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Steve Martin's avatar

Hi Paul.

As I read your essay, I found myself nodding in agreement, and occasionally frustration (at my memories) of undergrad days while transitioning from biology to philosophy ... as well as current events happening now from the world level to my personal community. Intuitively, I knew that the unnameable processes were more fundamental than provisionally labeled structures, but I usually remained passively silent, observing lectures, careers, and entire education systems built on provisional social constructs and ideologies that were defended with their last breath ... though I had not sussed out how the grease of money is a poor proxy for the river of process.

I remember squirming uncomfortably in the lecture room when one professor after another extolled the virtue of one structure or ideology after another ... while the books I gravitated to did the opposite. Such books were usually iconoclastic — mostly philosophy and literature drawing on the mystic traditions of Far Eastern philosophy or 'rogue' STEM specialists —, challenging the dominant structures and ideologies with narratives showing that the moment we stop to analyze a part of the river, we have extracted ourselves from the flow. And then, there are the charlatans who understand that and use that knowledge to weaponize for predatory purposes.

One book I remember fondly because it was so filled with possibility and optimism that it did not need a confrontational tone was the rogue mathematician Alfred North Whitehead's 'Adventures of Ideas'.

https://annas-archive.org/md5/65af18d052b6624fa517a9915f941301

It was about 5 am when I woke up, skimmed my mail, and found your essay. Before heading back to sleep, I thought I would watch one podcast which had popped up in my feed ... and thought it synchronistically dovetailed so eerily perfect with what you had written, that I thought I would share the link with you. It is only about 15 minutes long, and shorter when listened at 1.5 speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc0kNnYgImg

Both your essay and the podcast will have some influence on a workshop I will be holding at a cafe in the local ward office here in Japan next month ... tentatively aimed at raising awareness of options for personal identity that do not depend on traditions, institutions, or authority.

Much thanks for this well-thought-out essay, Paul.

Cheers from Japan.

steve

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Paul Stone's avatar

Great so great! to hear from you again Steve- much thanks for your time and thought!

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