Life has been busy. But I think it will slow down very soon. This post talks about film theory, philosophy, ethics, and a little bit about my life aspirations.

P.S. I like to wiggle my butt while I eat ice cream. 🤷‍♂️

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“When the farthest corner of the globe has been conquered technologically and can be exploited economically; when any incident you like, in any place you like, at any time you like, becomes accessible as fast as you like; when you can simultaneously “experience” an assassination attempt against a king in France and a symphony concert in Tokyo; when time is nothing but speed, instantaneity, and simultaneity, and time as history has vanished from all Being of all peoples; when a boxer counts as the great man of a people; when the tallies of millions at mass meetings are a triumph; then, yes then, there still looms like a specter over all this uproar the questions: what for? — where to? — and what then?”

― Martin Heidegger

A phenomenal passage where Heidegger points out how technology doesn’t resolve anything in regards to the fundamentals of being, time, and history (in fact, it eliminates these exigencies). He brings up an interesting question on whether humans are making the type of progress that they think they are making as human beings. Keep in mind that this passage was from 1935 and it is more applicable today than ever.

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What is your next major post?

Secret.

The only time I tell people about my writing projects is when they ask me in person. Otherwise, I usually keep it a secret. 😉 But I haven’t been working on any of my writings due to life obligations. I’ve also been too busy watching Star Wars, trying to catch up on The Mandalorian (stormtroopers are so useless, why do they even exist?). All I can tell you is that my next big post might not be on psychoanalysis. There is already too much psychoanalysis on here, even in these random posts. It comes down to some decisions that I will make later down the road.

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My Writings on the INTJ

Someone named Danny sent me an email about how this post resolved his relationship with his wife. Honestly, I never thought it would do such thing to anyone. He definitely caught me by surprise! I am happy for them and I wish him and his family all the best. 🙂

In case anyone else wants to know, he asked if I have more writings on the INTJ on this site. As of right now, I don’t have plans to publish any major MBTI content other than random sections from these casual posts. But maybe I should in the future. 🤔

I said this before. I find that the scope of MBTI is limited unless you combine the insights from Carl Jung’s analytic psychology which is what it is based on. MBTI tests are also not very accurate because self-reporting is full of bias. Typing someone requires much more than figuring out if someone is a thinker or feeler because everyone can think and feel. It is ridiculous to think that feelers can’t use their brains and people who thinks has no feelings. It is never so black and white.

Some people types me as an INFJ and I don’t disagree. I also suffer from a lot of stereotypical things INFJ, INTJ, and other intuitives suffers from. Things like analysis paralysis, having trouble finding meaningful work and relationships, being misunderstood by people, etc. A lot of descriptions and writings on the INFJ are very relatable and consistent to me. This is why when people bring up typology, I tell them I’m an INxJ. Whether I am an INTJ or INFJ is the least of my concerns.

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Psychoanalysis and Gaslighting

I think it can be easy to gaslight yourself when you read psychoanalysis. I am not someone who takes everything I read as a personal attack. But sometimes, I read about a case of some obsessive neurotic and go like “Damn, that is totally me.” 😂 People who takes courses on psychoanalysis probably feels the same. Some probably gets triggered by it, whereas I like to have a good laugh.

In my post on clinical psychoanalysis (found here), there was a reason why I started off with that particular quote, where Lacan points out how, when communities and individuals begins to see psychoanalysis as a threat, it becomes a sign of a lack of passion found in society and/or within the individual (it is a sign of neuroticism). I used this quote because I anticipated some people who reads it might take it too personally, even when I am not directing it at anyone in particular. I was doing some pre-emptive shade throwing. 😎

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Film and Philosophy

I will quickly show you the basics on the relationship between film and philosophy. It’s implications are quite large which branches out into different ideas in film studies. It begins with Ancient Greek philosophy, from Plato’s famous story called, “The Allegory of the Cave”. Plato’s cave is usually one of the first few essays you read in a philosophy 101 class due to how influential it is. For example, it influenced people like Alain Badiou and Jean Baudrillard.

