My dearest Khalid,
Well, I remember an oldie "Light my Fire!!!"; it was way back in the 60s; I do not remember the female singer anymore; but in those days I was surely fiery to acquire knowledge and wisdom; that was the good old Frankfurt University days; when the world seemed to be young, sparkling crystal balls, and youth seemed still to bloom flower power, hippies, Che, Dutschke, Ho Chi Minh, Malcolm X, Sharpeville, demonstrations, study, exams, fire, fire and fire!!!
Right on, "Firing Star"! By the way, it was the name of a beautiful horse, which belonged to my father, it was a real lively Pegasus creature.
Here we sit at our usual glowing fireplace, on Tiger Farm, looking ad astra, seeing the trillions of stars hanging low over the Andes; we can nearly touch them. It is a clear night, no smog, no ozone, no blockbuster music, no Zombies around; only the werewolves howl, the owl hoots and with us, she enjoys the moonshine; our turtle-doves coo, and one wonders what they think about; their natural melody seems so beautiful, and yet so melancholic, yet so nostalgic.
And, there we are, in the centre of our topic again.
It is indeed strange that we think at all. It could very well have been that we never had achieved something similar. It is one of those mega-secrets of the Multiverse and Polieinai. Also that we are conscious is another eerie fact, and that thinking and consciousness are connected, or at least so it seems, is another enigma. Nobody really knows what it is all about.
All those wise sayings, with all due respect for "human genius", whether religious, theological, philosophic or scientific, are all guesses, hypothesis, pipe-dreams, serious speculations; it is simply the searching for a needle, not in the famous haystack, but at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The answer is there, but, Oh! Girl! Find it!!!
The state of affairs being as such; you and I can just as well add our own intellectual reflections and rational reproductions to the issue. They are just as valid as the philosophic absolute truths of a Plato or Hegel.
Hence, please, do not rush to the library to go and search for a "good" book on the issue; for example, Sartre's "Being and Nothingness", in the bookshop, you will not find anything which serves our purpose here. Just relax, grab that natural Maltin Polar, enjoy its Pilsener fragrance and flagrancy; meanwhile, let me light my Marlboro 100, it might bring cancer to the lungs, but they are already affected by the smog, ozone, and carbon monoxide, which I daily breathe; for six decades, they are already beyond any form of salvation; but, as you know: there is no smoke without a fire.
My Marlboro glows, the coals spark, my cigarette is delicious, it tastes better than any of the best pills on the health market, and my neurones operate at cruising speed; no smoking of cancerous transistors can be detected anywhere; no brain damage; no viruses, no radio-active ashes fall in your beer; only the adventurous smell of "dagga", which my forefathers, the "Bushmen", the San or Bathwa, had been smoking for millennia, yes, only dagga smoke-rings fill the cool mysterious night air, and the tobacco flavour like Phoenix hovers over the smouldering white-hot coals.
Well, let us sing to the tune: "Smoke and Fire!". They go together like a Horse and Carriage! You cant have one, you cant have none, you cant have one without the other!!! So, my dearest thin old flame: Grab your flamboyant flambeau, and let us dance the fiery thought-flamenco! We leave the samba and mambo, the bingo and lingo, to the mamba and gringo of this world. Do you like the rhythm, the steps and the tune, which naturally flow from the aforesaid?
Okay, let us talk now about more serious and pleasant things!
THINKING, THEORY, PHILOSOPHY
Firstly, a general remark.
As little as you can teach a new-born baby the "Uncertainty
Principle", so idiotic it is, to teach present-day grown-up "Madonna"
to stand upright and to walk. It would be more wise, to do the above the
other way around. However walking in upward gait is not dancing the tango,
and the two events should not be mixed up. Similarly, Thinking, Theory
and Philosophy form different DEGREES of Einai, and we should not mix them
up, for example, to teach a new-born Philosophy, and to teach Einstein
some fragments of Thinking; he did not like this idea at all; at
school he was a fall-out, and he advised everybody not to learn thinking
in any official educational institution. For these very reasons, Philosophy
is highly sophisticated Thinking & Theory, and it should not be marketed,
should not be converted into NesPhilosophy, and diluted with strange polluted
tonic waters.
