Focusing on method. I think this is the only way to write. You get your blinkers on and focus on the content. Developing ideas, outlining, writing, then editing. It absolutely sucks.
The best analogy is probably exercise. Don't dream about a sixpack just do the work. Ideally you must learn to draw satisfaction from the effort itself, not the outcome or perceived goal.
This is especially true for longform writing as it is too big. So some satisfaction must come from doing the work itself. The ideal is a routine, although hard to manage. Just as life is more a wrestle than a dance, so consistent writing is more ploddery than inspired brilliance.
Although Robert Louis Stevenson hammered out Treasure Island in six weeks in a "white hot heat."
Yes, exactly. If one is only focused on results (likes, restacks, new subscribers, etc) one will inevitably be either disappointed or gradually refine one's process to cater to others instead of one's own development. The process must on some level be the destination, as long as one takes pleasure in it...
Even pleasure is questionable. I think it is something like a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, and awareness conventional pleasure is not the goal. It is pleasurable to binge watch Netflix. It is unpleasurable to write a 5000 word piece on the dangers of binge watching TV, but ultimately more satisfying.
As for likes and new subs, obviously a degree of marketing awareness after the fact is important. But we have all seen it done wrong. Even on Substack I see them promoting fluffy content from the mainstream. Lifestyle blogging. I think of it as literary soft furnishing. It has its place, but I think Substack has a chance to become a place for serious writing.
"Ideas pops into our heads out of the nether of our subconscious ..."
There's a crackhead theory I keep mulling over in my head: the proposition of a physical plane, mental plane and spirit plane is real, but takes a form similar to momentum and position in quantum mechanics.
When you perform a mathematical convolution between a function (position) and its derivative (momentum = mass x d(position)/dt), you get the classic uncertainty principle (in Cartesian coordinates, it's a different value if you change the topology).
So high certainty in the mental plane, a focus on thought, leads to low certainty in the physical plane, and this "spirit" plane where ideas seem to spawn out of.
This might explain the modality effect that Descartes describes with his evil demon, and what we're perceptually experiencing is an uncertainty effect between the three planes as they convolute through our perception. Crackhead, but interesting thought.
I guess the moral would be don't focus on any of the three exclusively, let go and live your life without too much attachment. Inspire literally means breath into and I don't think our thoughts are the lungs.
Interesting theory! My experience of the 3 planes comes in lucid dreams. Memorable one.. viewing a Hindu saint looking out over a vast ocean and teaching me to breath. With the first breath he pulls on a lightbulb cord and it lights up while the ocean drains to reveal the entire underwater landscape. The other more recent crackhead-esque vision was prior to the UK Gilt crisis.. I witnessed a brief inaudible conversation between 2 esoteric cubes one with a flame and the other a water drop within (Tesseract?). Next the coastline of Britain appeared with the backdrop of a Cartesian plane, the underwater shelf collapsed and created a tsunami headed for the Americas.
I've had some weird crackhead-esque dreams that end up coming out in the wash as deja-vu. Sometimes it's random, but I've had instances where that off putting feeling has saved my skin, so I try to pay attention to weird things I'd normally ignore, which is honestly a great problem-solving technique because you end up trying sideways things based on hunches that end up working.
I have to come to rely on the process as I believe certain genetic and historical dramas play out through the generations with "interventions" from time to time. As a fictional wise man once said, "Much better rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes."
"Somehow this realization spiritually filled me up, it crystallized the way I saw the world.... It was akin to seeing truth in a flash of light. I don’t expect my realizations to have the same emotional impact on anyone else, really, as everyone has their own unique perspective and spiritual journey they are on."
I had this same experience reading your essays "Deeper Social Trends Predating the Central Banks" (I finished reading your whole series a few weeks ago), basically paradigm-shattering in regards to my understanding of Christianity and spirituality. I had been reading substack for around two years mostly due to a spiritual crisis that struck in my late 20s/early 30s, starting with writers like Paul Kingsnorth, exploring this idea of malevolent entities being manifest in the world, using Christianity as a framework to explore spiritual subjects despite not actually believing in the resurrection, immaculate conception, etc. After reading your essays on the subject I have essentially had the bridge burned behind me in regards to Christianity.