Consider a dark cave, where a group of slaves are chained to their seats as their heads are prevented from turning away from a stone wall. High above and behind them lies a flame where people would hold up real life objects that casts shadows in front of the slaves onto the wall. Having never left this cave, the slaves perceives all the shadows as their reality. Overtime, they even gave these shadows unique names. One day, the master releases one of them and lets him outside of the cave where he discovers the world. He learns the difference between day and night; he experiences the four seasons; he discovers the sun, stars, and the moon; he sees the real trees, animals, and flowers; not their shadows. Having realized that what he saw in the cave was not real, he returned to his fellow cave mates and told them about everything that he learned when he was outside. Those who never left the cave laughed at him and thought he was crazy.

The cave is an allegory to the everyday person in this world that stands in for the experience of enlightenment. Once we discover new knowledge about certain things, we might come to see the world in an entirely new way and realize what we saw before might not be what we thought it was. In this sense truth functions sort of like an illusion. Not only does this story showcase Socrates’ famous saying that “philosophy corrupts youth”, implying how it makes us think critically and question everything (i.e. all the shadows on the wall), which allows us see the world differently from those around us. It also serves as one of the foundations for Plato’s theory of forms and some of the beginnings of metaphysics, which is often considered as “the first philosophy”.

Most importantly, we can start to see how the movie theater is structured in the exact same way as Plato’s cave, where the audience sits in a pitch black room with a projector above their heads that casts moving pictures onto an empty white screen. This leads to film theories such as the Apparatus Theory by Jean-Louis Baudry on how the medium of film perpetuates and reinforces ideology (recall when I spoke about Guy Debord from #10). It also opens up an entirely new floor to other film theories that utilizes complex philosophical systems. Not to mention that the allegory of the cave is also found in mass media and communication studies; particularly from the communications theorist, Marshall McLuhan (Jacques Derrida also took interest in his ideas during his later life).

There is also the use of psychoanalysis to analyze films which became very popular in the 70s and how it triggers and influences the unconscious mind. You will see this in people like Andre Breton, Christian Metz, and Laura Mulvey. In particular, Mulvey used psychoanalysis and invented the now commonly used term known as “the Male Gaze” which talks about how woman gets “objectified” in films by the camera lens and the audience. She argues that even a woman takes positions as a man who views themselves as an object.

Then there is another idea known as the “invisible observer” on how the camera man functions like the gaze of the Other who directs the audiences through various perspectives and psychoanalytic positions. In some cases, the director would make use of the audience who “haunts” the characters in the film as the invisible observer. You will really see this in classic films like Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni where he makes his audience question the reality that is perpetuated by the camera lens.

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On Emmanuel Levinas and Ethics

Last time when I described the love encounter (here), I briefly introduced the work of Levinas through his famous idea known as “face to face ethics”. I also recommended Totality and Infinity as a book to read. I remember reading it in grad school and it was quite difficult, but good. I personally don’t recommend it to beginners because it requires familiarity with phenomenology. It is often thought that metaphysics is the first philosophy due to how it can establish a framework on the ways humans produces knowledge as they engage with reality. Contrary to this, Levinas argues that the first philosophy is not metaphysics. Rather, the first philosophy is ethics on how humans should treat each other. Levinas basically took Husserlian phenomenology and transformed it into an ethical philosophy. In fact, a good chunk of 20th and 19th century continental philosophy were against metaphysics. Whether any of them succeeded is subject to interpretation and analysis.

Ethics is a really interesting branch of philosophy that overlaps with others such as political philosophy and law. Then there is also meta ethics. This is one of the main reasons why some people takes philosophy as their major for their pre-law degree. The laws of every society is founded on fundamental questions in ethics: What is good? What is evil? How should we treat other people?

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My Social Circle

Personally, I am a minimalist when it comes to human relationships. Especially the older I get. This means that I prefer to have fewer friends because there are less potential and possibility for chaos that I don’t need in my life. In fact, I often hang out by myself most of the time. I never really made too many deep meaningful connections with people except for a few individuals who understands how my heart and mind works. I tend to think that those who wants to understands me eventually will. So I am not too worried about it. Plants needs water to grow, just like relationships. Thus, I am pretty loyal to the people who befriends me on a personal level—even if I haven’t spoken to some of them for ages 😂.