Thinking and rethinking, cognizing and recognizing, do not imply
that all that was said in the "history" of "philosophy" have necessarily
to be thrown on the rubbish heap of
History. All patriarchal thought is part and parcel of our very
being a n d existence; the crux of the matter is that
we have to surpass it, to superate it. It forms a truth within its limited
formal logical or dialectical bounds and bonds. But it is not the only
truth; it is part of the Truth as process, in process.
Neither Formal Logics Nor Dialectics have to be thrown into the garbage-bin, just because they are bourgeois or patriarchal. Who does that is sawing off the very branch on which he or she sits.
There are various levels and degrees of being, of thinking, of consciousness, of becoming, of becoming a "human being". This so-called human being, although it pertains to the status quo, although it does not want to alter or change itself, nevertheless, it obeys the laws of hen kai pan - One-and-All- a n d of panta rhei - Everything Flows - .
In a cosmic-ontic nutshell, Being is and Existence becomes; the Human Being is a n d it exists, that is, it becomes; it exists as Human Being a n d Existence.
This Being, this IS, we call Cosmos. This Becoming, this EXISTS,
we call Einai. Hence, the Human Being is Being
a n d it exists (Being-Becoming a n d Becoming-Being);
in short, you and I are Being a n d Becoming. Never only
Being, or only Becoming, but Being-Becoming, the two sides of US;
in reality, we are the hyphen, the Relation, between Being a n d
Becoming.
Our Being has to do with the Cosmos, with Action, with Praxis, with NATURE.
Our Becoming, our Becoming a "Human Being", our EXISTENCE reflects our intellectual thought processes towards the Cosmos, towards our Being-Becoming, a n d , it reproduces these rationally, as Thinking about Action a n d Thinking about Thinking itself, as Being-Becoming a n d Becoming-Being.
There is a significant difference between thinking about cosmic or natural things, and thinking about them a n d thinking about thought itself. The aforesaid refers to the Intellect; the latter intensive-extensively refers to Reason.
Not all intellectuals necessarily also reason; but all "reasonalists",
not "rationalists", intellectualize a n d "rationalize".
Here we note already two different degrees of Thinking , of Thought, where
Thinking is the thought-process, and where Thought exists as the
flowing product of Thinking. Also thinking
intellectually a n d thinking rationally
are two different sides, two different DEGREES of Philosophy.
You can already see now, and gauge for yourself, how many of the billions of "human beings" reason at all, that is, think about thought itself, about their very Existence, and even superate this.
Also it is obvious that Thinking, Knowledge about Nature, Technical Know-How, as Intellectual Property has a world market, it sells for a very high price, and it wins an immense surplus value in the Age of Information.
Who has monopolized Reason until now were the philosopher kings; their philosophers of State, like Hegel, had performed this function of conserving and preserving Rational Thought; and they made sure that no worker or peasant will ever reason, will ever question their very existence.
Thus, our Becoming relates to Einai, to Thinking, to Theory, to Philosophy, to Society. Please note that "Society" is a maximum degree of Einai, more sophisticated than even Philosophy itself. Social philosophy is a rational study, a very complex-vague venture and adventure.
And as we stated before, our Becoming always exists two-sided, exists
as Action a n d Thinking, Praxis
a n d Theory, Nature a n d Society. Hence the
"Human Being a n d Existence" is a n d
exists the RELATION, the "Bezug", Action a n d Thinking, Praxis
a n d Theory, Being a n d Becoming, Nature a n d
Society.
Now surely, this Part II was really heavy tobacco to smoke; this time it is really a pleasure to pause, to take a break, a "Bloody Mary" ! Normally, reading fables and legends, because they are short and sweet, we say: "Oh! The End, Was that all?" But, Do not worry! A Hundred "Human Being" Flowers Will Blossom! Be patient, this time, tonight, we surely sigh with relief: At last, a little recess, a little thought relaxation!
Next time, we will enjoy Part III. Meanwhile "think about the thoughts" expressed above, reason about them; I would welcome comments, surpasses and superations.
LOVE,
Franz.