Every phobia when tracked down to the root, is the fear of unknown or death. You can categorize both of them as one, because death is the biggest unknown. People have capitalized on it for centuries by very obvious means. And there's a plethora of
episodes on it. I'll link one here. This also circles us to the reason why we haven't met aliens(on record), yet(more on that later.). But to talk about nothing. We must understand why it's so mortifying.Best Journal ever
Marcus Aurelius, the greatest contributor and the foundation member of cool philosophers club talks a lot about death in Meditations. He argues with every entry how accepting the fact that everything perishes(Memento mori), we can give ourselves a really good trajectory in life because it keeps us on an ever going pursuit and a humble life throughout.
"Everything – horse, vine, anything – exists for a purpose. Is it any wonder? Even Helios the sun-god will say, “I have a job to do,” and the rest of the gods will say the same. So what will you say? “I’m here to have a good time?” The very thought is beneath contempt."
and
"Be a boxer, not a gladiator, in the way you act on your principles. The gladiator takes up his sword only to put it down again, but the boxer is never without his fist and has only to clench it."
(I am not sure if this one is an interpretation or actual translated text, but it gets discussed a lot when it comes to Aurelius, because he was also a boxer according to some.)
These two are one of my many favourites from his book. You can find more on a single search.
Aurelius said it ages ago that the only thing people fear is death, and the multiple ways it manifests itself. And by conquering that, we truly reach the divinity amongst all of us. Seneca also picked up the mantle of contributing and wrote the excellent book Letters From a Stoic talking about how these things shall be practiced in daily life.
So now we do understand how invincible acknowledgement makes us.(I didn't use the word "conquering" because there's a line between fully accepting and fully rejecting the power, later creates a lot of problems for not just individuals but society as a whole, more on that some other day.)
Then why exactly we can't wrap our head around it? Pack your bags
next stop JAPAN.
Miyamoto mushashi.
"Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵, c. 1584 – 13 June 1645),[1] also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku,[2] was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 61 duels (next is 33 by Itō Ittōsai). Musashi, as he was often simply known, is considered a Kensei, a sword-saint of Japan.[3] He was the founder of the Niten Ichi-ryū, or Nito Ichi-ryū, style of swordsmanship, and in his final years authored The Book of Five Rings (五輪の書, Go Rin No Sho) and Dokkōdō (獨行道, The Path of Aloneness)."
Straight from wikipedia.
You understand WHO exactly this man was. As mentioned he wrote the The Book of Five Rings. On reading carelessly, it would feel like a sword manual, nothing else. But obviously it isn't one. That is why philosophers like Miyamoto mushashi, Marcus Aurelius and Seneca have stood amongst the greatest thinkers even after so many years, they understood humans on a deep level, because they never pretended they aren't one.
The final chapter of his book discusses void as a concept. And it was very elegantly placed at the end of the book. Mushashi gives you the world's best advice on everything and then he comes to the point of "you are not invincible ".
When we think about this, it pushes us to brink of insanity, there's an awful lot of information, experiences, people, things, techniques(focus of the book). Yes there is. Yes we can't master everything. Yes it would be very uncomfortable if something unknown comes to us(death in many people's case.) What are we going to do then? Why not hide and drench ourselves in meaninglessness and run away from the battles of exploring?
Think of it this way(My interpretation, Mushashi never said this). You are in a really dense dark forest. You have some area to yourself (current understanding of the world, and current acumen in things.) You will have people in your life(again, not Mushahi's approach.)or things that you want to pursue. They are going to be in that little space, and suffocate. Every dream every passion of yours will suffocate. Does that mean you shall burn the whole forest down for space? Don't be ridiculous, you don't even know how big it is(let alone burning the entirety of it). So, do it gradually. There are a LOT of things you don't understand, one tree at a time. With time, you will obviously have more space than you started. Yes, you are going to encounter things you don't want to see. But remember, you read other 4 chapters of the book too. You have a non zero chance of facing them. More 'space', your community and passions thrive. And even then it didn't matter in the greater scheme of things! Forest is huge. But you were doing exactly what you needed to do. EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS.
Trying to clear the whole forest and getting to know EVERYTHING is a very stupid approach. Let's jump to Immanuel Kant now,
In his book Introduction To Logic he discusses stupidity also. I will try to be funny while explaining it.
