I Refuse to Talk
Recently, I was grievously assaulted - not physically, but intellectually -by a human infected with the disgusting habit of metaphysical speculation. This was a real-life interaction, so don’t flatter yourself into thinking this is about you (although, it might be).
Without wading into the filthty, grimy specifics, the environment where this occurred left me unable to launch the wrathful tirade of violent retribution they so richly deserved for this monumental insult against me.
Online, I see many gleefully engaging in this nonsense, their soyjack mouths permanently and impossibly agape, squawking like baby birds at feeding time. They hungrily and heartily deep throat this babble, noisily siphoning the metapuke of Carl Jung and a rotating cast of other long dead speculators. These “creators” regurgitate (because they just read it anyway, it’s not of their creation or experience) this or that intellectual sludge back into the insatiable gullets of their fellow certainty-seekers. A dystopian feeding frenzy at the world’s most pretentious word buffets, sick.
And what does all this accomplish?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
At its core, it’s really nothing more than a merry-go-round of label consumption. They gulp down words and concepts to dull the ache of powerlessness, to attempt to smother their anxiety at life. This is why they’re always on the hunt for a new guru, a fresh thinker, a new YouTuber, or the very latest in fashionable metaphysics - a shiny new set of rules, morals, labels, and words in which to drape their ugliness.
But when the fog inevitably clears, there they stand: bare-bottomed in the town square, consumed with worry and scrambling for new imaginary garments.
It’s never anything substantial you see, never anything real - merely a carousel of pseudo-insight, spinning endlessly without destination. One they can’t get off, a form of torture.
To cut through this nonsense if every you’re accosted, I recommend applying the gold-standard Bio-Individual question that we often speak about:
“What now, dummy? How are you going to use all this?”
The result of this question?
Blank stares, paired with the sort of unintelligible, simian white noise you’d expect when the existential anxiety-attenuation freight train screeches to a grinding halt.
If they do respond, it might sound a little something like this:
“A new set of words and concepts, you cynical bastard! A fresh vocabulary to impress other schizophrenics online. Why are you so angry, man? Chill out, dude. Frameworks, bro! Carl Jung and Aryans man, it’s the truth don’t ya know. Why are you so fucking angry”
Am I angry? Absolutely. It’s you people who make me this way. For some inexplicable reason, I must look or sound approachable on these matters. I must look like I care.
I see how you all squander your time.
Here are the principles I like keep in mind when it comes to this whole sordid issue:
Metaphysical beliefs are pure human inventions—ideas we forgot we invented. They don’t reveal truth as much as they reveal the inventor or user. At their core, they’re almost entirely baseless creations, and listless speculations. How is any of this better than actual practice with empirical results, scientific work, or art? Do you really need Jordan Peterson’s vague word-salad cannon to figure out how to get a job? Seriously? How anyone listens to him without blowing their brains out is beyond me. His debate with Dawkins was an embarrassment, and tells you all you need to know about this all-too-human line of thinking.
Ethics are almost always self-serving opinions. They’re either/or, good/bad rules derived from human consensus which is typically an insane mutated inheritance that hasn’t had the benefit of being reseted by a comet strike. Rarely backed by evidence, utility or even personal experience. Watch people closely: they almost never act in accordance with the ethics they loudly espouse anyway. How are these ethics really being used? They’re mostly tools for self-delusion and public posturing. I’ve rarely met an ethicsfag that didn’t fall to pieces at even a rudimentary prodding. Hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites…
Beliefs are abstractions without evidence. At absolute best, they rely on incomplete or marginal evidence. The moment you have solid evidence, the belief ceases to be a belief - pretty simple. If you want this, fine. But don’t pretend they’re something other than what they are.
Morality is outsourcing. It’s a way to dodge responsibility for your own decisions. Cowardice masquerading as virtue. Again show me a moral fanatic that isn’t a hypocrite, and I’ll bare my arse in George street. Won’t happen. Obvious reasons why.
Labels are just labels. They’re a false balm for uncertainty, soothing the anxiety caused by the truth: there isn’t much truth this world we live in, and what little there is tends to be deeply unsettling for most people when it rears its ugly head. The sleepwalkers love nothing more than to use all manner of labels and metaphysical devices to try to cover it up. For whatever reason - I don’t really get what the big deal is. What are you worried about?
Most of what people say, especially their metaphysical musings, isn’t worth considering on its own terms. The real value lies in observing them: their bodily habits, postures, expressions.
These tell you far more than their clumsily curated words, which are typically deployed to obscure obvious truths about themselves, and tell you nothing of the world as it is.
I’ve said it a million times in different ways here: the “truths” this individual tried to present paled in comparison to the real-time data their body offered me.
Their words? Just sprinkles on the cake of my conclusion: Oxygen thief, maybe an alright person, but completely unworthy of my time and nows nothing of themselves or the world. I derived their entire life history in under a minute. No mystery there, despite their mystifyingly pretentious vocabulary.
Sure, maybe there’s something worthwhile in Jung’s work. I won’t deny the possibility. But I guarantee none of these people have earned the right to speak about it.
It’s all words, words, words. Internet clout. Yoga studio clout. More words. Nothing more. Wow look at how cool I am here with my new philosophy show and tell.
Who cares. I got more out of observing the vagrant near the train station muttering to himself while walking in tight circles in the car park. That tells me more about reality, than someone monkeys 50 volume tome on why it’s very naughty to touch your pee pee.
Words built on top of a fundamental anxiety about death.
Wow, look at me with my obscure ideas and shiny new vocabulary! Smash that like button and subscribe for more words and labels that will waste your time! More content! More speaking! Then maybe you’ll finally “understand.”! Like and subscribe and understand!
Here’s the truth:
Remain silent. Work.
In training silence, in working with the body - the only true vault of knowledge - you’ll begin to grasp the real truths. The real “spiritual experiences”, real ”knowledge” lies beyond the noise of endless verbal speculation, especially that of others. Beyond the listless musings of halfwits who know nothing of the organic.
Don’t listen to people unless it’s me telling you not to listen to people. You are your own barometer, and their are very few out their that can help you even slightly, everything is is up to you.
As you were.