Wisdom
The view from beyond.
The accumulation of all lessons learned; the bitter medicine we refuse to take.
A guide containing the totality of common sense, modesty, and practical knowledge while remaining conspicuously void of hubris, idealism, and special interests.
A body of knowledge characterized by its permanence and capacity to persevere, which means it can never be ‘in fashion.’ This is why markets find it so unattractive - they need to be able to sell us inanities designed to establish trends. Wisdom is always relevant and therefore cannot be trendy, which means it does not make money. In fact, it is likely to persuade us to keep more of our money and attention to ourselves.
To be avoided, corrupted, or usurped at all costs by ideologues, intellectuals, and progressives because it is perpetually at odds with their anointed vision – it is their nemesis. Substitutions are often produced by interested parties to confuse ordinary people into adopting arrogant and self-destructive perspectives because it benefits elites.
Wisdom is advice built upon a foundation of reality, not internal or subjective machinations. A feature of arrogance is a disinterest in other people’s experiences and input, because you alone possess all the knowledge and experience necessary to plan and live a life on terms you alone define. This will force us to re-tool our own experiences when they ultimately fail to serve our interests, and we will permit ourselves to be both the hero and the victim within our failed journeys. We will learn nothing because everything we did was right the whole time, which means that everything we do in the future will also be right.
Wisdom is in the blind spot of the arrogant, their knowledge is complete and they need not concern themselves because they will not be punished for violating it – it does not apply to them.
We often exist in a state of confusion, especially in our currently hyper-novel and sophisticated world that has produced incredible technologies while also making us sick. The extent of our confusion is determined by many things, but there are a few offerings that entice an existential dread that plagues every one of us. Many of us either began or remain confused about the difference between right and wrong, if they have anything in common, or if they exist at all. Should we revere or value something more than ourselves? If so, what? If not, then how do we stabilize our minds without succumbing to narcissism or nihilism? Do we understand these questions as fundamental, or are they secondary concerns?
Preoccupations about purpose surface eventually, and we move into meaning shortly thereafter. We toy with notions of infinity both in poetry and potentials, and we settle somewhere either at odds or in accordance with our natures. We can sense our inclinations – what we feel driven to do – but there are clear warnings in dedicating ourselves entirely to our default programming, just as there are obvious dangers in trying to be anything other than human. Remaining idle, petrified by these concerns, does not constitute living. Spending all our time needling every decision to mitigate risk is inefficient and unsatisfying. Ignoring all concern is both irresponsible and maladaptive. We worry about making the wrong choice as we attempt to walk a balanced path, but developing one on our own in virtually impossible, and so we look for guidance: established epistemologies and systems of belief, religious or otherwise.
Which to choose? Do we even think about the criteria of an acceptable or functional model? Or do we just pick the one we like? Or the one we are told we should like? Or the one that is trending? If we do not think carefully about which features would specifically assist us in navigating life, then we are no further ahead, but we will gravitate towards the temporary contentment of whatever fleeting guidance is on offer. When these placations end, as they all do, we are met with two options: remain still because it is familiar, or replace it with another short-lived appeasement. This system will repeat until death unless we break our cycle of nonthought by clarifying the criteria of a more substantial model. An important starting point is establishing, in specific terms, our goals and objectives in both the short and long term.
Whenever we decide to establish our criteria, an examination of what we value will play an integral role in giving them coherence. There are many reservoirs of potential discovery available to us, and some prefer ones over others. Our sensory experience is a potential guide, as is our interpretations of those experiences. We can adopt the criteria of our peer group, or attach ourselves to whatever social trends that claim to offer insight. We can lean into our inclinations and formalize them into a model, or we may construct our criteria around the potential rewards we have decided are worthy of pursuing. We can integrate information and knowledge that we believe worthwhile in guiding us towards our goals, or we can rely on existing frameworks and ideologies to define the terms for us. How do we determine which is best? And what does ‘best’ mean, recognizing that none of these alone constitute wisdom? In many ways, all of these are forgeries.