As humans, we have a terrain. It includes everything we know, could be anything, humans, biology, universe. There are questions that are obviously unanswered and we seek answers, are we alone in the universe?(I promise next section is about this), is free will even real(it's not), etc. etc. And there are things which are beyond the horizon of our current understanding and needs. Like How many red bulls you can chug before you pass out.
Kant(not exactly, again, interpretation) suggests, the one who completely disregards the terrain is obviously an idiot. And the one who ventures into the number of red bulls territory is also one. If this doesn't make much sense to you, imagine this, only if you have a obsession for something, and you decide to get to know and practice everything about it, still you will feel the joys of exploration. Doesn't have to involve things that are unrelated to you. But, what you do? You can do that right? Can't you? And continuously learning about it will make things so much better. And one day you may realize you want to do something else (maybe with or without the old one), and you won't have the 'fear' of the void, cause you have ventured through it once already. But it doesn't have to involve ‘the classic advice’. And as you go against the norm of doing the conventional things, understand it when you encounter someone who is doing the same.A kid is obviously praised for knowing the name of every dinosaur that ever walked earth. But do you want your date to do that?(Paleontology is not a joke, it's a very dedicated field and a really important one. But do you want to hear that? I will let YOU be the judge who is the idiot here, you or your date ;) ) And personal experience, for a long time I thought it's the muscle that plays the major role in lifting heavy, steadily I realized it's your breath, and recently I realized it's FOCUS(topic for some other day.)
Next stop,
China
Liu Cixin. This guy is the modern day Issac Asimov. He wrote my favourite science fiction series "The Three Body Problem" and luckily,
is also picking it up.The second book discusses a theory, which is very well known. The theory of dark forest. Imagine, you live in a forest. No place to go, there's just forest. You live in there and one day, you decide to go out and think, am I the only one in this forest? You go around for a really long time, you find someone. You have never seen anyone in your life and suddenly someone who might or might not look like you is in front of you. Fiction says you guys would become instant friends. History says otherwise. You don't know if they are going to attack and take away your resources, you don't know if YOU can take away their resources. So now it's a race. Who attacks first!
Imagine there is intelligent life except us. Do they want to meet us? Why won't they try to cloak themselves from our gaze? What reason do they have to collaborate with us? Humans don't have a good history with collaborating with people from different ethnicity for a major period of history, different planet?
It gets even more interesting, there is a possibility that there are civilizations way advanced than ours, we have gone very deep into space as I write this. Why they choose not to attack us? What are THEY afraid of? There's obviously something way scarier out there!
Another theory being why we don't contact tribes in secluded places. Shouldn't tamper natural order for nothing. Maybe we are those tribes to the space overlords? Who knows?
And if you are a little curious now, watch this Youtube Video about kaiber belt. Obviously I don't support half baked theories but it doesn't only apply to aliens! It applies to us too,
The Social Unknown
All of us are in a social dark forest in digital age. We are getting suffocated with content that furthers our dogmas and everything. And totalitarian governments use it to their advantage very well, read this blog by my favourite blogger
So think about that dark forest theory when you meet your next different person. Don't make attack your first instinct. Although it's a good tactic in war sometimes. But very hardly you are going to be at war with this new person. We make endless prejudices about people. That isn't just us being shallow. It also stems from the fear of unknown. And now you know that the only way of living is acknowledgement of that fact. You never know what some unknown person who thinks, looks,speaks completely different from you has to offer. Listen to them. Tell them about yourself too.
History has been very rude to people who think,look,speak different, at least some of us are fortunate enough that we don't have to be rude to them as well. (Doesn't mean you don't run when you sense danger. I asked you to be humble and welcoming, not stupid. ) So, try that! People are an experience themselves, some really bad, some really good, some that were really good but once in a lifetime, some that you had for a long time but now can only remember. All sorts of variety.
So don't let your fear of the UNKNOWN scare you! There are terrible things, but a few good ones too.
"Nothing to lose,
And everything to gain,
Whoever made souls,
Made everyone's the same"
From this week, I started a challenge, I am going to listen to a playlist of as many song genres as I can. I will cue a new playlist daily. Today as I write this(although it will be posted later), it was "art punk". Discovered a nice track,
See you all next time!
Adios!