This is to be the first post on a blog exploring my life and my life in the world. In my thirties I have returned to school to get a degree in Geosciences (the diploma to accompany my Sociology degree, current whereabouts unknown). My path seems undefined at the moment - I graduate in a year and I'm not sure of my prospects. I would like to have an active role in deciding what it is I will be doing. It is at this point that an idea of metaphyics or philosophy comes in, per the title of this post. By what mind over matter trick may I achieve happiness and success when the road forward is so mist-enshrouded. As I enter the mist are there ways to disperse it or may I make it coalesce into forms known and acceptable?
There are two backdrops for this adventure. One is my family. I am married with a kid and the fate of my little family feels pinned to (is pinned to) how this future resolves. Other backdrop is the greater world, that fo the contemporary United States. In this blog I will not talk much of family matters besides saying that things discussed here will have been previewed by and will hopefully make happier said family. Re: the world at large - this I would like to discuss. This is the world that am part of and will soon enter in hopes of finding a job. I'll say it now: I am very critical of our world. Why are things the way that they are? What is it to be an American? Is it possible to reshape the world in a way all can agree upon, reshape it in a way that seems a bit less mad?
Some influences: Cormac McCarthy, H.P. Lovecraft, Denis Johnson, J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick - the lives of writers are interesting to read about as well. Fiction is passion: reading and writing. At heart this blog will serve as an excuse to simply write more (unless of course this is not only the first post but the last as well - hope not).
In philosophy I enjoy the thoughts of Kant and Schopenhauer. Embodied in their work is the history of philosophy before them. I try and follow some current philosophy and would loosely refer to Steven Pinker's work in this vein. The Blank Slate is an excellent work. Also V.S. Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain. These two may represent a wider body of books currently being written that make up a new philosophy.
Okay, now I have to get to the far out stuff that I'm also interested in - Graham Hancock (Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural) and Michael Talbot (The Holographic Universe). Fingerprints definitely has some parts antithetical to my Geoscience studies (earth crust displacement may only have actually occurred in the film 2012) and The Holographic Universe has definitely proven seductive as far as being a new way to look at reality. Supernatural is one book that was pretty amazing. Just pretending it was a postmodern work, a fiction in the guise of footnoted-non-fiction it would be a great read. But taking a leap and saying it may be real is at least pretty trippy. Psychedelic shamanism.
Family life calls and I was getting a bit long winded in this intro. I would like to share my thoughts in this manner and it it turns out I'm the only one that reads it, great. Here's to the future.
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