How to Create a Utopia

I read a while ago about a philosopher (don't know his/her name) that said that the way to create a governmental/economic system that results in a utopia is this (hypothetically):


A large group of people have to agree on a system of government and upon the agreement they will all drop dead and be reborn anywhere in the socio-politico-economical continuum. Meaning they could be anyone (randomly) in their new society. This would solve the problems of social and economic mobility and the problem of self-interest in those that form the government.

Of course you can't do that but I thought it was interesting and related to Marx because of his visions of Utopia.

Ghandi the philosopher-king

We discussed in class a while back about how Ghandi believes that we all have seperate but equal jobs (example; women and men). This reminded me of how in the Republic Socrates talks about being moral in terms of doing what is natural. Meaning that doing what your supposed to do in life (good at carpentry, be a carpenter) is moral. In their views on education however, Socrates and Ghandi are very different. Ghandi believes that education should be limited and consist of mostly religion. Socrates believes that education has to include the arts, music, math, physical etc. (at least for the guardians). The reason that this education is required is so that the guardians of the Ideal City are balanced and have a sense of loyalty, gentleness, courage, and spirit.

Nietzsche and Morrison

http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/msg.jsp?what=JamesDouglasMorrison

I've been looking at the connection between Jim Morrison and Nietzsche. I know that Jim was influenced by N a lot. John Densmore famously said that Nietzsche killed Jim Morrison. In the link above there are a lot of really interesting connections between the two. I can see how Jim's character reflects N's philosophy. Jim being the passionate Dionysian anti-society philosopher always pushing life to its limits.

On the Road

I've been reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac and random Nietzsche references come up and then on top of that theres a character called Carlo Marx which I have a hard time believing is pure coincidence, seems like an allusion to me. It's like it was meant for Core. I just find it amusing that when you start to study and think about things you start noticing them all over. It seems uncanny but they were probably all there before, just had to become aware of them.

"Pain is the most powerful aid to mnemonics"

I can see how, tragically, this would be true and it is something you can see throughout history. One thing I wonder though is what would Nietzsche say to someone like Freud who claimed that we repress memories of pain. Or to more modern research (of course he didn't access to any of this...but just theoretically) that shows that we are more likely to remember happy things and that unpleasant memories are harder to recall. I think he might say that it is irrelevant because whether or not that N.'s theory is true, man has always used his mnemonic tactics as though it was.

Style of Nietzsche

I find that N. reads like a monologue. He sounds passionate and excited and it makes it feel more like someone is speaking to you then writing. He puts a lot !'s in his writing and he uses strong language. He also uses irony which makes you imagine the inflection in his voice and give it a more speech-like feel.

say Yes to Life

On page 19 Nietzsche refers to Schopenhauer's ideas about life and self.

"What was especially at stake was the value of the unegoistic, the instincts of pity, self-abnegation, self-sacrifice, which Schopenhauer had gilded, deified, and projected into a beyond for so long that at last they became for him "value-in-itself," on the basis of which he said No to life and to himself.

When I read "No to life and to himself" it made me think of the language of existentialism. I remember reading in existentialist writings that you should say Yes to life and spurn death and so on and so forth.

Nietzsche then says: "...it was precisely here that I saw the beginning of the end, the dead stop, a retrospective weariness, the will turning against life, the tender and sorrowful signs of the ultimate illness: I understood the ever spreading morality of pity that had seized even on philosophers and made them ill..."