The Cynickal Art(icle)

I started a Substack called The Cynickal Art. It will be a repository for my meandering thoughts on philosophy and life. I decided to separate The Cynickal Art from my fiction and poetry, some of which I will continue to post here at Vocal, because I understand the depth and length of the essays may be more than anyone is looking for here, whereas Substack can draw those who might actually be interested.

When I went into it I was faced with this idea of charging for a subscription, what posts to keep private and what to make public, and so on. I had to ask:

What am I trying to accomplish with The Cynickal Art? I want it to be a safe space for critical thinkers, and a repository for the concepts that arise in my own discerning mind; but at the same time, I don’t want it to just be people arguing about stuff with me…

…or do I?

I got an idea: I’ll make all the posts public, and only charge for the right to comment, the joke being that if you don’t like what I have to say, and you want to give me a what-for, you’ll have to pony up.

If you get it, you get it. If it makes you think, you can take my ideas as an influence on yours and do with them as you will; but most of all, in the spirit of The Cynickal Art, you can think for yourself!

There’s no need to be like: “Rommi said such and such. What do you think about that? What do other philosophers say? Who’s right? Who’s wrong?”

Philosophical literature shouldn’t present as a soap opera or professional wrestling schtick, where the personalities of or ideologies surrounding the philosophers are treated as more important than the substance of their work.

(To all you Rommi-Maniacs out there, I totally could have kicked those other philosophers’ asses! “WE MUST IMAGINE SISYPHUS JACKED!” Camus screamed at that club we don’t talk about…)

I ain’t selling C. Rommial Butler when I extoll philosophy. I’m encouraging people to think critically and use discernment in their own real-world experiences.

If you want to argue or debate—lay your money down.

If, on the other hand, you like what I’m doing at The Cynickal Art and want to support it by contributing your cash, well that’s cool too. I appreciate it; and, of course, you can also chime in!

I am not closed to a dialogue with readers. I’ve had some nice ones over the years (and some not-so-nice ones, though some folks are too nice to say…); but I only have so much time, and sparking dialogues in the wider world among others is really what I intend to inspire.

No one can accuse me of being any less absurd than Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, or, of course, Camus, just to name a few of the usual suspects, at least with regard to the way I live and think… well, you can accuse, but, again, you’ll have to pay if you want a response!

I’m questioning the very nature of consciousness, and, most of all, the idea that’s starting to spring up that consciousness is pervasive. Which is to say: that all the universe is interconnected consciousness. I explore that here in my examination of a quote from Nietzsche’s The Will to Power.

I don’t agree with Nietzsche on everything, but I do agree that to reference the universe as fully conscious limits the universe to only that which any one consciousness can know, and it would seem to me that since individual conscious beings can grow awareness and thereby expand consciousness, this shows that there remain things unknown, especially... to themselves!

Are those things we discover in the unknown always “good”?

Nope.

But a conscious exploration of an unconscious universe will yield insights which a conscious exploration of only that which we would deem as conscious will always fail to yield. Do we thereby, each step of the way, awaken the very universe, existence itself, to consciousness?

Perhaps… but how will we, or the universe, or existence, ever know?

Come along with me as I practice The Cynickal Art, and maybe we’ll find out together, or maybe we’ll create a link in a chain of Reason that will be completed by future generations for a stronger humanity.

Subscribe to the email list for deep thoughts, absurdities, and inanities—no extra charge unless you want to spread some charity to a broke old dog writing doggerel on the wall of the community bathroom stall. (Maybe he’ll learn some new tricks?)

Or pay if you want to hit me with a chair when the ref’s not looking.

Figuratively, of course, not literally…

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