Surely you're joking Mr.Wilson?
Its funny how what Nietzsche and Wells call existentialism was not really existentialism but a strange combination of a rather hyperbolic perception of pathos and pessimism at its most obvious and yet most sensitive; and being what it is, it is exactly what Colin Wilson quietly astutely addresses in his book "the Outsider".
However, going forth, one thing strikes me as an obvious contradiction, more so and particularly pertinent when you put the Wells and Nietzsche schools of thought in perspective of 2 primary aspects
The fact that their perceptions were restricted to the western civilization and didn’t inculcate what is romantically called the far eastern mysticism, when it actually is spirituality; and
the time frame, i.e. the era in which both these thinkers propagated their philosophies, though they themselves were geographically worlds apart
I am inclined to think the outsider of today's era is more geographically mobile or more worldly-wise and by implication more attuned to the perceptions of the 'new world', which admittedly is a rather clichéd term, but is the only one that appropriately encapsulates what am trying to address here.
One must realise that the 'new world' is nothing if not a global community. The average person; and in the context of this argument, I only speak of the intellectuals, is better travelled and when I say travelled, I don’t speak of visited but such as to have assimilated as much of every culture had to offer as possible, into his being and intellectual frame of reference.
Given a proclivity to see beyond and much more that the average individual, the perceptions of the intellectual (the way I see it, an intellectual given an active and adequate emotional intelligence would roughly translate into Wilson's outsider), would be richer still with global exposure and given that, I move to my primary argument, which is this, "the outsider of today is as perceptive and as introspective but certainly more adaptive"
I have often observed many an individual, many of them my friends, who go into what we have come to call "withdrawal" and those who do not understand it call "dormancy" wherein one withdraws from day to day mundane interactions, not withdrawing from them completely but restricting them to those that are essential. In the phase, emails are not replied to, phone calls are ignored - neither picked up nor returned. There is a definitive yet intelligent abstinence from mediocrity and anything unintelligent, thereby restricting all interaction and contact with the world to the absolutely necessary for survival.
As such, various thoughts come forward, the first among them being the fact that the average outsider of today is rather young and is not driven by anything other than what stimulates him/her and yes as Wilson pointed out, "he stands for nothing but the truth" but then is also intelligent enough not to extract himself completely from what he/she considers necessary. They will party to the extent necessary, they will interact to the extent necessary to keep their jobs and will do all they realise is necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of living, the primary driver of all this being so that they have enough time and energy to think, to contemplate, to see, to reason, to rationalise, to perceive, to conceive and to articulate to themselves.
When they write, they will write for themselves and what they do subsequently with what is written is inconsequential. There is a band of people across the world today who are usually perceived by the rest of the world as intense, sincere, intelligent, smart and quite often weird. But herein list the intellectual core of the society of tomorrow.
Another trait that comes across very strongly is that all these persons are rather successful at what they do, and that, not necessarily because they love what they do, but because a sheer intelligence precludes them from being anything short of good at doing whatever it is that do, once they have set their minds to it.
Am certain that most readers of this little essay are wondering how the profound perception of the crass reality that marked distinct Wilson's 'outsider' relates to the ideas that I have attempted to propagate above. Am certain, some people will even astutely identify contradictions in what Wilson loathed calling the 'philosophy' of the outsider against the ideas suggested above.
I caught myself saying to one of my colleagues today "Well, I spend 5 days of the week among and with people, I don’t feel obliged to do the same with the remaining 2!" and this was a not-thought-out and hence certainly subconscious response to her allegation that I was an anti-social animal at times. Enter the new age thinker.
This is not a categorical statement that I make and restrict to myself. It is rather about this whole new breed of thinkers and philosophers who stand for the truth but are shrewd enough not to let it get in their way, their way of making the most of themselves, of doing what they love doing. Lack of integrity you say? But then isn’t existence about doing what you love doing? Then if this is not the purest form of existentialism, then I don’t know what is…….
So here's to existentialism of the new world and here's to the new outsider!
However, going forth, one thing strikes me as an obvious contradiction, more so and particularly pertinent when you put the Wells and Nietzsche schools of thought in perspective of 2 primary aspects
The fact that their perceptions were restricted to the western civilization and didn’t inculcate what is romantically called the far eastern mysticism, when it actually is spirituality; and
the time frame, i.e. the era in which both these thinkers propagated their philosophies, though they themselves were geographically worlds apart
I am inclined to think the outsider of today's era is more geographically mobile or more worldly-wise and by implication more attuned to the perceptions of the 'new world', which admittedly is a rather clichéd term, but is the only one that appropriately encapsulates what am trying to address here.
One must realise that the 'new world' is nothing if not a global community. The average person; and in the context of this argument, I only speak of the intellectuals, is better travelled and when I say travelled, I don’t speak of visited but such as to have assimilated as much of every culture had to offer as possible, into his being and intellectual frame of reference.