In such matters, wisdom plays a special role. Real wisdom is a commentary on the union of all criteria – it is a well at the heart of concentricity. The distinction of ‘real’ in this instance is an acknowledgment of the forgeries, not only the criteria-generating phenomena, but also the falsehoods that are so compellingly espoused by the anointed – which I call ‘anti-wisdom.’ The main issue underpinning these reservoirs is that each are subject to rationalizations that trick us into avoiding learning anything that preceded us. They do not possess the meta-commentary of their own shortcomings; this is alone offered by wisdom. Systems often fail to see their own inadequacies because they are mired in the muck that rests at the bottom of their respective reservoir. Wisdom draws from each reservoir so a pattern becomes visible from a vantage point that is impossible to replicate from within any system itself. This infers that what is ‘best’ is an orientation towards a perspective that can glimpse the strands of truth woven into reality, because it provides the highest resolution image.
Wisdom is most often maligned by those who prefer we confuse what is ‘best’ with what is ‘best for them.’ Remaining in any reservoir invites confusion and wanderlust, and when we approach their shores, we believe the world ends there, a state actively sought by the anointed. The anointed love cycles, and their favourites are rebellion and revolution, especially ones fought by those they manage to bamboozle into suffering the cost on their behalf. They will keep the waters warm, give us plenty of pool toys, and decorate the shores, but transgressing the threshold is forbidden – wisdom is found in the great beyond.
Rather than codify their antipathy by generating misleading criteria, they can conceal their disdain with falsehoods that present as wisdom, with all its empowering and esteemed tendrils. Anti-wisdom is wisdom’s evil twin: it looks like wisdom, but instead of liberating our minds, it causes us to perceive virtue in the confinement of our reservoir. It modifies a word here and there and hopes we do not notice how the substitution fundamentally alters our operating system. This is most obviously done through the inversion of stability, especially when categories are involved. Ideologies are the most common sources of anti-wisdom – they cause us to perceive ourselves free as it manipulates our strings.
If wisdom would suggest nuance, anti-wisdom suggests rigidity. If wisdom would suggest foundational principles, anti-wisdom suggests relativism. The interplay and substitution of these contrary positions is the preferred game of the anti-wise. The goal is to make understanding impossible. The wise will apply nuance in general, and rigidity when necessary for coherence. The anti-wise do the reverse. The wise will suggest foundational principles for general considerations, and invoke relativism for pleasure. The anti-wise do the opposite. The confusion about when it is appropriate to rely on one approach or another is the engineered bedlam designed to make every view appear equally valid or wise. Interestingly, the wise seek the clarity to end the bedlam, the anti-wise revel in it.
Wisdom recognizes similarities and differences; anti-wisdom insists upon them or ignores them entirely.
Wisdom is sobering and grounding; anti-wisdom is aspirational and idealistic.
Wisdom veers towards individualism; anti-wisdom veers towards collectivism.
Wisdom suggests that self-sacrifice is the only ethical sacrifice; anti-wisdom claims that any sacrifice is worthwhile for the greater good, especially if they are in a different reservoir.
Wisdom balances self-interest and reciprocity; anti-wisdom selectively pathologizes self-interest and empathy.
Wisdom respects the lessons learned by others and applies them in making decisions; anti-wisdom does not believe that these lessons apply to their ‘unique’ circumstance.
Wisdom insists upon coherence; anti-wisdom claims it is irrelevant.
Wisdom insists that reality is respected; anti-wisdom redefines reality or seeks to have it conform to an ideal.
Wisdom leads to fulfillment through meaning and purpose; anti-wisdom robs us of our humanity as we chase fleeting hedonism and narcissism.
These are all examples of the inversion of nuance and rigidity that confuse so many of us into believing we are wise when we are, in fact, the opposite.
Wisdom lies at the heart, pumping perspective into each reservoir before it returns, like a circulatory system. To maximize efficiency, it needs a clear route, free of narrowing, plaque, and unwelcome pathogens. These are all anti-wisdom; they seek heart failure.
Read books, think for yourself, learn how to do something useful - teach others how to do it as well, and speak with your neighbours, whether you like them or not, lest our hearts expire, and our brains soon thereafter.
And that would not be very wise.
Posted: 17 Apr 2023
