Birds Do Not Sing in Caves

check out the horses store at horses. land there's a sword some T-shirts and a notebook that are all shipping now thank you I hope you enjoy this video years ago one winter I was living on the south side of Chicago and working in the city's downtown area as I walked into the underground train station one night I saw a man sitting on the floor he was homeless a fact which is so tragically unremarkable that I may not not even need to mention it at all in front of him on the ground there was a long round dark object it was all black as black as the asphalt above us hovering over the man was another individual dressed in a doctor's uniform carrying a bag my best guess was that he was on the way home from his job at some medical facility the doctor was imploring the man on the ground who was unresponsive to go to the emergency room that if he didn't get to the hospital he would die this elicited no verbal response from the man on the ground in fact he didn't even move the doctor gave up pretty quickly he had a train to catch and as I got closer it became more clear what the object on the ground was or rather that it was not an object at all it was the man's bare leg rotting in matte black from his ankle to his knee the leg was so swollen so ballooned that it lacked the Contours human anatomy should have given it it looked dry and brittle I couldn't help but imagine pushing my finger through his Limb and feeling it crumble if I did this I further imagined I would find some purple gray liquid that was not at all what a human leg should contain of course I didn't do this I walked by the man hypnotized by this rotten limb not understanding how something so dead could be attached to a living person the city of Chicago and all of its intelligence had deemed this issue to be undeserving of attention dozens of passers by just passed him by I did the same American Humanity had assembled all of its mental spiritual and economic power to create The Shining City of Chicago the city was a metropolis a beacon of human technological achievement progress crystallized by concrete and rebar and yet it all seemed to add up to this a human rotting on the ground passed by because we all just had trains to catch I didn't understand how this could be I know that this incident in itself is just that an incident a specific problem with its own Mechanical Solutions but perhaps I am just not a mechanical person person so it began within me a long slow disillusionment with Metropolitan Life and by association even with the modern notion of progress I'd like to talk about that [Music] now Henry David Theo was a 19th century writer and leader of the transcendentalist movement aside from its being as a religious movement movement the school of thought believed in the inherent goodness of Nature and Humanity transcendentalists though noted that modern systems and Technologies had spoiled this goodness to be more immediate th was famous for his work Walden in 1845 thow moved to a small isolated cabin in the forest around Walden Pond Massachusetts thorough lived there for 2 years eventually producing the book Walden based on his experiences for the author this was an experience expent in simple living He observed that rather than deliberate living most people simply accepted that life was a series of waking up working going to bed and repeating he noted that this was not really by any fault of the individual throw writes when we consider what are the true necessities and means of life it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other yet they honestly think there is no choice left people's values were chosen for them by the culture into which they were born the modern world did not offer sufficient time or space for an individual to arrive at their own conclusions about life it was financially materially impossible to engage in this self-examination a person was just too busy so instead the world forced judgments onto a person it told each individual what was important animportant and the person more often than not accepted those judgments whether or not they felt any innate attraction to them the result of this passive value acceptance had been throw noted a culture of rampant but somehow passive materialism indeed today we seek happiness in riches because the world has told us that is where happiness is to be found in reality we will never find happiness in these things they are distractions from discovering true and etal fulfillment throw points to a farmer who has inherited a barn cattle and farm tools this circumstance could be celebrated the farmer now had a means to make a living but in reality these things were not gifts to the Farmer they were burdens and they were obligations thrust onto him by Powers far outside of his own throw suggest that if the farmer had been born Into the Wild suckled by a wolf he may have been better off he may have been free to find his own pasture his own calling you see upkeeping the farm does not just cost the farmer money it costs Toil and Trouble it costs time time that could be used to explore what the farmer himself actually wanted and valued the farm costs life and so the farmer from birth is born to dig his crops and also his grave but to abandon these inheritances is equally treacherous how then would he make a living as far as I can tell such is our modern version of humanity we have all inherited this Farm of Technology the crops of our systems the Implements of trade Banking and Commerce in one breath we thank the skies for such a prosperous World while not recognizing that this so-called Prosperity is also a vampire it truly drains Our Lives it forces our hand forces us to exist within its NeverEnding Loop and just like the farmer to abandon these things would destroy our civilization throw notes that most men even in this comparatively free country through mere ignorance and mistake are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them their fingers from excessive toil are too clumsy and tremble too much for that all of our knowledge and efforts must be thrust into the market into the modern system of living so that we simply cannot use any to explore our innermost selves even as I type this the idea of exploring what it means to be alive comes to me as so bizarrely abstract it is like a distant shout from the outside barely discernable more likely attributed to the wo of some events on the street and far easier to Simply ignore then examine in this way we are pushed to not only ignorance of our existence but to the ignorance of this ignorance we just don't know any better in battle against all of this throw stripped