From Plato to Carlin

Let's get this straight.  I'm not disparaging others when I refer to myself as an intellectual. We intellectuals are in the minority and for good reason. We're neither all that intelligent nor happy. What's so smart about that?

Was it Aristotle or Plato that suggested happiness was the ultimate goal. If that's so, bring out the field goal kicker coach and it's gonna be a long one for me and people like me.

My friends, neighbors and countrymen who have achieved what is seemingly a high degree of happiness are not intellectual in the least or as they might charmingly say "don't have their heads stuck up their asses while searching for their navels and avoiding real work".

Due to my intellectual pursuits I have become familiar with existentialism which adversely affects my sense of certainty while simultaneously increasing my embrace of ambiguity.Existentialism, as a philosophical movement, often delves into the complexities of human existence, emphasizing individual freedom, choice, and the inherent uncertainties of life. Existentialist thinkers, such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, often grappled with the inherent uncertainty and absurdity of human existence. The acceptance of ambiguity and the recognition that life lacks inherent meaning and is full of absurdity and paradox has led me to a level of discomfort with the familiar structures of certianity. Absurdity is a form of despair that fails to recognize the validity of anything, including itself. Funny as shit but not real happy.

Most of my happiest friends wouldn't know the difference between the prisoners in Plato's cave from the sailor's on the ship of Theseus from the pasture of Gettier's black and white cow and  don't even mention the living dead of Schroedinger's cat....yet they know when the water heater is on the blink and they figure out who to call to fix it and they make the call and the water heater gets fixed by another dude who wouldn't know Calvin from Hobbs but charges a fair price.

I appreciate the strength and intelliegence of the non-intellectual and am jealous of it. My non-intellecual friends have more certainty in their convictions and are quicker to act whereas I and my intellectual colleagues tend do hesitate, deliberate and fail to celebrate. So the water is a couple degrees cooler, I can live with that. What is water anyways? What was God or whatever trying to say with the flood. Plus I know the meaning of antedeluvian and have spent hours contemplating it.

In the current value system of America, certainty is much preferred to ambiguity even if the certainty is based on syllogisms that include false premise, mis-statement, hidden agendas and out and out falsehood.

The emergence of Donald Trump epitomizes the current rise of the non-intellectual and the power of insistence, repetition,and media manipulation. I'm getting tired of the fight against the societal sentiments that contribute to the rise of MAGA and contempt for intellectualism. 

I try to set boundaries for myself to avoid overspending of emotion trying in vain to gently educate through allegory and patience. Increasingly, I have become recluse absorbed in my never ending search for truth, justice and the American way.

I am turning into a philosopher or a prophet both of whom are without honor in their native land hoping somehow to leave behind a legacy of ideas.

Perhaps one day, my empathy for society will transform into antipathy and attain a frightening level of disguswhich will combine with my observations and articulation to force me out of my own self-constructed cave and emerge as the next George Carlin; a wreck on the loose. A guy saying sad things in a funny way or funny things in a sad way.