What's it all about...............Alfie

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I don't, are you suggesting I'm unnatural?

What way is it natural to feel then? I feel you might be suppressing this feeling but note that your ability to engage with the big questions shows the question of what's it all about to be one of your drivers.

[Nearly Sane]

What way is it natural to feel then? I feel you might be suppressing this feeling but note that your ability to engage with the big questions shows the question of what's it all about to be one of your drivers.

I am engaging with you. You are indulging in a form of begging the question in that the fact that you have conceived of 'big' questions makes them valid or meaningful. On top of that you then think you can make statements about me lying through begging that question. Using that approach that you have talked to bluehillside about leprechauns, means that you actually think they exist but are suppressing it.

I also don't get why you are asking me what it is natural to feel. I am just explaining how I feel. Is there something important in what you think it is natural to feel?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I am engaging with you. You are indulging in a form of begging the question in that the fact that you have conceived of 'big' questions makes them valid or meaningful. On top of that you then think you can make statements about me lying through begging that question. Using that approach that you have talked to bluehillside about leprechauns, means that you actually think they exist but are suppressing it.

I also don't get why you are asking me what it is natural to feel. I am just explaining how I feel. Is there something important in what you think it is natural to feel?

You are overreacting and forgetting that in saying that the big questions are what you did in your youth suggests an accusation of immaturity in those who still confess to considering the question.
As such you could actually be the only poster on the thread who has attempted a value judgment on any of the positions expressed on this thread.
If you are trying to say that nothing you do is driven by any big question then fine.I never suggested that you were conscious of avoiding those drivers.

Now...you seem to have stated that these "big" questions are not natural. What then do you think their origins are?

[Nearly Sane]

You are overreacting and forgetting that in saying that the big questions are what you did in your youth suggests an accusation of immaturity in those who still confess to considering the question.
As such you could actually be the only poster on the thread who has attempted a value judgment on any of the positions expressed on this thread.
If you are trying to say that nothing you do is driven by any big question then fine.I never suggested that you were conscious of avoiding those drivers.

Now...you seem to have stated that these "big" questions are not natural. What then do you think their origins are.

In what way am I overreacting? Suppressing is  an active verb.

Rather you are reading things into what I have written which aren't there. That I have changed over time is a mere fact not a value judgement. My path is not your's. That is the point of subjectivity. It isn't a claim to truth.

Further at no point have I mentioned anything about questions big or small as not being natural. Merely that currently I don't see their validity and that seems natural for me. You were the one that claimed they were natural as if in some sense that was important. So I will ask again, the question that you missed - Is there something important in what you think it is natural to feel?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

In what way am I overreacting? Suppressing us an active verb.

Rather you are reading things into what I have written which aren't there. That I have changed over time is a mere fact not a value judgement. My path is not your's. That is the point of subjectivity. It isn't a claim to truth.

Further at no point have I mentioned anything about questions big or small as not being natural. Merely that currently I don't see their validity and that seems natural for me. You were the one that claimed they were natural as if in some sense that was important. So I will ask again, the question that you missed - Is there something important in what you think it is natural to feel?

I don't think asking you to explain what you have written important anymore.

Next contributer please.

[Nearly Sane]

I don't think asking you to explain what you have written important anymore.

Next contributer please.

It never was.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

It never was.

Yes......It was.

[wigginhall]

I was trying to think of a world-view which is all-encompassing, but it's pretty difficult.  For example, Marxists might analyze various historical events, but would Marxism help them in personal relationships?  I doubt it, but I would be interested to hear of anything different.

It starts to become very intellectual, if you are applying a world-view all the time.   For example, as I am walking along the salt-marsh in Norfolk, which world-view will I apply here?  From my point of view, none really.   I like the view, and the migration has started early this year.   Etc. 

We are fragmentary beings, who construct collages of bits and bobs, which don't add together coherently.   Life is a bricolage!  This is a posh word for a mess.

[Aruntraveller]

Life is a bricolage old chum, come to the Bricolage. Come taste the wine, come hear the band............

I am very much liking bricolage.

[wigginhall]

The most consistent Christian approach I have heard of is from Bonhoeffer, who said (roughly) that the next person you meet is Christ.    It's said that he lived like that as well, pretty impressive, although incredibly difficult, I would think.    (In the book, 'God is in the Manger').

[wigginhall]

Just remembered that when I was working in gender studies, and also feminist studies, 'bricolage' was the word that everyone used, along with 'subaltern'.   In the end, you scream when you see them. 

[Dicky Underpants]

It starts to become very intellectual, if you are applying a world-view all the time.   For example, as I am walking along the salt-marsh in Norfolk, which world-view will I apply here?  From my point of view, none really.   I like the view, and the migration has started early this year.   Etc. 

How's the samphire doing there, wiggi? There used to be bushes of it one and a half feet tall in my childhood there (there was a monster growth of 5 feet reported after the floods of 1953). Down here by the Bristol Channel, it hardly grows to six inches.
Ahem - back to the topic in question....

[wigginhall]

How's the samphire doing there, wiggi? There used to be bushes of it one and a half feet tall in my childhood there (there was a monster growth of 5 feet reported after the floods of 1953). Down here by the Bristol Channel, it hardly grows to six inches.
Ahem - back to the topic in question....

