PHILOSOPHY: Why is Self Control Sinful to Progressives?

The Dynamic Duo known as "Based Camp" come out with yet another doosey of a video, this one on a topic very near and dear to my heart: the refusal by "progressives" to acknowledge the critical importance of self control. The issue is philsophical, but the implications are very political.

We discuss how modern progressive culture glorifies losing self-control, pursuing pleasure/happiness as the highest aim in life, and avoiding discomfort. We contrast this with historical and conservative values around self-mastery, overcoming fear/anxiety, and finding meaning by improving future generations. We argue the progressive view diminishes human potential and actual happiness.

Date posted to YouTube: Monday, February 19, 2024
Length: 39 minutes, 4 seconds

- Pseudo Boethius

PHILOSOPHY: Lecture 1: The Destruction of Reality

Michael Polanyi giving the McEnerney Lectures (1962)
History and Hope: An Analysis of Our Age
The following is lecture 1 of 4

Date posted to YouTube: December 11, 2018
Length: 59 minutes, 14 seconds

- Pseudo Boethius

BOETHIUS: The Book that the West Needs - with Stephen Blackwood

Leave it to Jonathan Pageau and Stephen Blackwood to talk about one of the most important books ever written in Western Civilization: Boethius masterwork The Consolation of Philosophy. Stephen explains his poetic interpretaiton of the text.

Date posted to YouTube: February 8, 2024
Length: 1 hour, 21 minutes, 26 seconds

- Pseudo Boethius

PHILOSOPHY: Marcus Aurelius' Advice if You’re Tired of Life

The principle at the core of stoic philosophy.

Date posted to YouTube: November 23, 2023
Length: 2 minutes, 28 seconds

- Pseudo Boethius

PHILOSOPHY: Why are so Many People Neurotic? - Carl Jung as Therapist

As usual, a wonderful video from the Academy of Ideas channel, on the epidemic of neuroses that we are seeing here in the modern day.

"A neurosis is a psychological disorder defined by persistent and deep levels of anxiety and an overall fear of life. In addition to these cardinal symptoms, a neurotic illness may also include depression, guilt, phobias, obsessions and compulsions, excessive worry and rumination, insomnia, irritability, or anger. Carl Jung suggested that the neurotic’s fear of life was a result of “a disturbed or diminished process of adaptation” (Collected Works Volume 18) and “a morbid development of the whole of a personality” (Collected Works Volume 10). A neurotic, in other words, is an individual who fails to adapt to the demands of life, whose personality is stunted as a result, and whose existence, therefore, becomes a continual struggle with little, to no reprieve."

Date posted to YouTube: January 31, 2023
Length: 12 minutes, 44 seconds

PB

SCIENCE: Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

EXCELLENT discussion of the core problem of Darwinian evolution: it doesn't add up.  Not in a theological sense, but a MATHEMATICAL sense.  In other words, evolution, as it's currently described in the science, is not, at all, scientific.  It violates a whole bunch of mathematical and statistical norms. 

An excellent discussion by three scientists who have all found that the underlying science under evolutionary theory is a bunch of bunk, scientifically speaking.

2019-07-22  [P-B]

PHILOSOPHY: Uncommon Knowledge with David Berlinski on “The Deniable Darwin”

There is a very simple problem with Darwinian evolution: it makes no sense.  It simply can NOT happen the way scientists claim, it's literally impossible.  Philosopher David Berlinski is one of the few brave souls who can logically, rationally explain all the inherent contradictions in Darwinian evolution.

NOTE: This is not a religious refutation of of evolution, but a logical, scientific refutation.   And an incredibly good one.

2019-07-14  [P-B]

PHILOSOPHY: Amazing Clip From Jordan Peterson Vs Dr William Lane Craig

Dr. William Lane Craig puts a question to Dr. Jordan Peterson that is something I might ask Peterson myself if I were to see him:  why not just finally admit there is a transcendent realm of truth, and stop goofing around with the naturalism nonsense?  Jordan defends his naturalistic premise, but not very well.  But then when you talking with a very well educated and truly wise philosopher like William Lane Craig, you are not going to sound very reasonable.

