I made the statement below in italics 15 years ago. It was a reply to a friend who had lost their confidence in the unerring "truths derived from intellectualism". Without the influence of the heart the mind acts like a dry turd.. My reply to my friend was like an atheist's reply to someone falling in love,,, "get back on track, this is all just chemical fantasy". One can easily forget the magical power in love in the face of its often bitter consequences.
My reply in italics, below, was a bit one sided. I lost sight of some intellectual myths like the proposal of a perfect society buy Plato created by intellectuals and ruled by the selectively cultivated heroes as in Plato's Republic or the scary weight of the words of Alfred Baeumler, a philosopher in Nazi Germany who was a leading interpreter of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy as legitimizing Nazism,, or the ponderous addition of his prestigious name to the Nazi Party by the philosopher Martin Heidegger. Intellectuals can become abiding idealogues for rotten causes as well when they lose their heart. Political ideology is capable of providing a basis for political legitimacy just as well as anti-intellectualism is able to drown out ethical voices or the valuable murmurs of "uncommitted thinkers" on whom society depends for a clarity of vision. A successful intellectual is one who bears the satisfying burden of carrying two opposing ideas in their head at the same time,,, like matter and anti-matter. A good example of this is Karen Armstrong's "The Myth of Religious Violence".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/25/-sp-karen-armstrong-religious-violence-myth-secular
I suppose my stance evolved from having lived in the sea of anti-intellectualism in the USA. It seems like there is always someone or some group that thrived on immutable lower case thinking. In reality people's attitudes in the US toward any elite group such as philosophers, politicians, lawyers, clerics, writers, and artists have historically been mixed. Anti-Establishment tendencies in the USA have sometimes made life difficult for thinkers, but they offer a great spring board towards the contrary. At times, however, it seems like the lowest common denominator, or a blatant confidence man rules.
What do you have against intellectuals? Who are the intellectuals you know,,,you know there are very few in the world. Yes I believe we have more hope with a thinker than for example, a consumer. You can always appeal to a thinker,,,they can be more in touch with human suffering. Notice I use the conditional tense,,,it is the expression of one with doubts.
I know you must have seen the
movie Seven Beauties.
It was about a type of person who would do anything to survive,,,kill his best
friend even,,,,he put himself above all others. His driving force exists
in all of us,,,his raw self-centered nature,,, but human intellect is
the only saving grace. It alone checks our steps and sees the
best´potential. Pasquale was a higher organism devoid of intellect. He
devours what he needs to survive. It is the person who uses both instinct and
intellect that feels for others.Intellect modifies our instinct. He was not an intellectual
thinker,,he had no chance to reflect. There was no theatre in his life,,, a stage where characters act out our fears and our failures. The theatre offers us a pause, an interruption in our blinding godless involvement so we can reflect on ourselves. The intellect
is the sole force that can touch on morality,,,,if there is such a
thing. Intellect offers better solutions, not just for one but for
all,,,,for all theatre and no reality makes Jack a dumb mother fucker.
Yes with reservations,,,I choose the intellect over the heart.
My friend's response to my italic above:
I have a shit list of politicians, writers , and cafe shit for brains. The hollow intellectuals. You say, "the intellect is the sole force that can touch on morality" and that is what I have against the intellect. It can pose as that, it does pose as that to all the "fulanos" out there. The intellect is a necessary tool, along with virtue, love and empathy which can touch on morality. Alone the intellect is nothing. Everyone, the ancients, the religious, the eastern thinkers and especially Socrates understood that. It seems like the only people that don't get that are the self-proclaimed and oh so proud intellectuals. Thinkers are more in touch with human suffering? Oh, if only that were true! Who is in touch with human suffering? The compassionate, the gentle, the honest, the merciful. The intelligent? Only if they have one of the above qualities. But I have met so many people who were in touch with human suffering who were not intellectuals. If you think about it, I'm sure you have to. Don't romanticize the intelligence just because it is the anti-thesis of the mediocre or the average. I wonder if the Native Americans even had a word for intellectual, this quality that can alone touch morality for you.
My response to my friend:
The use of intellect seems to be a different process from the employment of our heart or our instinct ( I don't know if I have ever thought of the difference between these two). People with empathy do use their heart,,,,,,,that is true,,,people who make art use their instinct and that is true,,,,but I think to initiate the process of involvement, whether it be with people or on canvas or paper,,,then the intellect must check it all out,,,,as immediately as possible, like the great sweeper of loose ends. It helps us make the rightest decisions. You cannot however make a decision if you are not first involved. That portal is provided by our heart's disposition. At some point,though, a whole person must encounter their intellect. This has nothing to do with class or education. You are right, I should not romanticize intellect as the sole route to any destination. Do you see "intellectuals" as snobs? Perhaps they create a "class bubble" of exclusion. All theatre and no reality makes Jack a self-centered asshole. We play at paste,,,and then we are confronted with pain or death. That can shake the brain a bit.
I think the trick is not to be a slave to either. Perhaps we are talking of the same thing. My reactions to statements at times are not checked by my intellect. Knee jerk reactions. Many times it all comes down to a defense of each others semantics. In this we can learn.
Do you think that studying the world of ideas has altered you in any way? Religions can be good, don't you think, as long as we pass through them? Some people don't pass, others half pass. But passing makes for more interesting people? Perhaps all those on your shit list are just a little retarded,,,,,like stuck. Isn't one of the requirements of seeing or applying virtue to be outside of the bubble, at least a little. How do you approach the politicians, writers , and cafe shit for brains?
