God, Rationalism, & Cave-Diving
"The prophet descends from the mountain, and everyone in the town square wants to listen to what he has to say. He appears so small, with a massive ear. That was Nietzsche's metaphor for an intellectual. Unable to compete in any other realm, with the rational faculty expanded to astronomical proportions."
- Dr. Jordan Peterson
As is patently obvious, I have taken a break from writing over the last year or so. During my hiatus, I did that which is necessary for any human being to do; grow. Countless new acquaintances, experiences, both enjoyable and contemptible, have shaped and remodeled my prefrontal cortex. However, nothing has been more influential and devastating than the development of my psyche. Dogmatism, as I have come to understand, is not restricted to the religious.
I promise I am not pulling a C.S Lewis or an Alister McGrath on the atheists. Nor, in my view, have I become a toady acolyte of Jordan Peterson. Nonetheless, I cannot deny the relevance and potency of his eclectic and equivocal perspective on God. In short the lobster man submits that that which an individual reveres most in their value hierarchy functions practically as their god. Borrowed from the musings of Carl Gustav Jung, Peterson's position is esoteric at best. In effort to divorce myself as much as possible from intellectual bias, I evaluated his proposition on an empirical basis. Ironically, since my departure from the formal world of academia, there has been nothing to which I have been more fanatically devoted than the intellectual. The social, romantic, experiential, and impulsive realms of life suffered such a decline in attention that describing them as anorexic would have been generous. I recognized that there was an imbalance in my life, but persistently extolled the sentiment as evolution. Nothing is more devolved and unscientific than a life devoid of the heuristic. I will have to concede, with severe ambivalence, the ineptitude of hyper rationalism as a practical philosophy. Nonetheless, my proclivity for scrutiny cannot go ignored. If I were to give Jordan a pass on his radical oversimplification and casuistry, my brain would be as emaciated as my spontaneity.
If we assume that Jordan's thesis is correct, and that in fact all human beings are religious in action and temperament, we are forced to acknowledge the very attributes that contributed to my stagnancy and anguish. I would summarize Peterson's analysis of human religiosity as follows: ritual, worship, and obstinacy. The very behaviors that I inevitably exhibited (per his assertions) fueled my tragedy and suffering. If indeed his pessimistic outlook on the human condition is sound, then he is forced by argumentative consistency to admit the horror that ensues as a result. I am not trying to reduce religion and faith to a thirteen year old atheist's naive conclusion, but I refuse to blindly join the boring bandwagon and alleged cultural resurrection of Christ.
My advice to intellectuals who find themselves fettered by the creations of their own feeble minds is this - bring your harness. The phrase going down the rabbit hole is employed far too often for my liking, but it allows for an elegant analogy. Prior to my appreciation of pragmatic truths (which function as assumptions on which we all must operate; a necessary refuge for your ignorance) I descended the furry mammal's humble abode unsecured. Having an affinity for deconstructivism will eventually result in the complete disintegration of foundation and leave you unable to aggress (I hate the stupid connotations associated with progress, political and psychological); ascension impossible.
If you made it this far, you are undoubtedly wondering what I mean by these truths and how I exact them. It occurred to me recently that if I am to escape the petrifying rigidity of the prescriptive and artificial, then I must defer to the descriptive and natural. I tread with caution whenever people begin to speak about what is natural. Normally it is a good indicator that some hysterical and unfounded bullshit is about to follow. However, I remarked that if I began to trust some impulses and pursue those inclinations to their exhaustion, the primal parts of me might shed some light on the purportedly lucid rationality to which intellects so stubbornly cling. So far, I have noticed minor improvements in exaction, decision making, and sentimentality; a welcomed change from the paralytic paranoia and debilitating doubt.
I make a brief, anecdotal, and cautious attempt at criticizing the perils and pitfalls of excessive rationalism. When my plight reached its apex, I began to believe that most of my thoughts and actions were consciously controlled and performed in practice - leading me to conclude intention. The internal struggle and frustration was insurmountable, and lead to toxic social consequences. Unintentionally, I began to believe that every one's behavior was always deliberate, calculated, and willed. I hope I do not have to point out what is calamitous there.
As a self-reminder and potential piece of advice, if you wish to scale the depths of our cavernous minds, pull the cord when the uncertainty epitomizes.
Best,
A concerned citizen
