Gentleman, scholar, beast



In all things pertaining to your day to day life, you should conduct yourself as a Gentleman, impeccable manners and behaviour go a long way to oiling the social machinery we often find ourselves forced to play a role in.

 

It also behoves us to make scholars of ourselves. Disciplining ourselves to enjoy learning for it's own sake, brings it's own pleasures, not least in higher conversation and the ability to see through lies that others would deceive us with.

 

However we must also cultivate a capacity for the beast, which is held safely under lock and key, but which tells any would be miscreant that you have the confidence to deal with any threat some misguided fool may be under the assumption that because you are both Gentleman and scholar, you are easy pickings; you are not!



3 reasons for doing anything

If you haven't read Aristotle's ethics, it behoves you to read it. If you have, read it again. You will find it one of your closest friends throughout life. It's pages are packed full of valuable lessons and today I want to share three of those lessons with you, or should I say three reasons for doing anything.

1. It is morally good.
2. It is a practical necessity.
3. It gives you joy.

Even with all our labour saving technology we are still very time poor. We are stressed out, our lives seem packed with things we simply must do and often it feels like were on the hamster wheel, the faster we run, the more tired we get without actually getting anywhere.

 

Apply Aristotle's reason to your life,

• Don't buy all the stuff you don't need.
• Don't read the books or wear the clothes that you don't enjoy.
• Show kindness to your family and justice to your employer or employee.

Just think how much happier you will be by following just those three simple maxims to live your life by.

 

If something is neither moral, nor necessary, nor enjoyable, drop it!



On Existential Depression

If I had a pound for every existential crisis I ever had...

 

Does money even matter?

 

I write this post whilst in the midst of yet another bout of existential depression. I think it all started when I read the works of Richard Dawkins and it hit home, even though I intuitively knew this already, that human beings are a simple accident of evolution. I personally exist by absolute random chance (metaphorically rather than pure mathematically).

 

Trying to hold two opposing thoughts in my brain/mind (Descartesian dualism kicks in about now), that we are an accident of evolution and we should fill our lives with base pleasures, (Epicurus anyone?); and, 'Better Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied' (Bentham/Mill and the whole utilitarian movement; J.S.Mill's autobiography is a good starting point).

 

I am inclined to ask opinions of both Hume and Durkheim to render a convincing yay or nay to why anyone that questions life would willing want to extend their lives.

 

Is it fatigue, retiring at 2am (by force of will) and rising at 6am (by force of the nagging internal voice pushing me to continue the process of trying to push existentialism out by working on more challenging areas of the thought process).

 

Perhaps this is what it means to 'enjoy' intellectual pursuits; the need to constantly question if your life, what you do, has any value whatsoever. Questioning why we pursue intellectualism when a dose of popular literature and T.V. can provide our brains with the intellectual equivalent of popcorn, empty calories but what a buzz!

 

I see no cure for existential depression, my personal brand of Nihilism. Certainly being 'drugged up' would play havoc with the old intellectual pursuits, with absolutely no guarantee of switching off a brain that is permanently wired and stocked up with an addiction to high caffeine hot coffee on tap!

 

So if suicide is not the answer, neither medicated response and I can't enjoy the simple pleasures of life anymore, even though my duality does try, maybe it would be best to embrace absolutely and feed the higher side, whilst trying to starve the lower.

 

Easier said than done in a world of 24/7 media and one in which when you try to have a conversation, if it's anything more than the latest news report people look at you like you're an alien.

 

Reading. Studies are starting to show reading can alleviate mental disorder, at least the mild depression side of it. Reading for me is my time, a place where the world is locked out, if only while your eyes are scanning the pages. A place of perfect meditation.

 

So why am I happy I suffer from existential depression? Because it reminds me I am alive. It reminds me that out of all the randomness of this universe, it picked me to live, to learn, to write, to answer question from the curious seeking my knowledge, my collected wisdom, seeking answers to deep questions like "What's the point?" and instead of answering I leave them puzzling over even deeper questions, but knowing this will help them resolve their own path in life and hopefully spiral them on to intellectual pursuits.

 

I need my existential depression to remind myself of how far I have came from being a 'John Barleycorn' to my present state of affairs. a work in progress, maybe not a Jack London but...

 





Keys to success

• Take personal responsibility
• Things change so be flexible
• Work smart and work hard
• Serve others well
• Be nice to others
• Be optimistic
• Have goals - want something big for yourself
• Stay focused
• Keep learning
• Become excellent at what you do
• Trust your gut
• When in doubt - take action
• Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can
• Enjoy all you've got
• Above all - keep it simple



Do or Do not...



I have never been good with 'to do' lists, keeping diaries updated or any other mundane duties life throws at us, things seem to get done eventually.

For those of us that like those reminders stuck on the fridge door, try a 'get done' list. It's more immediate, more in your face punchy. It's a command that says this must get done, today, now, before anything else.

 

To do lists are wishy washy reminders, get done lists, well, that's the business.

Train like Bane



Out of all Batman's adversaries I connect most with Bane:

'He read as many books as he could get his hands on, spent most of his spare time body building in the prison's gym, and learned to fight in the merciless school of prison life.

 

He apparently received a classical education.'

 

3 simplistic rules of life:

1. Read everything you can
2. Use the gym consistently
3. Learn how to fight!

Unless you have some sort of seriously debilitating illness that prevents you, the vast majority can commit to those 3 simple rules to life.

 

Before you knock it, try it and see how much your life changes.

The true artist



"A true artist does not define success based on approval from others. A true artist need only please himself."

 

It was a long time before I was stubbornly persuaded by an acquaintance to reveal my writings for public consumption. Even longer to stop me from deleting my blog posts.

 

So long to get over the self-doubt of whether I'm good enough as an artist (and I mean artist in it's broadest sense).

 

It's taken me six years of solid writing on public display for me to settle, finally, on this blog and to just write my 'essays', though I make no claim to be in the same league as 'Montaigne'.

 

Finally allowing myself to embrace a 'Stoic' philosophy, even though I have admired this in fiction from 'Batman' to 'Gotrek Gurnisson' - the 'Trollslayer', I finally feel ready to give back.

 

And the best thing is I no longer seek approval from others to define my 'success', rather I now please myself, and though I do hold myself to a certain level of 'high-standards', what I write from now, and 'post' from now on, will please me and any true artist need not seek the approval of others, rather a true artist need only please himself.