life back to its most Bare Essentials at Walden Pond he sought to live deliberately this was to lead life with intention to arrive at conclusions and judgments independently and to do things on purpose by your own choosing thow spent his time at Walden largely in solitude this word should not be taken to mean just being alone it is rather to be with it is a very active engagement with the world around oneself throw noted that he in fact at Walden quote had a great deal of company in his house he said that on his land he had the company of an old settler of the man who had first dug his home at Walden Pond he had the company too of an invisible old woman who he described as owning a wondrously fragrant herb garden this woman thorough said told quote the original of every Fable and that on which everyone is founded so thorough in his Solitude is very much not alone the past the present and the future were all in society at Walden pouring out in the natural world around him Theo's Solitude was not indicated by miles of space but rather a nearness a nearness to himself and to the very fibers of the world an appreciation for those things which formed and existed infinitely in nature Solitude can help us break free from unintentional living when removed from society a person is too removed from the distractions it presents while social dynamics are important for social life they often override things which otherwise would allow us to flourish in the developed world we are ostracized misunderstood or admonished for not embracing societal norms and so Society at large encourages and even requires oppressive Conformity Solitude frees us from these norms and values which we have passively accepted it removes the barriers which prohibit us from truly knowing ourselves when we are not bound by these constructs we can better find what we individually authentically and truly believe to be important of course Thor's writing is not so simple and its context also deserves attention thow does not declare that all of humankind should return to some primitive pre-industrial Society indeed while at Walden thorough wasn't entirely cut off from the world he recounts dinners with friends trips to town and occasional meetings with towns people some people have said this invalidates all that he wrote I disagree Walden was not created as a man against nature Tale in the book which is basically a diary thorow never proclaims himself as being entirely self-sufficient or living off the land instead it is the desire to simplify life that is the driving force behind Walden it is less of a physical self-reliance that Walden espouses but instead a spiritual self selfreliance Walden is not an outright rejection of modern society but a quest to better know oneself so that we can discover which parts of society we are suited to after all thorow himself went quite happily and even ambitiously back to the Civilized world after leaving Walden Pond throw's idea was not that everyone should follow his lead Walden was not a guide book for living nor a copiable road map for happiness as much as it pains me to to admit instead it was an exaltation to find your own Walden Pond in the book thorough writes I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living on any account I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible but I would have each one be very careful to find out pursue his own way not his father's or his mother's or his neighbors instead there is a school of thought today that happiness is not a cabin in the forest that to propose this concept or anything near it is a suggestion of cowardice that Retreat to Nature represents some misguided version of running from your problems thow did not run from his problems and neither should we quite the opposite we should follow his example and run to our problems in solitude we are closest to ourselves and we can confront all that we know we can sort the important from the unimportant we can understand the world around us in ways completely impossible within the confines of systems and social dynamics in solitude all we have is our problems certainly this worked pretty well for Henry David thorough as he was dying at just 44 years old thorough said I suppose that I have not many months to live but of course I know nothing about it I may add that I am enjoying existence as much as ever and regret nothing in the private sense I think thorough insights are invaluable taking individual action can radically transform one's life but thorough meditations represent a conflict a conflict of humanity versus [Music] itself Martin haiger was a German philosopher who has emerged as a rightfully divisive fig figure we can discuss that momentarily for now we will focus on an essay he wrote called the question concerning technology here we must first Define technology heiger does not say technology to mean just electrics computers or circuitry but instead it is any object or system which forces the manipulation of the natural world a factory is technology a road is technology a business is itself technology in his essay heiger investigates what he calls the essence of Technology the essence of technology is that which it truly is a tree can have green leaves and Brown Bark but that doesn't make it a tree plenty of trees do not have these things so what makes a tree a tree likewise haiger says we must find what technology truly is aside from its various configurations and incarnations Hyer argues that in this conversation humans have a fundamental misunderstanding people generally believe that technology is two things an instrument of human activity and a means to an end but neither of these have proven to be true in practice technology is not an instrument it is not a tool that Humanity wields if all technology fails tomorrow Humanity would very likely collapse this is just not how a tool Works rather technology is a condition an event in which Humanity exists and because of this event we have rearranged our entire world a tree is no longer a tree but a resource it is a thing we can use to fuel technology to create books and newspapers and Timber and houses metals found within the Earth are no longer metals they are to a resource the same can be said for any naturally occurring material on Earth today the question always seems to be what is this used for not what is this so these natural things now exist like haiger says as part of a Global Supply Closet this doesn't stop at plants or animals it extends to humans you yourself are a resource for technology the market does not see you as a human with thoughts or feelings or imagination or much of anything besides the