disconnection from both is a bad choice either way you lean.
>>24780619Our historical moment feels very "late-Roman, crisis era," so rather than "armed insurrection" I'm thinking "move into a cave in Nevada with Plato's complete works, the Scriptures, key Patristics, and a few hundred pounds of lentils," is the right vibe for our historical moment.Not that people didn't do the whole insurrection thing back then, but in retrospect it was just endless, pointless back and forth that only made everything shit. There is no point fighting when there is nothing left worth fighting for. I'm not really amped to die over whether billionaires will be taxed 10% more or less, and if we'll have the same consumerist stop mall hell scape, just with or without the kids being given trans books.
>>24780350Don't care still not spending money
>>24780350>and then you do fucking nothing but post about it from your wagie cage.Yes, that's how it works. Even the idea of 'rebellion' is pre-emptively accounted for and channeled into some superficial, commodified avenue that still ultimately leads to conformity. You hate the world? Express it through your consumer decisions. Ultimately, people are still lead to a position of compliance because the alternative leads to ostracisation and incarceration. And no, I don't think I'm better because I have a rudimentary understanding of history and geopolitics. Actually it has made me a worse person and I wish I could return to blissful ignorance, the state in which I might do something cheeky and defiant. There is no spontaneity in this world now, the digital enslavement of humanity has only just begun. Every thought and action is accounted for and manufactured. If you have the money, get out of the cities and build a cabin in the wood. Except...aha! Even this impotent act of defiance is yet another cope that will yield no positive impact on the world, or you, hapless victim of it.
>>24780441I've read Boethius and Dante and got nothing out of it. Can you explain this in plain English for a soulless modern man?
>>24780441>t.
>>24781579This. The only solution to the globalist hegemony is pic rel.
>>24781796qrd?
>>24780369God silly Billy
>>24780441>Boethius' Consolationthis looks interesting, what translation do you recommend?
>>24781808We may reasonably assume that it's Baudrillard being a stupid idiot as per usual.
>>24781808The main essay is like 30 pages long but, essentially:>9/11 represents the ultimate attack on American hegemony because of its symbolic strength and its inability to be properly responded to>globalism plays a game of military / economic / etc. force, wherein it conquers or integrates its opponents, but terrorism plays a different game completely>terrorism fights via its own death, inflicting wounds and disappearing in the same instant, and the hegemonic response of a "war on terror" is essentially a big temper tantrum that solves nothing>terrorism arises naturally, in response and in proportion to hegemony, and is strongest when it has symbolic power (as opposed to basic, unpublicized car bombings or w/e)>the symbol of the twin towers falling, moreso than their literal casualties / economic impact, cut deep across multiple global strata - economic, cultural, psychological (the paranoia over flying) - leaving a scar that no number of dead muslims can healThus, globalism will either die via a million papercuts or it will kill itself trying to swat at flies.
>>24781903Seems pretty accurate, but I can't help but wonder what the successor to globalist hegemony would be if suicidal terror is the only means of wounding it.
>>24781903Based. Thanks, anon
>>24780369Vote for an opportunist who betrays you, attempt an act of pointless lone wolf terrorism and get shot by police when your gun jams and you don't know how to clear it, marry a woman off bumble and go bald, uhh...
>>24780369Radical accelerationism