2018-12-27  [P-B]

BOOKS: Simone Weil

"Some lives are exemplary, others not; and of exemplary lives, there are those which invite us to imitate them, and those which we regard from a distance with a mixture of revulsion, pity, and reverence. It is, roughly, the difference between the hero and the saint (if one may use the latter term in an aesthetic, rather than a religious sense). Such a life, absurd in its exaggerations and degree of self-mutilation—like Kleist’s, like Kierkegaard’s—was Simone Weil’s. I am thinking of the fanatical asceticism of Simone Weil’s life, her contempt for pleasure and for happiness, her noble and ridiculous political gestures, her elaborate self-denials, her tireless courting of affliction; and I do not exclude her homeliness, her physical clumsiness, her migraines, her tuberculosis. No one who loves life would wish to imitate her dedication to martyrdom nor would wish it for his children nor for anyone else whom he loves. Yet so far as we love seriousness, as well as life, we are moved by it, nourished by it. In the respect we pay to such lives, we acknowledge the presence of mystery in the world—and mystery is just what the secure possession of the truth, an objective truth, denies. In this sense, all truth is superficial; and some (but not all) distortions of the truth, some (but not all) insanity, some (but not all) unhealthiness, some (but not all) denials of life are truth-giving, sanity-producing, health-creating, and life-enhancing."

Read the entire article: Simone Weil

2018-12-23  [P-B]

PHILOSOPHY: Jocko Willink: The Catastrophe of the Utopian Soviet State

There is one thing that socialists/communists system are quite good at:  creating a living hell right here on planet earth.  But why is that?  Jocko Willinik and Jordan Peterson have a two hour long discussion on how easy it is for the common man to become entangled on a path towards evil, ESPECIALLY if they have no transcendent moral compass.   This video blog is well worth every second of your time.

2018-12-15  [P-B]

PHILOSOPHY: Sir Roger Scruton/Dr. Jordan B. Peterson: Apprehending the Transcendent

Two of the greatest minds alive right now: Sir Roger Scruton and Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.   This is REALLY good stuff.  Education, truth, philosophy and the current state of the educational system. 

This from Jordan B. Peterson, who posted this video:

"A conversation between Dr. Jordan Peterson and Sir Roger Scruton, moderated by Dr. Stephen Blackwood, introduced by Professor Douglas Hedley, presented by The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism and Ralston College, held on Nov 2, 2018 in Cambridge, England.

"God willing (so to speak) I will be staying in Cambridge in October and November talking with the faculty at the Divinity School there about the book of Exodus prior to releasing a new series of videos about that biblical saga."

2018-12-14  [P-B]

BOETHIUS: Boethius, Session 01 - Whats Wrong with the World

An incredible TWO HOUR long lecture on the history of Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" by Professor Corey Olsen.  He talks briefly about two famous British authors who were greatly influenced by him: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.  But this is mostly about Boethius's life and influence. 

2018-12-08  [P-B]

PHILOSOPHY: George Berkely

"George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, was one of the great philosophers of the early modern period. He was a brilliant critic of his predecessors, particularly Descartes, Malebranche, and Locke. He was a talented metaphysician famous for defending idealism, that is, the view that reality consists exclusively of minds and their ideas. Berkeley's system, while it strikes many as counter-intuitive, is strong and flexible enough to counter most objections. His most-studied works, the Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Principles, for short) and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (Dialogues), are beautifully written and dense with the sort of arguments that delight contemporary philosophers."

Read the rest of the article here:  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:  George Berkeley

2018-12-08  [P-B]  

PHILOSOPHY: The Consolation of Philosophy (FULL Audiobook)

05 Dec 2018 - Oh my goodness, someone recorded the entire book of "The Consolation of Philosophy" by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius in audio format!   Feel free to listen to one of the most important philosophical works in Western civilization.

P-B

PHILOSOPHY: Boethius and Divine Foreknowledge

An interesting lecture about my namesake: Boethius and the struggle to understand divine foreknowledge.

P-B 

Alan Watts - Improving Yourself

The Zen philosopher Alan Watts on how to improve yourself.

The most important question: "Can I improve ME?"




Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehursjt, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York.

information -> transformation -> formation

Carl Jung and the Shadow: Integrating the Hidden Power of Your Dark Side

"The shadow, when it is realized, is the source of renewal...When there is an impasse, and sterile time in our lives—despite an adequate ego development—we must look to the dark, hitherto unacceptable side which has been at our conscious disposal." (Edward Whitmont)

This Is Why The Left Hates Jordan Peterson...

The Left hates Jordan Peterson because he doesn't play their victimology and identity politics games.  Not only does he not play along, he shows, with razor sharp logic, just how very dangerous and evil those games really are.

Basically "Politically Correct Speech" = "Newspeak"