Where have all the philosophers gone?

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Good evening.

Today I am thinking about the sustainability of small farms.

Wait - not just the sustainability of small farms.

The sustainability of the path we are on.

For the million and one observations I've shared with you over the past month, I feel like the path we are on as a society is concerning. The status quo is in desperate need of disrupting.

Everywhere I look, I see people robbed of their attention. I see attention being harvested by big business. I see people locked in a prison of information.

Each one of us has the power to disrupt this on an individual level, and collectively we can do something that can help people who are not as capable of breaking free.

I don't think we're doing enough, and I base this on my own behaviour first and foremost. I am not doing enough. Since everyone else thinks I'm crazy for the amount that I am doing, I have to conclude that no one is doing enough.

I believe doing this is important for the future happiness and wellbeing of humans. This is not a small, insignificant matter. This is vital.

This is a resource transfer of tremendous proportion. Our attention is everything, and we are handing it over for trivial amusement and more information than any individual could possibly use productively in a lifetime.

For a long time we deluded ourselves that the data mined off our attention (to say nothing of the other ways attention is monetized) couldn't possibly be that valuable. Turns out, it was more valuable than any one could imagine.

AI is here, and AI is going to change things. The degree is debatable. I, for one, am on the side of the debate that believes the effect of AI will be huge. I think it will be incomprehensibly huge.

The difference between 50 years ago and now is incomprehensibly huge.

Why in the world would any reasonable person not believe that the effect of AI will not be incomprehensibly huge?

You know what I think? I think that to think otherwise is primarily an exercise in fear.

To accept change is terrifying, so we pretend that change won't effect us.

The question is, will we let fear rule the day? Will we sit around and do nothing while we become enslaved by our own obsession for information?

I say we do something about it. I don't know what. I'm not proposing to have all the answers. I just say that it is important to think about these things and to work towards improving our relationship with technology and our control over our attention.

The attention problem is only one massive resource transfer. This is an information and attention resource transfer that is being stacked on top of a natural resource transfer that has been going on for the past 80 or so years.

Longer, really.

This natural resource transfer is the process of big businesses bleeding local communities of all their capital. In this way, the attention problem is really just an extension of the same original problem.

As individuals, we have chosen to abdicate our pursuit of the good in favor of consumption.

In the midnight hour, we yell more, more, more.

We have over extracted our soil. We have over extracted our forests. We have over extracted our land. We have over extracted our oceans.

We have over extracted our people.

Are any of us really going far enough in living a solution to this?

Can you go too far?

I don't believe that I am. I believe that I have fallen far short. I believe that I have allowed comfort, pleasure, fear, addiction, habit, and "ego" to sway me in favor of behaviour that I know is not best.

I forgive myself, because I am human.

If this generates any emotion or energy within you, I would encourage you to silence any thought loops that involve guilt or blame, towards yourself or others. Life is hard. Life is subjective. We didn't know then what we know now. We didn't have the same perspective.

The question is, what are we going to do now?

How are we going to live moving forward?

I have recieved many great replies since I've been sharing an email to respond to. One thing that I have not recieved any replies to was my request for examples of great farming or community organization.

I want to figure out the best way to live, and then live it. I'd like to do this together, with as many people as want to participate.

I'll end tonight with this quote from Walden...

I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstance, and they know whether they are well employed or not - but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their duty. I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and have thus forged their own golden or silver fetters.

I have not seen anyone that goes far enough in proposing solutions here. I do not know of anyone that is engaging seriously enough with the full scope of the situation we are facing.

What is the plan?

Is there anyone out there outlining a comprehensive plan for building a just society full of happy people?

If not, why? Are we so eager to line up for our comfort prison?

My time in Alabama has helped me gain some important perspective. I am excited to return to work. I am excited to forge forward, better than before, living the life of a philosopher.

I am excited to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

I hope you will join.

I have a fun idea to share tomorrow. Check back.

Life is good.

Reply to: rewildling@proton.me

Links:

• Go buy Walden. Thrift books, less than $5 for a good copy.