Being a Philosopher II

It's 3:00 am and I'm sitting in a 24/7 cafe writing and reading. I'm working on a book and reading for the third time Thus Spoke Zarathustra by the brilliant philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. In the back of this edition there are comments by respected scholars and philosophers. I found this one by Harold Alderman particularly interesting:

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a work of fiction; that is to say it contains no facts or empirical arguments and no metaphysical axioms from which Nietzsche purports to deduce eternal verities. Philosophers, however, have been bothered by the fictional character of Thus Spoke Zarathustra to the point of saying that it is not a work of philosophy; such philosophers apparently do not realize that all philosophy is fiction. For Nietzsche, however, this fact was one of the clearest things about the nature of philosophy; it was so clear that he decide to emphasize the fictional character of philosophy by constructing his major works as a conversation among a number of fictional characters.

There are many people that get terribly bothered by a great many quotes of Nietzsche's; I have never been one of these. His voices are multiple, fictional and profound that cause us to think if nothing else. I often find myself laughing while reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche did not take himself very seriously, even though he is most certainly a serious thinker. I find his work humbling and thoughtful. There is great beauty there.

Being Disruptive II

John O'Leary wrote an excellent post recently on "creative disruption" where he uses The Beatles as an example. I have written here on being disruptive a few times. As brilliant as they are, disrupters are often marginalized and isolated.

While often being maligned, disrupters, in fact, are those who make the difference in business, painting, music, science, education, medicine, poetry, fashion, communities, novels, religion, community philosophy, etc.

Who are these disrupters?

Jesus Christ
Martin Luther
Joan of Arc
Toni Morrison
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Jean Paul Gautier
Emily Dickinson
Friedrich Nietzsche
Chuck Berry
Tom Peters
Oscar Wilde
Leonardo Da Vinci
Gianni Versace
Muhammad Yunnus
Bela Bartok
Copernicus
Henry Miller
Malcolm X
Jean Paul Sartre
Marie Currier
Anita Roddick
Georgia O'Keefe
Nelson Mandela
Virgina Woolf
Igor Stravinsky
Vincent Van Gogh
Anais Nin
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Galileo
Nat Turner

History is replete which such ones, yet we seek to allow disruption to be. Perhaps without the struggle it would not find a place or consistency. Perhaps resistance is at the heart of disruption a necessity.

Being is Essence

The description of this blog begins "being is the essence out of which all things evolve." The idea emerged from my years of studying ontology (the study of being), transcendental phenomenology (the study of phenomena appearing in the acts of consciousness), and existentialism (the study of the human being's existence and isolation in the world. Being became human.) I concentrated on the works of Georg Hegel, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Frederich Nietzsche, and Jean Paul Sartre.

Later I came to study the works of the physicist Max Plank which takes us beyond mere mathematics to quantum theories, and Jacques Derrida who expands the meaning of being to grammar. Grammar becomes being; it becomes essence. With this essence, the evolution of being expands to the inanimate. But it is, nevertheless, an extension of the animate. Words become being. Being becomes material as in the beginning. This is the creative process.

"In the beginning was the Word...and the Word became flesh."

"You are gods."

Being a Global Society

Tom Peters wrote a most reflective and thoughtful post today on globalization. In it he says that the "guiding premise of ubiquitous Globalization, of which I have been among the most vociferous champions, is under assault." Among others thoughts, he wonders if...

The world has become normal again. The years immediately following the Cold War offered a tantalizing glimpse of a new kind of international order, with nation states growing together or disappearing, and increasingly free commerce and communications. ... People and their leaders longed for 'a world transformed.' ...

But that was a mirage. The world has not been transformed. In most places, the nation-state remains as strong as ever, and so, too, nationalist ambitions, the passions, and the competition among nations that have shaped history. ... Nationalism and the nation itself, far from being weakened by globalization, have now returned with a vengeance.

This was my initial thought:

The beauty of In Search of Excellence is the implementation of the small things that transform the whole. Perhaps globalization did not consider this. Hence, the bloated unwieldiness of its core corrupted. The core wasn't small and essential, but massive and viral. Should the mass not grow out of the small? When the small transforms it is felt by all and its single voice understood.

What is the single voice of globalization besides everybody can do it? But what is the it? Be rich? When transformation occurs through massive viral markets, perhaps corruption more readily destroy unawares. Globalization through massive economic means may not affect the sense of ethics at all, though it brings more people into social classes that enable them to provide for themselves.

There are many such examples of globalization, for example, in India where women have developed small cell phone businesses that afford them a better lifestyle. This is good. But this will probably not affect whether larger companies in India or America will behave justly and honorably, neither will it probably lessen the desire of people in various countries the strong sense of nationalistic pride. Is this a negative? In fact, I wholeheartedly believe in nation states. I wholeheartedly believe in cultural differences. I wholeheartedly believe in variance. But these beliefs need not trample yours.

David Porter wrote very effectual words on my blog where the topic was "Being a Paper Society." He writes:

'For those of us who believe in an abundance vs. a scarcity mentality, such a world is possible. One in which a reasonable rate of return is achieved, leading to more investment capital, and where employees are paid a fair wage well above the poverty line, then allowing those employees to purchase the goods at the store or the cars from their Big 3 employers etc. I think it hearkens back to your earlier post on 'Enough.' I am afraid we haven't yet solved that calculus but thoughtful discussions such as this at least put the questions before us.'

The fact that TP questions himself after all of these years of service is fantastic. The fact that we are having such "thoughtful discussions" on this blog on some many relevant topics give us hope that we will have a collective consciousness that will require individual actions in our various communities, work environments, and nation states. (Nation states will probably never change. And even if it does, there will undoubtedly be factions within it. The "Power to Will" as Nietzsche understood well will probably not change.) Small change is the only kind of change that takes root nationally, affecting the masses for good globally.

What do you think?

Being Inspired by Others

"The only dance masters I could have were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walt Whitman and Nietzsche."

--Isadora Duncan

Being an Original

Daily in my inbox I receive quotes by Tom Peters, the kind that propels me to thought and action. Today's quote is particularly salient, as it is perhaps one of the main reasons for the lack of design and innovation.

"If we want original products," Peters writes, "they're likely to come from original people."

While it is All Too Human to complain about the lack of originality, it is also all too familiar to dismiss original people, those who do not think, look, or act like me.

Consider the words of Friedrich Nietzsche:

"One may conjecture that a spirit in whom the type 'free spirit' will one day become ripe and sweet to the point of perfection has had its decisive experience in a great liberation and that previously it was all the more a fettered spirit and seemed to be chained forever to its pillar and corner."

We do not find solutions to problems among like-minded people, yet we so often desire to be among them. When the "fettered spirit," those people who do not think, look, or act like me is "free," this is when design meets originality. It is the "ripe and sweet to the point of perfection" that can be.