Life takes some interesting twists and turns. Some exciting. Some tragic. Some anxiety-provoking. Some challenging...Some deadening...
When push comes to shove, economics still rules philosophy. Sometimes economics distorts philosophy. Sometimes economics suppresses and oppresses philosophy. Sometimes economics simply pushes philosophy to the background as more pressing 'matters of survival' take precedence.
I can't afford to sit around writing philosophy all day, all morning, and/or any other part of a day, if my personal income and economics isn't stable. Money -- and/or the lack of it -- changes everything.
This is not a complaint (Well, maybe it at least partly is). But more so, it is a fact of life that one just has to deal with. No time to sit around crying about spilt milk. Move on, man. Move on... We all must answer life's newest and toughest challenges...or get left behind or swept overboard...or under the boat if we don't move our hands and legs -- and swim!
Hegel's Hotel ceases to be constructed -- or at least continues to be constructed but at a much slower rate.
My time and energy have been diverted elsewhere -- like many, many others out there -- as I/we do everything in my/our personal power to survive the economic crunch of a serious recession.
So I ask my readers to be patient with me as I work my way through this latest 'twist' in my life.
I know I am not alone on this boat -- even if it often feels like it.
The entertainment business, the restaurant business, the hotel business, the airline business, the taxi business, the limo business -- all have taken a serious 'hit' -- and in my line of business (driving a limo at this point in time), similarly to the taxi business, it is not unusual for drivers to wait hours on end between customer calls. Some days are better than others, but compared to five or ten years ago, even 25 years ago, most days and nights are bad.
I have a good five or ten essays that are churning around in my head -- demanding to be written.
My favorite quote from my mom (she didn't write it of course but it was her who told it to me when I was a lot younger) was:
'Within every gray (or black) cloud lies a silver lining.'
I can think of a few different 'pieces of silver lining' in my recent switchover from dispatcher to driving. I am meeting a lot of new, very interesting people, drivers out there who I used to dispatch and who individually and collectively have let it be known to me that they were very upset about my having left their taxi cab firm -- I was very touched by a driver who approached me the other day and said that he and all the drivers he had talked to believed that I was one of the few people in the previous organization who actually cared about each and every drivers' personal well-being in a period of 'very harsh economic times'. He said what he said with enough personal emphasis and feeling that I believed that he truly meant what he was saying. That was a 'silver lining'.
Some of the customers I have met driving to the airport have engaged me (or I have engaged them) in some very interesting conversations. I talked to a woman from China about 'globalization'. We both agreed that China and North America needed to find 'win-win' solutions in their business relationships with each other. Sometimes this is easier said than done -- although first and foremost -- a serious effort needs to be made in this direction. I met a 'Union Representative' who had flown in from Vancouver for a union meeting. We talked about economics -- mainly, he talked and I listened because he knew a lot more about economics than I did. I just followed along, listened, and tried to understand -- wishing that I had more time to learn from him but alas, we had reached the airport.
I have more time to read in my car as I am waiting for calls. Two books that have captured most of my attention recently are: 'Introducing Hegel' by Lloyd Spencer (1996, 2006); and Hegel's one and only masterpiece: 'The Phenomenology of Mind' (1807).
I don't like the translation of the title. I prefer the translationg -- 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' -- 'Geist' is a German word that has been translated either as 'Mind' or as 'Spirit'. Often I will write: 'The Phenomenology of Mind (Spirit)'.
If I was writing the book myself in my own unique way, I would have called it: 'The Phenomenology of The Human Mind and Spirit'.
I would start with my latest -- more reduced -- model of 'The Human Mind and Spirit', incorporating elements of what I wrote in my Honors Thesis in psychology in 1979 and integrating it with all of my present work...and this, in effect, would be 'Hegel's Hotel'. Another alternative title might follow in the footsteps of Arthur Schopenhauer's masterpiece -- although, like Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit' -- I would write Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Representation' much differently. To begin with, I would probably entitle it: 'The Mind As Representation, Evaluation, Spirit, and Willpower'.
The model of the mind I would be working with would look very much like models I have presented elsewhere in the past, only a little further reduced for the sake of simplicity and lack of redundancy:
01. The Nurturing Topdog
02. The Narcissistic-Dionysian (Pleasure-Seeking) Topdog
03. The Righteous (Orthodox-Establishment)-Apollonian Topdog
04. The Central (Mediating, Executive) Ego
05. The Approval-Seeking Underdog
06. The Narcissistic-Dionysian (Pleasure-Seeking) Underdog
07. The Righteous-Rebellious (Deconstructionist, Unorthodox) Underdog
08. The Dynamic, Creative (Dream-Making) Unconscious
09. The Structural, Learned Unconscious and Transference-Memory Template
10. The Structural, Genetic Unconscious and Mythological Archetype Template
11. The Unconsious Blueprint-Template of The Self (Our Potential Essence, Spirit or Soul)
That was simple.
Now all I have to do is write it. Will I ever?
Before I do, I want to write at least one more critique of Hegel's theory of 'Absolute Knowledge' which he wrote very quickly in the last part of 'The Phenomenology' with a deadline of October 18th, 1806 set by his publisher if Hegel wanted to get paid for his work (Hegel was having money problems at the time too and didn't want to miss this deadline!) -- and Napoleon all set to invade the city he was writing in, Jena, which used to be a part of the Prussian empire and now is a part of Germany. With these two major factors pressing upon Hegel, he hurriedly finished his manuscript on October 13th, 1806 (Napoleon invaded the next morning).
I think Hegel's theory of 'Absolute Knowledge' and his general 'Absolute Idealism' have been more criticized than any other parts of his work. It seemed to have been a major dividing point for Schopenhauer who wrote a counter-thesis, his own masterpiece, already mentioned above: 'The World as Will and Representation'. It was a dividing point for Marx who went on to write his own masterpiece: 'Capital'. It was a dividing point for Kierkegaard who went on to create the first 'Existential Philosophy' of 'concrete experience and existence' as opposed to Hegel's 'Absolute Knowledge, Idealism, and Abstractionism'. And it was a dividing point for Nietzsche who followed along Kierkegaard's path in developing his own unique brand of Existential Philosophy.
This is why I often refer to the concept of 'multi-dialectics' as opposed to simply 'the dialectic'. For any one theory that is espoused such as Hegel's Dialectic Theory and/or his theory of 'Absolute Knowledge', there are potentially numerous other 'bi-polar oppposite theories' out there that may deserve equal respect and attention.
Sometimes life requires 'either/or' answers...
Other times, life's best answer, man's best answer, our individual best answer, may lie in the meeting ground of one, two, and/or numerous polar opposite theories and/or philosophies that may intersect with each other in any of a countless number of possible ways.
Hegel's Hotel: DGB Philosophy is one of them.
And that is enough for tonight.
-- dgbn, October 31st, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still In Process...