I am currently working my way through The Passion of the Western Mind, which you reviewed not too long ago, and find it fascinating that the Greeks basically went through their own cycles of religiosity and nihilistic materialism. I also can't help but think we are doomed to perpetually alternating between nihilistic materialism and unsubstantiated fantasy religions.
Clear whatever force is behind this universe, if there is one, has no intention of revealing itself to us in some unambiguous way, and clearly it wants a world where the fittest survive and the weak vanish, and thus has no concern for our suffering or pleasures. How else to explain a world where monsters like crocodiles and hyenas can go around ripping animals apart and eating them while their still alive? Possibly even worse is that the universe has no entity behind it as we understand the term, that it is innately cold, mechanical, silent, and infinite, and everything we experience, from the greatest triumphs to the worst defeats, mean exactly nothing in the end.
All the while, like you say, I just go about my day, go to my job, enjoy a bowl of cereal in the evenings... what a world.
Thanks for the nice comment, Will, and I am touched that my essay had the effect on you that it did. Thank you for that. I agree with your comment almost in its entirety; the one little quibble is about Christianity, which caught on because it offered value to the masses who were otherwise value-less. Regardless of the motivations of Paul of Tarsus and his ilk, for its early believers it resulted in a massive increase in spiritual self-esteem, even if the material and intellectual effects of the religion ultimately desolated the ancient world. For a full picture that value should be acknowledged...
For some reason it reminded me of the conversation between Julian the Apostate and the last Hierophant of Greece, as told by Gore Vidal in his amazing "Julian" and which I discussed here (in part 2): https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/julian-the-apostate-a-doomed-struggle . Basically, the era in which we are born was not of our choosing, nor the era in which comes after us; there is constant change and flux, perhaps beyond the power of any one man to change. But with each change comes new opportunities, benefits and drawbacks, which are also not of our choice.
You are right that whatever forces are acting upon us, if they are real, they do not seem to reveal themselves in an unambiguous way. And you are also right that reality seems to lend itself to the Demiurge being in control of the material realm (with the God of Light relegated to the spiritual realm), if one chooses to see spiritual forces animating things. The incentives for this world are all wrong, where the worst generally prosper (i.e. those who pursue power above morality) and the best are destined to poor fates. The animal kingdom to which we belong is simply one of predation, except that for humanity propaganda -- the control of the mass mind -- matters much more than mere physical control. And as you say, a universe without these forces would be worse because it would mean nothing matters.
Some of us search for answers regardless of its seeming futility; "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"...
Thanks for the response Neolib. I definitely agree with your point on Christianity - any pure warrior value society that fails to take the masses spiritual needs into account is doomed to fail. I meant it more in regards to my own inability to take Christianity seriously anymore due to seeing how the sausage was made, so to speak (reading Nietzsche's Antichrist also played a role in that).
I remember reading your essay on Vidal's Julian a while back, I'll take a look at the book. I've been looking for some good fiction to read and have mostly been occupying myself by reading Warhammer 40k lore, which I find strangely appropriate for the times we are facing.
Yeah, I agree, Deeper Social Trends .......is a master piece. It taught me so much about this "plane of appearances."
I am very happy that I found something in between nihilistic materialism and unsubstantiated fantasy religions in Nisargadatta Maharaji's teachings of Advaita Vedanta, or non-dual spiritualit about eight years ago. I know it sounds weired and fanatic but this is simply the highest teaching there can be. It contains everything. It is spiritual but the opposite of fantasy. It is pure reality and turns this world into illusionary fantasy.
Haven't had the chance to read this yet (I'm trying to get my own writing done this afternoon ... which was a big part of why I stopped the Write Wring This Week roundup....) but I saw you tagged me and just wanted to pop in to say, I am strongly considering bringing it back in the New Year, probably as an independent blog. Ideally with a few people to spread the load among ... in fact that's the only way I can see it happening....
