The Living Philosophy

The term "reactionary" is associated with the right-wing but like the term radical this term is a concept that transcends the one-dimensional left/right model. That being said it is almost exclusively applied to the right and these days it is used almost exclusively as an insult rather than a self-identifier. 

It was originally synonymous with right-wing, but it doesn't have to be a right-wing phenomenon, as there are left-wing reactionaries as well. The term has its origins in the French Revolution, where the National Assembly was divided into those favoring revolution on the left and the supporters of the king on the right. The term "reactionary" refers to the political group who wanted to return to pre-modern feudal monarchy. Today, a reactionary is someone who wants to go back to a previous time that was more glorious. While conservatives want to conserve the status quo, progressives want to pull the system towards improvement, and reactionaries want to push the system back. 

The reactionary idealisation of the past is similar to the Fascist parties of the mid-20th century. Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" is a pure example of the reactionary spirit, and similar sentiments were present in Britain around Brexit. Left-wing reactionaries can also exist, and they may see something very wrong in the current system, but their solution is backwards towards some idealised past.
________________
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 More from The Living Philosophy

▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/
________________

Media Used:

1.  Dark Times — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Procession of the King  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Evening Fall Harp — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic

_________________

⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:54 Reactionary Origins in the French Revolution
2:51 Reactionism Today
5:45 Left Wing Reactionaries
7:34 The Evolution of a Term

Radical is a word that's thrown around a lot these days but whose meaning is left a bit vague. This episode explores the meaning of the term radical and why it is such an accurate finger on the pulse of the Culture Wars. From Trump and Bernie to Marx, Antifa and the Proud Boys our age embodies the spirit of radicalism. 

This is the first in a new theme on the channel where we're going to unpack more political philosophy terminology and schools of thought. 
________________
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 More from The Living Philosophy

▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
▶ 📨 Subscribe with email:
________________
Media Used:

1.  Long Note Three — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Anguish  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Despair and Triumph — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)

_________________

⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:49 The Two Faces of Radicalism
4:19 Mobilisation
6:13 Closing Remarks

God is dead - Nietzsche's most notorious line and also one of his most commonly misunderstood. The Nietzsche God is dead statement is a New Atheist sentiment but the warning of a Postmodernist. It is commonly mistaken for a modernist sentiment proclaiming the death of Christianity’s God. But that is not what Nietzsche intended. It was not a declaration of atheism; atheism was already a trivial point of view (if still controversial) by the end of the 19th century. Nietzsche was not echoing a common sentiment but pushing beyond to its unseen implications. 
Nietzsche was pioneering the postmodern perspective. This is obvious from the aphorism it occurs in. In The Gay Science Nietzsche tells the parable of the madman who declares the death of God. The madman’s audience are not religious believers or members of the Church as one would expect from a declaration of God’s death. The audience was a crowd of jeering non-believers. This points to the real intention of Nietzsche’s statement. 
In this episode we are going to explore the meaning of this statement in light of this insight and see what exactly Nietzsche meant by his provocative statement that God is dead and we have killed him. 
_________________ 
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!) 
▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy 
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
________________
🎶 Music Used:
1. Magnetic — CO.AG Music
2. End of the Era — Kevin MacLeod
3. Mesmerise — Kevin MacLeod
Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic
Subscribe to CO.AG Music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav... 
_________________
⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 God is Dead: Introduction
1:33 The Madman's Audience
5:03 Nietzsche Contra 
10:10 The Real Meaning of God’s Death
_________________

#Nietzsche #thelivingphilosophy #godisdead #philosophy

Spoiler Alert - this look at the philosophy of the Metamodern masterpiece Everything Everywhere All At Once deals with the whole movie so there will be spoilers. The Nihilism of the internet age's apology Everything Everywhere All At Once is an amazing movie. It is one of those rare movies that is not only unbelievably entertaining but also incredibly profound. Not only does it give a brilliant exposition of Nihilism but it offers a diagnosis of Nihilism's causes and proposes a way past it. It's a beautiful funny rollercoaster through the multiverse that has so much heart. Like any Metamodern work of art it oozes sincerity beneath its absurd humour. This podcast is my attempt (after many drafts approaching its philosophy from many different angles) at giving voice to the philosophy of this 7x Oscar-winning classic. Hope you enjoy it 
_________________ 
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 More from The Living Philosophy

▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/
________________

🎶 Media Used:

1.  Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Dark Times — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Despair & Triumph — Kevin MacLeod
4. Anguish — Kevin MacLeod
5. Mesmerize — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)

_________________

⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:59 The Black Bagel - Nihilism Embodied
10:08 Behind the Nihilist Mask
13:36 Googly Eyes - the Anti-Bagel
15:11 (Rootsy) Love is the Answer

It's become common to appeal to our evolutionary past to justify present ideologies. In this episode we are honing in on a vegan account of human diet and contrasting it with a less ideologically motivated piece published by The Atlantic. 

There's a few interesting discoveries to be had. For one it's always interesting to see how subtle warpings of facts can lead to very different perspectives. It's also interesting to contemplate what such work tells us about the worldview of the writer. It's also interesting to see how evolutionary arguments are misused in the name of an agenda. 

All of this comes into play with this PETA article on veganism but there's a mirror of this sort of ideological work going on among the Carnivore and Paleo subcultures online. 

____________________
📚 Further Reading:

- PETA article: https://www.peta.org/living/food/really-natural-truth-humans-eating-meat/
- The Atlantic article: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/when-humans-became-meateaters/463305/
- A carnivore history article: https://fitawakening.co.uk/2022/08/17/carnivore-history/

________________
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 More from The Living Philosophy

▶ Discord https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
▶ 📨 Subscribe with email: https://thelivingphilosophy.substack.com/
_________________
⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
4:48 The Atlantic Article's History of Human Meat-Eating
8:08 PETA's Account
17:16 Reflections and Conclusion 

This episode is an attempted revaluation of the much maligned Ego. Drawing on Jung, Freud, New Age thinking and the myth of Icarus and Daedalus we pick apart the many meanings of Ego as we try to unearth the infamous reputation of Ego in the culture and to restore to it some of its lost dignity. 
____________________
Further Reading:
- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann
- The Freud Reader edited by Peter Gay

________________

⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 Discord 

▶ https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9

________________

Media Used:

1.  Long Note Three  — Kevin MacLeod
2.  Mesmerize  — Kevin MacLeod
3.  Dark Times — Kevin MacLeod
4.  Lightless Dawn — Kevin MacLeod
5. Despair and Triumph — Kevin MacLeod
6. Procession of the King — Kevin MacLeod
7. Fresh Air — Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic) 

_________________

⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Ego's Origins
3:55 The Heroic Freudian Ego
5:40 The Jungian Ego Container
9:20 The Evil New Age Ego
12:04 The Inflated Mainstream Ego Part 1: Nietzschean Decadence
15:59 The Inflated Mainstream Ego Part 2: Icarus and Daedalus

In this episode we are going to explore Nietzschean spirituality in contrast to Buddhist spirituality (and other Ascetic Ideal spiritualities and religions). This topic was prompted by a question from Kevin Sherman on Patreon so thanks to Kevin for the interesting spark. 

This script kind of poured out of me and it was only afterwards that as I was listening to it again and again in editing that I found myself inhaling through my teeth a bit with the critique of Buddhism. I feel like I was a bit heavy-handed in places and I'm sure many of you will agree. My qualification for this is that I wanted to be a little bit provocative around the spiritual element to cut past a lot of the inflation you find in New Age circles but in hindsight I feel I didn't give enough space for the value of Buddhism. Maybe I need to make an episode explaining why Buddhism is amazing to counterbalance and in what ways it is preferable to Nietzschean spirituality. In the meantime I thought I'd include this qualification here in the description where I'm not quite sure anyone will see it. For those of you who do read the description, hello. 

