The axial age

Is Veeky Forums interested in a new age philosophy thread? Included, but not limited to, the following:

>post-nihilism
>post-existentialism
>post-postmodernism
>posthumanism
>transhumanism
>-ism of your choice, with fries & salad
>you get the idea

A little background: the Axial Age

>Jaspers described the Axial Age as "an interregnum between two ages of great empire, a pause for liberty, a deep breath bringing the most lucid consciousness". It has also been suggested that the Axial Age was a historically liminal period, when old certainties had lost their validity and new ones were still not ready.

>In addition to Jaspers, the philosopher Eric Voegelin referred to this age as The Great Leap of Being, constituting a new spiritual awakening and a shift of perception from societal to individual values. Thinkers and teachers like the Buddha, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras contributed to such awakenings which Plato would later call anamnesis, or a remembering of things forgotten.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_Age

First thought: nihilism is to me the necessary and general condition. However: can anybody seriously call themselves "nihilists" anymore? With a straight face? And don't we all know this? Isn't that why it's the age of ideology?

Nihilism is the precursor to ideology; but one problem today is excessive self-awareness of ideologies. More Jung and less Freud may be required.

Second thought: If we know everything is ideology, doesn't it make sense to adopt a super-ideological perspective? An ideology that includes other ideologies? Is there even another option?

Note: in my view, 'capitalism' is not an ideology, any more than 'nihilism' is.

Third thought: maybe we're in an ideological axial age. Really drawing the conclusions from this would be the step beyond postmodernism. As I see it there are two options: super-tribalism (likely, but grim) and super-cosmopolitanism (unlikely, but more attractive). Transhumanism cuts both ways here.

Fourth thought: a lot starts with Nietzsche. But in addition to the ubermensch there are also the "Good Europeans." It is my suspicion that Nietzsche would have taken Goethe over Cesare Borgia. More Goethes are a good look. Goethe does not do ideology.

Final thought: in 2017 we're heading away from globalization. Fair point. But it stands to reason that eventually we're going to head back there. And yes, I do enjoy talking out of my ass.

So I'll leave it there for now. New age/global brain/integral/East-West philosophy general. Good luck out there today, you sexy bastards.

Other urls found in this thread:

lombardiletter.com/china-move-shows-fear-economic-collapse/4979/
nationalinterest.org/feature/china-will-probably-implode-16088
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

what happens when the chinese and indians take over in fifty years?

It's an interesting question. As with virtually everything else in my king-in-a-nutshell universe, Trump is a galactic anomaly. Not only is it very difficult to predict what he will do, it's harder still to know what the results might be. If he starts a trade war with China, or if they don't keep up as well with the Joneses as was formerly predicted, then the the future might not be as Chinese as some (including me!) might once have predicted. They may yet persist as outstanding vidya waifus tho.

lombardiletter.com/china-move-shows-fear-economic-collapse/4979/

nationalinterest.org/feature/china-will-probably-implode-16088

India, I have no idea. But when was the last time the world feared The Rise of India? And besides, the Vedanta and so on is some of the most chill philosophy in existence.

So yeah, I don't really know. Indian philosophy yes, Indian economics...okay?

>tfw you notice those mannequin-ankles & knees tho
>tfw vidya waifu is a sexbot apparently inside an MMO...
>yep looks like the future all right

>As I see it there are two options: super-tribalism (likely, but grim) and super-cosmopolitanism (unlikely, but more attractive).
I think globalism could be achieved through a type of body-worship. Jordan Peterson is not wrong when he says the West's philosophy has been concerned with regarding the individual: the Greek in its physical and the Jews in its theological sense, both in a (different) political sense, from Rousseau, to Nietzsche and Heidegger, all of them are concerned with the understandment of human being, which resulted in science as the intellect is the most salient characteristic in it in comparison to other lifeforms, then philosophy had a linguistic shift as language is even more unique to humanity and the medium through which everything intellegible is most noticeable to us.

Now with this in mind one can appreaciate why things like yoga and alternate medicine were so popular but so disrespected. Here Jung comes into place: what are the inherent principle in all humanity? The physical body and the mind aren't separate, where can we say mental processes are just phenomena, but physical ones aren't? And so on. So this is probably going to go into a less "cerebral"--call you normies Buddhist friends, ask them to tell you what being on the jhanas is like, and they tell you it's non an intellectual insight: there goes the cartesian carpet; your mind didn't stop breathing the moment it stopped talking.

[cont.]

[cont.]

This has interesting repercutions overseas. The Chinese and Indians have a completely different approach of the body, maybe because they never had Abrahamic (or Egyptian?) influence; the Classics certainly did have a different approach to the body which was disregarded in the Middle Ages; and let's look into representations of the current Enemy: Fascism, to an extent Communism, "toxic masculinity" all present powerful, cultivated male bodies; Fascist Italy and the PRC even had physical training as an integral part of their idea of a citizen. Kung fu, kamasutra, yoga: these are the most obvious ways in which India and China penetrated the Western mind: all bodily praxis. My question is, what problem is there in the latest philosophies, after the Death of God, that can't be related to the bodily and sensual very easily? And of course, fitness is incredibly popular. Sport is still valued. Are videogames not just a form of sublimated body-activity? Even VR is just about "being in a world", not "being a world". What about those Islamic terrorists? Is the suicide bomber not sacrificing -- his body? Is the burqa woman not restricted, shamed and tortured -- on her body? Was the great fear of totalitarianism not famined and burned -- dead bodies?

This way materialism needn't be abandoned, sensualism comes back into play, intellectualism takes a second place, many of the problems of the state are addressed, a basic universal human condition is brought into question, the market's propaganda is subjected, the West wins again. And note that this doesn't mean the total disappearance of things like traditional art, but it can mean the complete opposite: the "body" of art can now be appreciated... and when was the last time anyone talked shit about sculpture anyway? We're very much tired of the virtual and the mental, methinks. Everyone is telling you to get out of the computer chair. As for tribalism, it's unlikely with the internet still around; it will be integrated on some level, but aren't we kind of tired of fighting over culture?

>But when was the last time the world feared The Rise of India?
Don't be so sure. Indian nationalism is on the rise.

>Don't be so sure. Indian nationalism is on the rise.
As much as it can. India is an artificial state that will always be a few steps away from dissolving into its comprising nations. As long as Trump can successfully throw a wrench into China's gears, we're going to be living in an Anglo world for a long time.

>India is an artificial state that will always be a few steps away from dissolving into its comprising nations.
So was Germany. So is the US. The idea that India is a fabrication of the British is precisely what the Indian intelligentsia is critiquing nowadays.

>50 years

Much sooner. Chinks don't feel queasy about CRISPR babbies, AI and automation.

there is nothing new under the sun

new age is just rediscovery of the old

we have never been modern

just practice dharma