I think that's a great idea. My mind links your comment to something like Revolver News, which is such a helpful aggregator for those on the populist right (although I don't really consider myself a populist, rather emphasizing a spiritual preparation for a transvaluation of values). Revolver just offers links, though; having short explanations/reviews of why a link is helpful adds something else and sets it apart...
Yes, the quickie precis and little asides were what made the project fun. But that requires actually reading the articles (I'm pretty sure Revolver doesn't do that), which with the volume of content on this platform rapidly turns into 2-3 hr/day of reading. It started to seem like a chore, as though I had to read *everything*.
With a couple people to split it up between, however, it would be far more manageable.
I align mostly with Delicious Taco's approach quoted in your article. As soon I "try" to write anything, it is boring, intellectual, wooden. But when something gets me, I am obsessed and type six hours non-stop. I become unbearable to the rest of my family. Any interruption is met with annnoyance.
I am totally disorganized and have no discipline at all. I don't live under the illusion of a free will. Whatever happens, happens and all I can do is to allow it and go with it. If I am, life is perfect. If I ain't, life sucks.
I for one have found much inspiration in your writing. What I really appreciate is your concise and eloquent explanations backed by books or works of others that with my limited education was never exposed to. Often I find myself reading something you cited and in the process have become more enlightened. Thank you!
I hope you never lose your inspiration as I truly enjoy your work.
Thank you for the kind comment, Wheel. The interaction and feedback I've received from you and others is a big part of the reason my interest in writing has been sustained so far, I think. Regarding schooling, modern education does not so much as teach one to think critically as it does to memorize and regurgitate spoon-fed "facts" without actual understanding, and this is intentional... It is a life-long process for each of us to shake off the decades of Dewey-inspired propaganda and find our own unique voices and thoughts, for the few that decide to embark on it. I know I'm still regularly catching myself in force-fed thought patterns from decades of such "education", and I suspect it will always be there to one degree or another. A place like Substack helps us all move up to the next level of development...
Focusing on method. I think this is the only way to write. You get your blinkers on and focus on the content. Developing ideas, outlining, writing, then editing. It absolutely sucks.
The best analogy is probably exercise. Don't dream about a sixpack just do the work. Ideally you must learn to draw satisfaction from the effort itself, not the outcome or perceived goal.
This is especially true for longform writing as it is too big. So some satisfaction must come from doing the work itself. The ideal is a routine, although hard to manage. Just as life is more a wrestle than a dance, so consistent writing is more ploddery than inspired brilliance.
Although Robert Louis Stevenson hammered out Treasure Island in six weeks in a "white hot heat."
Yes, exactly. If one is only focused on results (likes, restacks, new subscribers, etc) one will inevitably be either disappointed or gradually refine one's process to cater to others instead of one's own development. The process must on some level be the destination, as long as one takes pleasure in it...
Even pleasure is questionable. I think it is something like a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, and awareness conventional pleasure is not the goal. It is pleasurable to binge watch Netflix. It is unpleasurable to write a 5000 word piece on the dangers of binge watching TV, but ultimately more satisfying.
As for likes and new subs, obviously a degree of marketing awareness after the fact is important. But we have all seen it done wrong. Even on Substack I see them promoting fluffy content from the mainstream. Lifestyle blogging. I think of it as literary soft furnishing. It has its place, but I think Substack has a chance to become a place for serious writing.
"Ideas pops into our heads out of the nether of our subconscious ..."
There's a crackhead theory I keep mulling over in my head: the proposition of a physical plane, mental plane and spirit plane is real, but takes a form similar to momentum and position in quantum mechanics.
When you perform a mathematical convolution between a function (position) and its derivative (momentum = mass x d(position)/dt), you get the classic uncertainty principle (in Cartesian coordinates, it's a different value if you change the topology).
So high certainty in the mental plane, a focus on thought, leads to low certainty in the physical plane, and this "spirit" plane where ideas seem to spawn out of.