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Is China Communist or Capitalist?

China runs on capitalism under the ideology of Marxism / communism. It’s quite an interesting hybrid system. Basically, China is trying to prevent crony capitalism from happening through heavy control of the economy. Could this be the stepping stone to a real socialist economy / society? Who knows. I’m sure some would disagree, but I doubt it because I am skeptical of human nature. Though I hope I’m wrong. I think China’s system might become a disaster if the wrong people manages to take power. Yes, I am simultaneously an idealist and a cynic. 😂

Last time, I said that China’s ability to lift so many people out of poverty came at a “cost”. This cost is social and economic control. And in some sense, it is also the control of ideology. Marx was really famous for the critique of ideology which has become a tradition in some prominent intellectuals. I briefly spoke about this before. You will see it in people like Guy Debord, Gyorgy Lukacs, and Slavoj Zizek. Ironically, you even see this in people who are against Marxism like Jordan Peterson, who is not very experienced with Marxist thought. Just go watch his debate with Zizek. Peterson’s arguments were based on a 100 page book called The Communist Manifesto. While many people knows Marx for inventing communism, he is actually best known for his influential analysis of capitalism from a really big book called Capital. Marxist communism didn’t work out, but he was right about a lot of things in regards to capitalism.

All of this reminds me one of Alain Badiou’s interviews where someone asked him, “When will communism happen?”. And Badiou’s response was, “When we all become philosophers” (which is never LOL). It’s a very clever answer. But if you think about it, communism already exist in a much smaller scale within families where people share their resources.

Just some food for thought.

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Haircut

I’ve been cutting my own hair for a few years because barbers are too expensive for how fast my hair grows. Recently, I chopped a good 5 inches off which is what my original hairstyle was supposed to be like: a medium length slick back pompadour undercut. It is around 5″ hair from the front that gradually shortens towards the rear. Back then, I decided to grow it out so I can tie my hair back because I was too lazy to style it with products. Now that it is shorter, I have to use products again. But I’m still kind of lazy. So I just put on a hat. In short, nothings changed for those who sees me regularly—which is not many people. 😂

My hair is straight and thick. It is difficult to tame unless I use heat, sea salt spray as pre-styler, and finishing hairspray at the end. In the past, I’ve had most luck with homebrewed pomades from artisan brands such as Lockhart’s, Shear Revival, and Flagship. I prefer unorthodox water based pomades. My favorites are Flagship Blackship and Grey Ghost by Shear Revival. They are pricey, but they both have a natural matte finish with a strong hold.

I cared more about my appearance when I was younger than I do now. But I’ve always maintained some of my grooming habits, such as facial hair trimming since mid 20s. For me, looks are only important up to a certain point. I think you can definitely tell who someone is by how they present themselves. For the most part, I just try to be presentable. And my ultimate goal is to blend in. But it doesn’t always work, especially after people gets to know me. I usually end up being “that guy” who knows way too much about obscure esoteric topics. 😅

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Psychoanalysis: Why are jokes funny?

Jokes are funny because it represents the failure of coherent knowledge. Hence, we often find nonsensical, random, inappropriate, and people doing stupid stuff funny. Speech implies a form of deadlock in the sense that everything we say are always half said. Speech and language always misses the point as it represents the failure of achieving knowledge from the unconscious mind. Jokes are the effects of the Other who makes us laugh!

😂🤣😂🤣

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PhD and My Life Long Aspiration

My biggest aspiration in life was to change the world in a positive way by getting to the origins of all contemporary issues through art and philosophy. I know it sounds vague, childish, and naïve, but it’s true. In fact, I’ve always held this goal throughout a good chunk of my 20s all the way into grad school. I discovered this aspiration when I was an undergraduate student where I met a teacher who introduced me to philosophy; and she happened to be a student of Alain Badiou, Catherine Malabou, and Geoffrey Bennington, as they were her PhD advisors (I actually didn’t find out until a year or two when she told me; she was very modest and humble about it).