Pretty good, Dicky.  Yes, over a foot high.   We go to Snettisham, where there are tons of it.   I once met an ancient guy who used to pick it for a living, but I suppose it's farmed nowadays, very yuppy food.   Waitrose sell it!

[Étienne d'Angleterre]

How's the samphire doing there, wiggi? There used to be bushes of it one and a half feet tall in my childhood there (there was a monster growth of 5 feet reported after the floods of 1953).

Apparently the Bream fishing has never completely recovered from those floods.

[Jack Knave]

I may be reading you wrong but you seem to imply that there is enough understanding for you to think there is an ultimate outcome and rules to the game.

In a way, yes. We are in a process which we can see have some rules and form and seems to be progressing. Whether the final outcome has any meaning or ultimate purpose is another thing but the fact is we are in it and have no way of extricating ourselves from it. We have to participate whether we like it or not.

[Nearly Sane]

In a way, yes. We are in a process which we can see have some rules and form and seems to be progressing. Whether the final outcome has any meaning or ultimate purpose is another thing but the fact is we are in it and have no way of extricating ourselves from it. We have to participate whether we like it or not.

thank you for the clarification, I don't think I disagree with that at all.

[Jack Knave]

What it all comes down to is, are we wearing enough hats?

[Nearly Sane]

What it all comes down to is, are we wearing enough hats?

I am, but then I have about 20, if we include bunnets.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

How's the samphire doing there, wiggi? There used to be bushes of it one and a half feet tall in my childhood there (there was a monster growth of 5 feet reported after the floods of 1953). Down here by the Bristol Channel, it hardly grows to six inches.
Ahem - back to the topic in question....

Lookie here, three gentlemen, Messrs Pants, Taylor and Inhall who think the 'big' questions are probably hobby horses shite, filling the thread with trivia.

I'm reminded of that Jerome K. Jerome classic ''Three men on a derail''.

[Dicky Underpants]

Pretty good, Dicky.  Yes, over a foot high.   We go to Snettisham, where there are tons of it.   I once met an ancient guy who used to pick it for a living, but I suppose it's farmed nowadays, very yuppy food.   Waitrose sell it!

They do indeed! And it costs an arm and a leg - but well-sussed old buffers like myself know where it's likely to be got for free. (For literary buffs, this is not Shakespeare's samphire - mentioned in Lear, I think - that's Rock Samphire, which used to be used a lot for pickling in days of yore). I think it smells quite unpleasant. However, your actual Marsh Samphire, or Glasswort is very nice.

What was the subject of this thread, btw?

[Dicky Underpants]

Lookie here, three gentlemen, Messrs Pants, Taylor and Inhall who think the 'big' questions are probably hobby horses shite, filling the thread with trivia.

I'm reminded of that Jerome K. Jerome classic ''Three men on a derail''.

I'm prepared to discuss the philosophy of Schopenhauer with you if you like. Or indeed the spurious nature of the Pastoral Epistles in the NT - which I've contributed to in another thread. Not sure you'd be up to it, though. You'd insist on rabbiting on about methodological materialism for the Nth fucking time - a habit of yours which has, no doubt, made quite a few posters lose the will to live.

[Dicky Underpants]

We are fragmentary beings, who construct collages of bits and bobs, which don't add together coherently.   Life is a bricolage!  This is a posh word for a mess.

In fact, I've heard it argued that Nietzsche abandoned one of his later works (supposedly called "The Will to Power") precisely because he felt he was committing himself to a definitive Weltanschaung, and this had never been his approach previously. He certainly made copious notes for such a definitive work, but then consigned them to the wastepaper basket. The irony is that his anti-Semite sister insisting on rummaging through that wastepaper basket and retrieving numerous rejected items, collating them, and then publishing them as "The Will to Power".

[Dicky Underpants]

In a way, yes. We are in a process which we can see have some rules and form and seems to be progressing. Whether the final outcome has any meaning or ultimate purpose is another thing but the fact is we are in it and have no way of extricating ourselves from it. We have to participate whether we like it or not.

That's a pretty good summing-up. "Seems to be progressing" I would quibble with, though. Changing, certainly. But the phrase implies complexification, and that is perhaps a naïve perception, which is still imbued with humanity's well-known bias for considering itself "superior".

[Jack Knave]

They do indeed! And it costs an arm and a leg - but well-sussed old buffers like myself know where it's likely to be got for free. (For literary buffs, this is not Shakespeare's samphire - mentioned in Lear, I think - that's Rock Samphire, which used to be used a lot for pickling in days of yore). I think it smells quite unpleasant. However, your actual Marsh Samphire, or Glasswort is very nice.

What was the subject of this thread, btw?

The food of life.

[Jack Knave]

In fact, I've heard it argued that Nietzsche abandoned one of his later works (supposedly called "The Will to Power") precisely because he felt he was committing himself to a definitive Weltanschaung, and this had never been his approach previously. He certainly made copious notes for such a definitive work, but then consigned them to the wastepaper basket. The irony is that his anti-Semite sister insisting on rummaging through that wastepaper basket and retrieving numerous rejected items, collating them, and then publishing them as "The Will to Power".

Some of those papers on the Will to Power had a shopping list on them, so they must have been ultra serious.