This might explain the modality effect that Descartes describes with his evil demon, and what we're perceptually experiencing is an uncertainty effect between the three planes as they convolute through our perception. Crackhead, but interesting thought.
I guess the moral would be don't focus on any of the three exclusively, let go and live your life without too much attachment. Inspire literally means breath into and I don't think our thoughts are the lungs.
Interesting theory! My experience of the 3 planes comes in lucid dreams. Memorable one.. viewing a Hindu saint looking out over a vast ocean and teaching me to breath. With the first breath he pulls on a lightbulb cord and it lights up while the ocean drains to reveal the entire underwater landscape. The other more recent crackhead-esque vision was prior to the UK Gilt crisis.. I witnessed a brief inaudible conversation between 2 esoteric cubes one with a flame and the other a water drop within (Tesseract?). Next the coastline of Britain appeared with the backdrop of a Cartesian plane, the underwater shelf collapsed and created a tsunami headed for the Americas.
I've had some weird crackhead-esque dreams that end up coming out in the wash as deja-vu. Sometimes it's random, but I've had instances where that off putting feeling has saved my skin, so I try to pay attention to weird things I'd normally ignore, which is honestly a great problem-solving technique because you end up trying sideways things based on hunches that end up working.
I have to come to rely on the process as I believe certain genetic and historical dramas play out through the generations with "interventions" from time to time. As a fictional wise man once said, "Much better rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes."
"Somehow this realization spiritually filled me up, it crystallized the way I saw the world.... It was akin to seeing truth in a flash of light. I don’t expect my realizations to have the same emotional impact on anyone else, really, as everyone has their own unique perspective and spiritual journey they are on."
I had this same experience reading your essays "Deeper Social Trends Predating the Central Banks" (I finished reading your whole series a few weeks ago), basically paradigm-shattering in regards to my understanding of Christianity and spirituality. I had been reading substack for around two years mostly due to a spiritual crisis that struck in my late 20s/early 30s, starting with writers like Paul Kingsnorth, exploring this idea of malevolent entities being manifest in the world, using Christianity as a framework to explore spiritual subjects despite not actually believing in the resurrection, immaculate conception, etc. After reading your essays on the subject I have essentially had the bridge burned behind me in regards to Christianity.
I am currently working my way through The Passion of the Western Mind, which you reviewed not too long ago, and find it fascinating that the Greeks basically went through their own cycles of religiosity and nihilistic materialism. I also can't help but think we are doomed to perpetually alternating between nihilistic materialism and unsubstantiated fantasy religions.
Clear whatever force is behind this universe, if there is one, has no intention of revealing itself to us in some unambiguous way, and clearly it wants a world where the fittest survive and the weak vanish, and thus has no concern for our suffering or pleasures. How else to explain a world where monsters like crocodiles and hyenas can go around ripping animals apart and eating them while their still alive? Possibly even worse is that the universe has no entity behind it as we understand the term, that it is innately cold, mechanical, silent, and infinite, and everything we experience, from the greatest triumphs to the worst defeats, mean exactly nothing in the end.
All the while, like you say, I just go about my day, go to my job, enjoy a bowl of cereal in the evenings... what a world.
Thanks for the nice comment, Will, and I am touched that my essay had the effect on you that it did. Thank you for that. I agree with your comment almost in its entirety; the one little quibble is about Christianity, which caught on because it offered value to the masses who were otherwise value-less. Regardless of the motivations of Paul of Tarsus and his ilk, for its early believers it resulted in a massive increase in spiritual self-esteem, even if the material and intellectual effects of the religion ultimately desolated the ancient world. For a full picture that value should be acknowledged...
For some reason it reminded me of the conversation between Julian the Apostate and the last Hierophant of Greece, as told by Gore Vidal in his amazing "Julian" and which I discussed here (in part 2): https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/julian-the-apostate-a-doomed-struggle . Basically, the era in which we are born was not of our choosing, nor the era in which comes after us; there is constant change and flux, perhaps beyond the power of any one man to change. But with each change comes new opportunities, benefits and drawbacks, which are also not of our choice.