____________________

Further Reading:
- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains full texts of The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo) 
- The Portable Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist)
________________

⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 Discord 

▶ https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9

________________

⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
6:01 The Binary of Ascetic Ideal and Worldliness
8:33 A Counter-Ideal
12:48 Against Enlightenment

Why it matters is back! And this time we're talking about why Nietzsche matters. We're going to look at why I find Nietzsche so important and why you should too. 
___________________
⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)
▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 Discord 
▶ https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9
_________________ 
#thelivingphilosophy #philosophy #nietzsche #existentialism #psychoanalysis

In this deeper dive into philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche we are going to look at his big ideas and his overall philosophy through the orienting generalisation of his thought as being health vs. decadence. Through this lens we can fruitfully place Nietzsche's "no-saying" work where he critiques Christianity, science and philosophy as well as his "yes-saying" work in Thus Spoke Zarathustra (with Zarathustra's three great ideas of the Ubermensch, the Eternal Recurrence and the Will to Power) and his fascination with the Greek god Dionysus. 

Nietzsche is commonly known as the Father of Existentialism but he could just as well be called the Father of Psychoanalysis or the Father of Postmodernism. Along with Marx and Freud, Nietzsche is one of the most influential thinkers in the past 200 years. 
____________________

📖 Further Learning:
Videos: 
If you're interested in learning more about Nietzsche's biography and philosophy, there's a whole playlist of episodes on him here:



Books:
- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains full texts of The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo) 
- The Portable Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist)
________________

⭐ Support the channel (thank you!)

▶ Patreon: https://patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy
▶ Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy
_________________ 
💬 Discord 

▶ https://discord.gg/XNd4gTpfu9

________________

Media Used:

1. Despair and Triumph - Kevin MacLeod
2. End of the Era - Kevin MacLeod
3. Anguish - Kevin MacLeod
4.  Long Note Three - Kevin MacLeod
5. Lightless Dawn - Kevin MacLeod
6. Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod
7. There's Probably No Time - Chris Zabriskie
8. Mesmerize - Kevin MacLeod

Subscribe to Kevin MacLeod [https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic](https://www.youtube.com/user/kmmusic)
Subscribe to Chris Zabriskie [https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie](https://www.youtube.com/c/chriszabriskie)

_________________
⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:52 The Crisis of Nihilism
10:02 Decadence I: Rationality
10:58 Decadence II: Morality
12:14 The Ascetic Ideal and Slave Morality
15:15 False Counter-Ideals: Science and Democracy
16:32 Health: Nietzsche's Counter Ideal
17:00 Health I: Dionysus and Greek Tragedy
18:57 Health II: Zarathustra
19:41 Zarathustra I: the Eternal Recurrence
20:37 Zarathustra II: the Übermensch 
21:36 Zarathustra III: the Will to Power
22:09 Nietzsche New Metaphysics
25:23 Signoff 

Friedrich Nietzsche is commonly known as the Father of Existentialism but he could just as well be called the Father of Psychoanalysis or the Father of Postmodernism. Along with Marx and Freud, Nietzsche is one of the most influential thinkers in the past 200 years. 

Nietzsche's ideas are famous (and due to much manipulation of his work, infamous) — the Will to Power, the Ubermensch/Overman and the Eternal Recurrence are the three great doctrines of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. They form his positive philosophy. This is the Health side of the equation. 

But these positive doctrines are only way half of Nietzsche's philosophy. The other side is his critique of Christianity and of Ascetic Ideals in general, his enquiries into the origin of morality and his explorations of the crisis of Nihilism

In this brief episode we look at Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy through his distinction between Decadence and Health. This video is a taster of Nietzsche and will be followed up in a future episode by a much deeper dive. 
____________________

📚 Further Reading:
- Basic Writings of Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains full texts of The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo) 
- The Portable Nietzsche edited by Walter Kaufmann (contains )