Just back from one summer adventure and headed out to another so I thought I would squeeze in a #thoughtfuldailypost. @Wesphilbin waves the @thoughtfulposts flag for us as the curation account that rewards them thoughtful posts. Please consider delegating if you are the thoughtful type and want to encourage people to share their positivity.
Thusly, we have a couple quotes from a couple philosophers old and new that made me pause, ponder, and discuss for #thoughtfuldailypost. Paired with thoughtfully-curated music to match the sentiment!
Today, we consider true ignorance and decide to be good while we have the power to be.
True Ignorance
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Karl Popper is one of the 'greatest philosophers of science of the twentieth century.' If he counts George Soros as one of his students, surely we can learn a thing or two from him!
It seems we are somewhat in an age of ignorance foretold by the movie Idiocracy in many ways. I always considered ignorance as not knowing what I don't know. Someone being rude can just be oblivious to the fact that they are being so and could be so self-absorbed that they simply cannot see things from a perspective other than their own. Not entirely nasty or malicious, just ignorant.
Karl breaks that down for us a little further by classifying True Ignorance. If the ignorant are unable to detect that they don't know something, then the truly ignorant might be the ones who know they don't know, but refuse to know for the inconvenience it might cause.
In the political spectrum, particularly North America as of this year, there seems to be plenty of ignorance on both sides. Spanning from virtue signaling busywork and fiscal irresponsibility on one side and bigoted self serving ignorance on parade on the other. It is this concept of True Ignorance that seems to be rife on both sides either impotently calling NAZI or blindly drinking the blatant lies and misdirection, there seems to be plenty of it to go around whether your favourite colour is red or blue.
Let's accept we don't know it all, have half of it wrong and not be too ignorant to acquire knowledge we don't yet have.
Almost anything to drop some TOOL and we will see all the other ignorant people in Arizona Bay.
Good While We Can
Besides being a stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius was also one of the 5 Good (Roman) Emperors who ruled during an atypical period of peace and stability for that wildly storied empire.
I must admit I choose to foolishly believe I am immortal so that I can keep growing, stay healthy and active, look to be younger than my years and extend a livable life. Probably puts me in the category of acting like I will live a ten thousand years. All is not lost as perhaps that extend the amount of time I have it in my power to be good.
The toxic convenience and staggering entitlement of so many north american people (most likely other places too but we really are the global teenagers without centuries of tough lessons to call our own) is on my mind plenty as of late. Thinking about what we have become as a whole and how far away from the original design we are reminds us that death literally hung over us at all times. We have plenty of conveniences that shield us from that these days but it is still the case.
I am convinced that if people travelled more, saw the reality in other parts of the world, and connected with different people, places and cultures, there would be profoundly less racism and entitlement. Perhaps we could see how fragile our entitlements and lifestyle are and how death actually still hangs over us. The universe is trying to kill us, eventually will, and it is a miracle we have individually survived this long.
Let us appreciate our inevitable mortality and have it inspire us to do good while it is in our power. That power is not infinite and it will be too late at some point not so far away for each of us.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOsmG-sufNc&list=RDdOsmG-sufNc&start_radio=1
How about a little live QOTSA and Dave Grohl with a Song for the Dead.
I hope we can progress through suffering to a success that brings purity of heart and celebration of right now. If being thoughtful is up your alley, you have the option to delegate to @thoughfulposts to increase the rewards for positivity.
@thoughtfulposts/thoughtfulposts-introduction-or-a-thoughtfuldailypost is the post that started it all way back in 2020!
I invite you to pen your own #thoughtfuldailypost any day of the week and share your insight on the world through your blog.
