PAIN IS CHEAP, SO IS PHILOSOPHY | 2003-12-06
The Spanish have a saying, "Of course life is mostly pain. If it weren't we wouldn't need so many philosophers."
The more miserable a place is, the more philosophers it has. Even sub-Saharan Africa produced, "It takes a village to raise a child."
China has had wall-to-wall philosophers throughout its history of agony and tyranny. India is the homeland of Buddhism and of an endless string of gurus.
Is it agony that produces philosophers or philosophers that produce agony?
Great Civilizations, the ones that produce all that pain and all those great Thinkers, are based on two things, 1) threats and 2) promises they never have to fulfill.
The Pharaohs used the whip and a promise of everlasting life in The Book of the Dead. India used the whip and the promise of Nirvana after a lot of lifetimes. Before Nirvana, if you were obedient, you too would be in the upper classes in your next life.
I make fun of all this because I am in the modern West. This is the first civilization in history that justifies its existence mostly on promises kept.
When Western Civilization gets to a country, all its Great Philosophers are dumped. The Great Civilization melts like thin ice.
Conservatives tell us that is because we are superficial. Liberals tell us that is because we are Evil.
I think it's because the great Cultures were frauds, and so are leftists. Conservatives are retards.