[1] Is philosophy always an attempt at escape until it enters into the consciousness of dialectic?
[2] It was at the point of self-negation that Benjamin started his disposition as a philosopher: romanticism could no longer get in the way. When death comes knocking, abstraction falls away, this means thought, untrammeled by social categories, can begin.
[3] The intellectual is constantly striving to transcend the impoverished and desperate conditions of existence, sometimes this succeeds, but where barbarism has its way, there thought is smothered by stupidity, the end result is a loss of intelligence to the species, man reverts to being bludgeoned, not only by nature, but also by his own psychology.
[4] The calculation made by the philosopher, when it comes to suicide, is a matter of quality, which is to say, a life of suffering is not worth living. "To learn how to philosophize is to learn how to die." There is no such thing as the absolute value of life, all life is contingent on the quality of material conditions, where these are lacking, life cannot justify itself. Self-negation is the wise decree of intelligence in the absence of the possibility of life's quality.
[5] One who not only chooses to die but follows through with it by their own hand... the temptation is to call this "weakness" or "stupidity." It is no such thing! Socrates demonstrated that there are worse things than death, things we would rather die than have happen to us. Death is not the ultimate evil, an existence full of suffering is the Ultimate Evil!
[6] It is most interesting that thought can deliver freedom into the hands of the thinker by making him aware of the futility and impoverishment of conditions, so much so that intelligence reaches the conclusion that life is not worth living; the conclusion that danger lies ahead. Intelligence lands on the strong conclusion of self-negation, and this is neither sickness or madness.
[7] Coercion is the thing that forced Benjamin's hand. What kind of coercion? It was the threat of being treated as an object without dignity; the threat of being deprived of all the things that make life worth living. At bottom it was the threat of barbarism, a domain where reason and evidence no longer inform life, but where they are constantly smothered and suppressed. In this domain impulse reigns supreme, it operates without thought as a mediator.
[8] No one actually wants to die, they just don't want to suffer. Suicide is not necessarily where the laws of nature drive us, it is where the tyranny of man drives us. So much human suffering is unnecessary, what makes it necessary is man's greed and drive for power. But that is not all, idealism is also a malignant force in the world, often originating in a pathology of denial -- man cannot face reality.
[9] Men consider death the Ultimate Evil, but this is backward; a life subject to a tyrannical system, suffocated, impoverished, malnourished, deprived of the access it needs to obtain unto quality, this is the Ultimate Evil. Every person that commits suicide, because they were crushed by the heartless gears of a mad system, validates this truth. Death is not the Ultimate Evil, that belongs to the unnecessary suffering of life!
[10] Benjamin knew it would come to an end. How does the world look through the eyes of intelligence? Like a madhouse wherein one must find the nearest exit to avoid a horrific fate. Deceive yourself no longer, man's games only matter if they lead to an increase in the quality of his existence. Philosophy: games for the sake of games are not good enough, these only work as long as one has favorable material or physical conditions.
[11] Most thinkers seem to begin with the superstitious premise of life's unconditional value. All this means is that they can't think the worst and then go beyond it. This "beyond" is important because it carries the affirmation of life. This beyond is not mysticism, it's not the supernatural, it's simply man using his intelligence to ensure that life is an experience of quality. But if one cannot think the worst then how can they overcome it? Where thought cannot go, there it invents delusions. Benjamin was faced with the imminent prospect of tremendous suffering. He had to make a choice against life to spare himself from an experience of suffering. One must learn it in all boldness: this is perhaps the highest act of intelligence.
[12] It takes great courage to end life on the basis of probable knowledge. Here the abstract games of skeptics do not work, too much was on the line for Benjamin, he had to make a choice based on probability. It's only the moral idealist who demands that the subject carry on regardless of circumstances. Those who are bent on validating the value of life at all costs, even when it no longer has value, are the most brutal inquisitors on the earth. Because these people fear death so greatly, therefore they cannot allow it to take place in others. Thus do they call it a thing that is fake: "a moral evil."
[13] Those who command that we must live to the bitter end are literally insane -- they are also dangerous! What these people are really saying is that we should be forced to suffer in order to quiet their fears, in order to validate their delusions. Make no mistake, such idealists are dangerous tyrants that have inflicted the worst suffering on our species, all in an attempt to uphold their idealism. How many have had to suffer until virus or worm had sucked out the last breath? And yet their demise was inevitable, their suffering could have been lessened if man was able to view the worst. Death is not the ultimate evil!
[14] What happens to theory at the point of self-negation? No matter how hard it fought to resist praxis, it is now forced to enter into praxis. The real problem is that so much theory leads to death, that which escapes this inevitable conclusion has either introduced the lie of mysticism to comfort itself, or it has obtained unto material quality (or the possibility of such). The former is a form of denial while the latter is a form of authentic hope.
[15] The tyranny of idealism reached its climax in the concentration camps of Germany, where prisoners were not allowed to take their own lives. This is always the climax of idealism, which amounts to the abstract assertion of life's value regardless of life's quality.
[16] In self-negation Benjamin was a hero to himself against the tyranny of existence. He displayed an intelligence that runs higher than the impulse of nature.
[17] The central question of self-negation is the question of peaceful-negation. Intelligence arrives at its climax in the question of how to live a life of quality, but it reaches its summation in the question of peaceful self-negation.
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