One develops character simultaneously as they are living. "Characterizing" should always be taking place with participation in life. A person becomes wise or virtuous during the voyage. The choice is between become stranded in the station for eternity while holding various colored carrots in front of themselves,, waiting for Godot,, or get aboard. To acquire virtues means you are currently living or trying to live virtuously, or vice versa.
My friend's response:
I have been involved in a rather interesting discussion lately via letter with a friend I have in
Santa Fe. He is a musician, tormented I think, by the lives of many South and Central American
revolutionaries. He is struggling to find what he calls “character” by which he means that he is trying
to become a wise, virtuous, honest, courageous and selfless individual. He believes that he cannot create art, in this case music, of integrity until he learns to develop this character. He understands of course that this process is a life-long endeavor, but he feels so unenlightened right now that any attempt at artistic creation is embarrassing and misguided. So we have been talking a lot about Plato, whose work he is ignorant of though prejudiced against. About the idea that all men are capable of virtue etc. in differing degrees and that it must be cultivated to reach its best. My friend is instinctually drawn to self-reflection for the fruits of discovery and I to reading and self-reflection (writing). I guess I don't know how either of us feels about the values of conversation in this context?
Et vous? But anyhow, we are both pretty isolated and our letters, and although this is a far cry from actually sitting about together, it does form some kind of check I think. Well all of this searching for virtue and integrity also has as its goal creating a small scale humanist renaissance in the arts. By this I mean a low key art movement involving theatre, music, literature and art which deals with human issues, rather than post-modern, witty, nihilistic escapism. So (breath) I was thinking of you. You know, the best read guy around who is also a healthy cynic with a certain amount of distance and time to reflect over his many years. I was kind of wondering what you have
thought about the things you have found along the way. Were the Great Books Of The Western World what they promised to be? Did you find in them questions that helped you to think about your life? Did you find stories and lives that inspired you? You said R had a hand in moulding your life, did books also lend a hand? Did you find better books or philosophy in the East to compliment or replace the canon? Or do you find yourself on the side of the fence with my friend, that all answers come from within, that the books were a distraction?
My response to my friend:
I think I can understand your friend's struggle with believing that all men are capable of virtue if he has South American connections. This part of the world is not one that builds confidence in the existence of a natural virtuous man. Role models are thin. "Bend over bitch, this is permanent". One problem with Plato,,,for a latino is that one needs a surrounding bubble of fresh air in order to appreciate the Platonic concept and of course He, Plato, is of no practical purpose when you live in extreme poverty or in a system of constant corruption, or that the slightest protest can take your life. A permanent job is valued no matter what that job may be and ven if it sucks all your breath is of no consequence. The struggle just to survive tends to erase moral heroism,,, but not humanity. That's the great surprise,,, that there are still surprises. It's true that ideas thrive when one has time,,or creates time, to think,,,to contradict,,, to accept,, and then to contradict again,, all the while participating in life,,, yet ideas are not necessarily a barrier to virtue. Remember the greek concept of "the gentleman" principle" It eulogizes the man who comes to the games not to participate but to contemplate. It is a grave exclusionary myth that we can only be saved by this icon of thought. Is your friend catholic?
About The Great Books,,,,,,I was a youthful idiot with very little within. I needed a jumpstart and the Great Books on tape provided that electricity. However, nothing is what it is promised to be. No one work is a panacea. IF we do not read these works with skepticism lurking about like a beautiful curse, and the knowledge that this one is just one of many "lures",, we are doomed to make that work into immutable "law". One must think of these works as offerings. The books individually are gems yet they glisten differently as the ambient light changes. Maybe I do too! The body of work, however, is bitching good,,,just beware to fall hopelessly in love with "the one",,,,for love can be so fickle. The light one day illuminates the face of an another in such a way that we are newly enchanted while it renders the skin of our current love all pimples.
What is important is our "conciousness" of the fickleness and the imperfection of the system. We could not reject one completely for the other if we are concious. We must dance in the moonlight of "knowing" the truth is safely cocooned in a fog,,, We should act with the discomfort that comes from the suspicion that we have no sure footing. From this type of non crippling doubt, if you will, can come art. It is one way,,a good way. I believe I have learned one precept,,,that there is not just one route towards achieveing "character". There are times when Machiavelli serves just as well as John Locke, when the fat uneducated guy on the corner touches on something universal. The words of so many different people and minds have caught my attention. The first reaction was that the words tickled my prejudices,,, some lines retrieved from the air, spurred my thoughts, and I was able to confront what I thought I knew. That is genuine, even in its very evanescence. These ideas from The Great Books however ushered my art and my life in different directions. It is likely that the art was my method for "fixing" the words in my mind. Conversation can accomplish this "fixing"as well. These methods of fixing are key to the ways we exercise our skepticism,,,the weeding process, so important to improvement,,,, the process of a "better grasp" on what is ultimately ungraspable. The value of a diverse "intellectual salad" was inestimable in solidifying and enhancing my perceptions. You really cannot get enough of this. When one thinks it is enough you realise you are missing it. In listening to recordings of The Great Books I have found that while these words are infecting the air as I am painting they are helping me to grow and to create. They help me, like an invisible hand, pushing the brush about. As for love, can you enter into any work, or work of art for that matter, without the passion of the heart, the suspicions of instinct, and the natural timidity of the mind? Which is it,,, a feeling intellect or a thinking heart?,,,, or a team?
What do you think of all this horseshit above that I just wrote?
Emily Dickinson
The Brain is wider than the Sky—
For put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease and You beside—
The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For hold them Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges Buckets do—
The Brain is just the weight of God—
For Heft them Pound for Pound—
And they will differ if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—
The Tables Turned
By William Wordsworth
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
The sun above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
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