potential to fuel some other piece of technology within the modern Marketplace your utility is to be some part of a supply chain a resource no different than trees or rare earth metals so like thorough also suggested technology pulls us farther and farther from reality we ourselves are distorted into resources surrounded by these other resources in this way technological progress sentences us to ignorance aside from being fuel for some technology we don't know what we really are this is a Whirlpool a spiral that goes on and on when repeated across Generations we don't just not know what it means to be human but we entirely forget that there is even a concept of Being Human outside of existence as a resource so again we become ignorant of our own ignorance technology is not really a means to an end either it is not a wire that eventually turns on some light bulb no it is a circuit a closed loop I have found this demonstrated explicitly in the confines of the city when the American city was constructed it was done so along a rational quantifiable set of data the city will provide an economic Boon to the country perhaps even the world in the city we will produce more money more buildings and more people the city is progress but like thorough and haiger would have suggested that progress is not free the city demands things of its residents the city needs people to work and create its material and its economic output so civilians are bossed around and bullied throughout the metropolitan area not necessarily by any individual but instead by the city itself the city demands put aside what dreams or plans you have for your day the market needs you progress needs you you must wake up at 7:00 a.m. because the train comes at 8:00 a.m. and you must be at the station when the city says because the shop must open because people must buy things and pay taxes and produce market prosperity for the city in a circular sort of conclusion your reward for doing as the city dictates is continued employment you must keep catching the 8: a.m. train on the other hand there is the man dying in the subway with his rotting leg at some point in his past he could not catch the 8 A.M train and so the city has no reason now to help him catch that 8 a.m. train ultimately for as much opportunity as City's promise they are quite effective traps such is the nature of technological progress we drill for oil to build more things but now we have more things so we must drill for more oil the factory worker builds wrenches wrenches which are used to maintain that same Factory the robot builds robots progress produces itself but then requires itself and so it must consume itself again and again today we are so dependent on technology that we cannot really let this Loop stop so we dedicate ourselves as resources to keep it going but in doing so we have relinquished control control of the circuit we cannot turn it on and off we are now just in the circuit any conversation of haiger should and will include one thing in 1933 he joined the Nazi party a year later he resigned and later called the decision to join the greatest stupidity of his life today discussions surrounding heiger often ignore his ideas and instead focus on this decision and its implications on his work academics comb through this topic hundreds of times per year aimlessly and without any unique purpose or conclusion and so haider's work has likewise been transmuted into a resource not for grappling with technology or changing human Direction but instead a resource for bloated industrialized ostensibly free market Academia and and so we will not engage in that road we will just say that haider's work must be approached with caution in two directions caution that we consider it within its context and caution that we do not ignore it because of this context as the years go by and as progress continues I tend to think his writings have only become increasingly relevant there has been a rigor of scientific studies that show higher incidences of mental anguish within Metropolitan C cities rather than more rural areas mental illnesses have also risen alongside industrialized society and our Collective obsession with technological progress if these correlations are significant in a determining way I don't really know that is a conclusion to be reached by more qualified individuals I can only say that I have reached other conclusions capitalism or whatever version of it we live under now pits the private economy against the public economy your choices food shelter clothing hobbies are dictated by the needs of the market and your capability within it Collective action is important and public reform is most desirable but it would be a great tragedy to spend one's entire life working for a better world while one's own backyard remains a mess I think that a retreat partial or entire from Metropolitan Life multiplies our possibilities within the capitalist landscape this withdrawal allows us to become more free of the world's impositions and the Market's Desires in doing so our eyes are open to new modalities of Life new forms of Happiness which are not based on the arbitrary judgments or clumsy feelings ings of other people there's some great irony in all of this which is not lost on me I sit here writing this perched on the Glamorous forward most part of human technological achievement the internet the computer how can I reconcile this massive inconsistency my honest answer is that I don't really have an answer I don't know everything and this is one of the many things that I I do not know all that I can do maybe all that I want to do is express myself try to improve myself within the world as it exists and have some hope that I will come out better for the effort if we feel hopeless as I often do within this storm of modernity we can again examine a thorian approach hope is something that comes from within and it can resist oppressive forces around us if we are strong enough it may also be something permanent in Walden thorough wrote that we must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake not by mechanical AIDS but by an infinite expectation of the Dawn which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep Modern Life has lulled us into a sleep with its material demands money houses cars power but we should Keep Hope always have hope no matter how hard we lean on material Pleasures How Deeply we sleep in this way we should always know that we can one day wake up that the dawn will be there waiting just for [Music] us

Channel: Horses

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Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024