Sex and the Search for a Post

I am preparing a method post. Why?

1) Because I am a passionate dilettante philosopher who is not content with just blogging: I need a method in my blogging.
2) I have promised a method post in the about page, so it is high time (and very Roman-like) to keep my promise (well, ancient Roman-like, contemporary Romans having lost some of the old virtues lol).

The truth is the method governing my posts keeps bugging me since I have started this web log experience, and, as I still need to process my ideas on all this a little bit, I propose this posting sequence to my readers:

I) a post as a preparation for the method post (ugh!). It is the present post. I need it for clearing up my mind before the real thing arrives.
II) A post on SEX, as a break. It might help me not to lose ALL my readers due to this philosophical mania of mine.
III) The real thing, at last (i.e. the method post).
IV) A second post on SEX, to get additional pardon after the real thing, thus ending this posting sequence in full glory.

What do you think? Will you pardon me? Will SEX help?

Rhetorical questions not expecting answers, let us put some (preparatory) ideas together and that the trip begin!

Game of Ideas with Hidden Links

1) We will touch upon questions from numerous points of view, as if for each matter there were in the mind of the writer a forum of different positions.
2) A thought in progress, thus, in which who is writing is gradually clarifying his ideas. These ideas might contradict one another because the writer is constantly reaching new (and sometimes opposite) perspectives, which could baffle the reader but also help her/him see how complex ideas/things can be.
3) On the whole, a game of ideas, anecdotes and facts only apparently deprived of connections. These connections (or mental links) will sometimes be explicit (said) while other times will remain implicit (unsaid). This should stimulate the reader towards making her/his own connections, i.e. towards creative, non-passive reading/thinking (which of course can also involve total disagreement with the writer).

Well, at least Magister was very successful in this game. But Magister is Magister.

Writing vs Thinking

Writing, thinking, clarifying,
striving to sort out thoughts
in ways so “clear and ordinate”
and comprehensible.

This, many years ago, Magister counselled
for the good education of the mind.
Beloved Magister,
writer, philosopher, educator…

Writing is in fact a stern discipline linked to the activity of thinking. Writing teaches how to think in ways so “clear and ordinate”. The terms reason and word (word = discourse, written or oral) are actually just one word in Greek: logos. Awkward prose or clumsy oral reports (though here we concentrate on writing) often reflect muddled thoughts.

As far as I am concerned the problem is more complex and twofold: 1) writing in a foreign language makes the task totally challenging and 2) we have this fatal attraction for digressions, for the free wanderings of the mind and all its unrestrained associations, i.e. attraction for enchanting and bewitching Chaos (something Magister wouldn’t definitely condone).

We like both sides of the moon, the dark indistinct and the crystal-clear. We appreciate balance, discipline, clear argumentations and polished sentences but also lush jungles of words and ideas (in literature and thought we have impressive examples of both ways).

A. We get nourishment and peace of soul from the perfect equilibrium of Western Classical Music: Mozart, Boccherini, Clementi, Haydn and young Beethoven; or Italian Opera: Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti etc., wrongly called romantic, since they were classical deep inside (even Puccini, in some way). It is interesting how Italians never totally absorbed Romanticism, their classical heritage and almost inborn sense of taste (and grace) being too tenacious.

B. We also get a lot of pleasure from insane Western Romantic music (older Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Scriabin etc.), maybe because of the Celtic and German blood running in our veins and possibly engendering, who knows lol, some tendency to excess.

Thus said, what will happen to my so-called philosophy? Will it be too muddled? Will readers think I am crazy? I really have no idea. I really do not have any idea about it, no kidding.

Note. I just gave you an example of digression + bizarre association: the concepts of writing and thinking were mentally linked with music, two totally different spheres of the human experience, but the connection seems evident (to me, at least).
I do this a lot. I associate a lot. I even strongly believe in this (or maybe it is just my inborn cognitive style) though I understand it can be confusing to the reader (see an example of these free - though not totally unrelated - associations in the post about Relax & Creativity).

Weakness or Strength?

Why should we be worried about this roving of the mind? This is only a blog, it can be crazy. Ok, but the thing here is that we are a bit more ambitious (only to a certain extent, or we will fail): we are actually attempting a research. Ok, it is a research from a man-in-the-street-of-Rome point of view, but it is nonetheless a research. Thence this roving tendency could be a weakness (or a strength?).

Are we capable of carrying out such middle-brow research? We do not know but we take the chance (by the way, I know middle-brow is derogatory, it is ok).

Can a reasonable research (getting again to the point) profit from the free wanderings of the mind? We hope, because we cannot but be rational and un-rational at the same time.

A Philosopher in Every Man

Magister used to say that every person is a natural born philosopher. He used to say that everyone, during the entire course of his/her life, keeps building a constantly evolving grid of concepts & connections among them. This world vision or Weltanschaung enables us to comprehend the surrounding world (from Latin comprehendere, cum + prehendere = put together, grasp, or insert in the grid). Comprehension of the surrounding environment implies also better interaction with it, the two things going together.

If this is true of every man (that he is a natural born philosopher), and if I am a man, which I certainly am, I should have a certain degree of hope I can be able to transmit some of my Roman feel in an intelligible, sort of consistent, organized way. Is that true? In principle yes, but ALL depends on the degree of discipline, education and availability of time I dispose of.

Two more Things

1) One might ask what is the difference between a philosopher, on one hand, and a peasant, or man-of-the-street, on the other hand. No difference. Only level of training, skill, specialization. The philosopher is a pro. That doesn’t mean the non-pros must shut up. I will not.

2) We should all learn to think (and write) more effectively because it can help us greatly to make our days and to guide us in the fundamental choices of our life. The more efficiently we think, the happier we live, classical measure though being vital here: if we think too much and act too little, we can get neurotic (in Italian we have a special phrase for that: seghe mentali, which could be badly translated with fruitless intellectual onanism). This blog wants to give a helping hand to those who think self-improvement is important (and possible).

Reason is not All

As far as I am concerned, ideas are taking some shape regarding the future method post. The next post will be devoted to what I promised, which is SEX, SEX, NOTHING BUT SEX (in the Roman way though). In the meanwhile I want to end this long long post with some ideas about reason and its opposite.

I can dominate my chaotic brain (I am reductionist) with reason and writing and words (logos) thus also making myself understood (by others and by myself). But chaos is still there. Un-rational things, intuition, disorder, even entropy, are still there, in our minds, in the Universe…who knows (I need to deepen up what the guys of the Third Culture are doing, or I really risk of saying very silly things about these topics).

What I know is we cannot live in disorder and we need to discipline ourselves most of the time. Not always though. Sometime we need excess, we need fun, spring breaks, Carnivals, Saturnalia, a Roman festival (see picture below) where rules were broken and reversed (for example masters became slaves and slaves became masters). The Romans were great gurus in this art of living. They ruled the world with smile, with humour on their faces and tongue (sometimes crass, to tell you the truth) , but not with mystical seriousness. They faced the most dreadful tragedies but preferred to watch comedies.

Reason and order are not all. They can lead to horrors if taken too seriously. This is a great heritage of Roman, Italian, Latin culture that people from colder climates do not seem to have quite understood. Taking things too seriously can lead to disaster. Think of all promised rational and perfect paradises, think of all dreadful Utopias which brought only dispair.

Let us then also have fun. Carnivals were/are made for that. Look at Rio, Brasil. Look at our Spanish cousins. They are an economic success, although Madrid, their capital, has movida running all nights!

I do not know how to end this never-ending post. Maybe I can use Coelho’s beautiful words (from his novel Zahir):

Let us have some respect
for our life on this planet..

Italian version of this post