Unfortunately, I lost all my dreams along the way. Or rather, most of it got lost in translation as I learned more about the world, and realized how difficult it is to change any of it due to the problems of human nature. As I got older, I realized it’s too big of a burden for me to carry because it makes me upset that our world is built on so many fundamental problems that are somewhat immutable. So I started to focus on things that I can control, and not on what I can’t. I started to focus on smaller things and tried to see differently. It made me a lot happier. Yet deep down, I know I still want to make a difference one day. I can’t lie to myself. It’s almost like, “You know what is wrong with this world, what are you going to do about it?”. But if you look at it in another way, maybe I’ve already made a difference to some of those who reads this blog. I’d like to think so anyway. 😊 For now, I don’t know what I need to do yet. I just feel like people sometimes puts too much pressure on me to figure life out. Just like some of my writings, my best work happens to be the ones where I don’t rush through it. They are the ones where I patiently wait and let my mind flow and slowly reveal itself through time, experience, intuition, and insight.

Sometimes, I joke to others that my real career is my life long commitment to critical thought, learning ideas and the truths of the world. I find that in our day and age, learning how to be a deep thinking and feeling human being while living in a society that encourages us to do the opposite is a much more challenging task. If anything, this is the biggest challenge that anyone can take on during their life time. I think some people don’t get it because they can’t always see beyond what is in front of them (blinded by ideology?). They resemble a bit like those who are trapped in Plato’s cave, which is actually every one of us in different ways (hence, the importance of having an open mind). Some manage to get out of it. But it doesn’t mean we won’t find ourselves caught in it again one day—including myself.

Yet, I also understand that our world is tough. Many people are too busy thinking about how to survive and put food on the table and have a roof over their heads. We also have third world countries that struggles even more. Thus, I don’t blame anyone when they don’t have time to think about anything else. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean we should be ignorant.

Will Bobby do his PhD? The answer is maybe. Many people asked me before. A few can tell that I am someone who needs an environment with intellectual stimulation to thrive. I have a flare for the humanities and the wonders of the world. But I also can’t see myself being part of an institution or any organizations (they are highly problematic these days). Sometimes, I think it is a character flaw, where my idealistic tendencies gets in the way of many things in my life. Yet at the same time, I realized I just don’t have much interest helping other people get rich by grinding away at some 9-5 job, even if we all do it in one way or another. Regardless, many people does their PhD at an older age anyway. I’ve met a few PhD students who were in their 50s and 60s. Nothing is too late!

Sorry if this sounded like a low key rant. Life can be tough, but that is what gives it meaning.

Thank you for reading. 🙂

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Are Philosophers Late Bloomers?

I noticed some of the greatest philosophers wrote a lot of their most influential works during their later life. Edmund Husserl didn’t write his most important works until his 50s and 70s. Friedrich Nietzsche didn’t write most of his works until he left the university and became a stateless nomad. Immanuel Kant didn’t write Critique of Pure Reason until his 50s (or 60s?). Max Horkheimer was a businessman turned philosopher in his 30s. Thomas Hobbes, who is one of the founders of modern political philosophy, wrote the Leviathan in his 70s (the other founder is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was also one of the founders of romanticism).

Not to mention that some of them are quite modest with a lot of character. Baruch Spinoza lived his whole life as a lens grinder while declining all prestigious teaching positions and awards. Meanwhile, despite being born into one of the wealthiest families in Europe at the time, Ludwig Wittgenstein donated his entire inheritance away to artists, poets, and his siblings, where he worked as a teacher in a small village and hospital porter. As briefly mentioned last time, Jean-Paul Sartre won the Nobel Prize and tried to decline it. He also declined the prestigious French Legion of Honor and refused to lecture at the College de France (the Harvard of France).

I think once you learn to recognize the large scale implications of their ideas in the real world, you will start to really see why these people are so influential. I often think that with some of these people, you really don’t know how poor you are until you read and learn their ideas. In fact, many probably won’t even understand them, including myself. But I try. 😄

“Talent hits a target no one can hit. Genius hits a target no one can see.”
—Arthur Schopenhauer