Given a proclivity to see beyond and much more that the average individual, the perceptions of the intellectual (the way I see it, an intellectual given an active and adequate emotional intelligence would roughly translate into Wilson's outsider), would be richer still with global exposure and given that, I move to my primary argument, which is this, "the outsider of today is as perceptive and as introspective but certainly more adaptive"
I have often observed many an individual, many of them my friends, who go into what we have come to call "withdrawal" and those who do not understand it call "dormancy" wherein one withdraws from day to day mundane interactions, not withdrawing from them completely but restricting them to those that are essential. In the phase, emails are not replied to, phone calls are ignored - neither picked up nor returned. There is a definitive yet intelligent abstinence from mediocrity and anything unintelligent, thereby restricting all interaction and contact with the world to the absolutely necessary for survival.
As such, various thoughts come forward, the first among them being the fact that the average outsider of today is rather young and is not driven by anything other than what stimulates him/her and yes as Wilson pointed out, "he stands for nothing but the truth" but then is also intelligent enough not to extract himself completely from what he/she considers necessary. They will party to the extent necessary, they will interact to the extent necessary to keep their jobs and will do all they realise is necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of living, the primary driver of all this being so that they have enough time and energy to think, to contemplate, to see, to reason, to rationalise, to perceive, to conceive and to articulate to themselves.
When they write, they will write for themselves and what they do subsequently with what is written is inconsequential. There is a band of people across the world today who are usually perceived by the rest of the world as intense, sincere, intelligent, smart and quite often weird. But herein list the intellectual core of the society of tomorrow.
Another trait that comes across very strongly is that all these persons are rather successful at what they do, and that, not necessarily because they love what they do, but because a sheer intelligence precludes them from being anything short of good at doing whatever it is that do, once they have set their minds to it.
Am certain that most readers of this little essay are wondering how the profound perception of the crass reality that marked distinct Wilson's 'outsider' relates to the ideas that I have attempted to propagate above. Am certain, some people will even astutely identify contradictions in what Wilson loathed calling the 'philosophy' of the outsider against the ideas suggested above.
I caught myself saying to one of my colleagues today "Well, I spend 5 days of the week among and with people, I don’t feel obliged to do the same with the remaining 2!" and this was a not-thought-out and hence certainly subconscious response to her allegation that I was an anti-social animal at times. Enter the new age thinker.
This is not a categorical statement that I make and restrict to myself. It is rather about this whole new breed of thinkers and philosophers who stand for the truth but are shrewd enough not to let it get in their way, their way of making the most of themselves, of doing what they love doing. Lack of integrity you say? But then isn’t existence about doing what you love doing? Then if this is not the purest form of existentialism, then I don’t know what is…….
So here's to existentialism of the new world and here's to the new outsider!
posted by Infinity at 22:42
2 Comments:
[Hi. I'm stunned that you have published my comments - it's the first time any "work" of mine has been published and those were pathetic excuses, merely my queries for you in the absence of a more direct medium. I hope the following would be more along the lines of a candle to the sun as opposed to the previous matchsticks proferred.
The name change piques me though; I would not have described you as a child obedient to the whims and vagaries of destiny. What was the rationale behind the re-invention of your persona? Perhaps that is best left as the theme for another composition.]
The outsider. To me, one of the epitomes of what an outsider can achieve is embodied in the entity once known as Siddhartha, which coincidently is also the name of an earlier work of one of your current favoured authors. In this piece, the dichotomy of the outsider is personified; the dual levels of our existence are defined: the part of ourselves that, like you say: "will interact to keep their jobs and maintain a reasonable standard of living" and then there is the deeper stratum, the one that excavates the recesses of the mind's universe. We outsiders are each a single representation of Janus, looking behind into the world with it's dragging inertia in which we are forced to abject our lives for physiological sustanance and looking forward in the constant search that drives and energises us, that soothes and consoles us making solitude sought-after at times [the 2 days you mentioned and which I unstintingly agree with]. The search may not always be the same for us all, but it is what unites us as outsiders. If as you say, we are perceived by the rest of world as wierd, then what does that make the rest of the world?
Proud to be wierd,
Anon.
Hey Dada,
Your questions to mr. Wilson are very well posed. I find that your observations about today's Outsiders is quite accurate, the kinds which make sure that their day-to-day living is not compromised, but will maintain their inner sanctums and views about the world at large... The current outsider is Savvy, yes. But I also invite you to look into the examples that Mr. Wilson has considered. Sartre's, Hesse's characters are largely romantic, they represent a larger-than-life depressive attitude towards life. Only 3 characters of his scrutiny are living men: Van Gogh, Nijinsky and Lawrence (I am reading his Seven Pillars of Wisdom..). They too go over-board in their outlook towards life, yes, but they bear the mark of the Real.
I understand the tone of your well-written article... Great analysis Dada...
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