You are right that whatever forces are acting upon us, if they are real, they do not seem to reveal themselves in an unambiguous way. And you are also right that reality seems to lend itself to the Demiurge being in control of the material realm (with the God of Light relegated to the spiritual realm), if one chooses to see spiritual forces animating things. The incentives for this world are all wrong, where the worst generally prosper (i.e. those who pursue power above morality) and the best are destined to poor fates. The animal kingdom to which we belong is simply one of predation, except that for humanity propaganda -- the control of the mass mind -- matters much more than mere physical control. And as you say, a universe without these forces would be worse because it would mean nothing matters.
Some of us search for answers regardless of its seeming futility; "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"...
Thanks for the response Neolib. I definitely agree with your point on Christianity - any pure warrior value society that fails to take the masses spiritual needs into account is doomed to fail. I meant it more in regards to my own inability to take Christianity seriously anymore due to seeing how the sausage was made, so to speak (reading Nietzsche's Antichrist also played a role in that).
I remember reading your essay on Vidal's Julian a while back, I'll take a look at the book. I've been looking for some good fiction to read and have mostly been occupying myself by reading Warhammer 40k lore, which I find strangely appropriate for the times we are facing.
Yeah, I agree, Deeper Social Trends .......is a master piece. It taught me so much about this "plane of appearances."
I am very happy that I found something in between nihilistic materialism and unsubstantiated fantasy religions in Nisargadatta Maharaji's teachings of Advaita Vedanta, or non-dual spiritualit about eight years ago. I know it sounds weired and fanatic but this is simply the highest teaching there can be. It contains everything. It is spiritual but the opposite of fantasy. It is pure reality and turns this world into illusionary fantasy.
Haven't had the chance to read this yet (I'm trying to get my own writing done this afternoon ... which was a big part of why I stopped the Write Wring This Week roundup....) but I saw you tagged me and just wanted to pop in to say, I am strongly considering bringing it back in the New Year, probably as an independent blog. Ideally with a few people to spread the load among ... in fact that's the only way I can see it happening....
I think that's a great idea. My mind links your comment to something like Revolver News, which is such a helpful aggregator for those on the populist right (although I don't really consider myself a populist, rather emphasizing a spiritual preparation for a transvaluation of values). Revolver just offers links, though; having short explanations/reviews of why a link is helpful adds something else and sets it apart...
Yes, the quickie precis and little asides were what made the project fun. But that requires actually reading the articles (I'm pretty sure Revolver doesn't do that), which with the volume of content on this platform rapidly turns into 2-3 hr/day of reading. It started to seem like a chore, as though I had to read *everything*.
With a couple people to split it up between, however, it would be far more manageable.
I align mostly with Delicious Taco's approach quoted in your article. As soon I "try" to write anything, it is boring, intellectual, wooden. But when something gets me, I am obsessed and type six hours non-stop. I become unbearable to the rest of my family. Any interruption is met with annnoyance.
I am totally disorganized and have no discipline at all. I don't live under the illusion of a free will. Whatever happens, happens and all I can do is to allow it and go with it. If I am, life is perfect. If I ain't, life sucks.
Thanks you for another great article.
One of the greatest articles I ever red on Substack!
I for one have found much inspiration in your writing. What I really appreciate is your concise and eloquent explanations backed by books or works of others that with my limited education was never exposed to. Often I find myself reading something you cited and in the process have become more enlightened. Thank you!
I hope you never lose your inspiration as I truly enjoy your work.
Thank you for the kind comment, Wheel. The interaction and feedback I've received from you and others is a big part of the reason my interest in writing has been sustained so far, I think. Regarding schooling, modern education does not so much as teach one to think critically as it does to memorize and regurgitate spoon-fed "facts" without actual understanding, and this is intentional... It is a life-long process for each of us to shake off the decades of Dewey-inspired propaganda and find our own unique voices and thoughts, for the few that decide to embark on it. I know I'm still regularly catching myself in force-fed thought patterns from decades of such "education", and I suspect it will always be there to one degree or another. A place like Substack helps us all move up to the next level of development...