AGAINST THE PHILOSOPHERS - Jersey Flight

I can easily say, if one is a philosopher, and one has no concern for the nature of the social world, then one is severely limited as a philosopher. If Plato would have been forced to eat noodles and salted broth, I very much doubt we would know Plato at all. 

What I am getting at is just this, I believe there are some things we must agree on, and one of those things is that we either want to be free, or we affirm our place as slaves. It is easier to talk with a man who recognizes his slavery and embraces it, but how can one speak with one who does not recognize he's enslaved? Sadly, I find the latter position to be the consciousness of mankind.

The only way it is possible to embrace the present system, which rules the world like a parasite devouring its host, is either to be ignorant of it, or to be in favor of it.

"John Steel wielded a powerful metal rod, he was fond of striking men in the back, crippling them, as he would then laugh and walk away."  But this is the morality of the system in which we exist! (And the philosopher will claim that philosophy must be indifferent to this reality)? This is nonsense. Philosophy is contingent, even as it has always been contingent! I marvel and shudder at the ignorance of my fellow men. So haughty are we, so full of pride and arrogance and complacency, we have not seen enough death, America is lacking in tragedy (and this is because the American way of life is sustained by tragedy). We eliminate tragedy in our own sphere by creating it in other spheres.

I will tell you what a wise philosopher thinks: in the first place he knows he's stupid, and in the second place, he knows he's deceived and constantly being deceived (most of all by himself). But we do not live in an age of wise men, we live in an age of happy pretenders. 

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