/lit/ - Literature

>>16417870
i wrote a blog post about this, gonna share for relevance's sake/could always use feedback and criticism.

basically, i argue that neoliberalism robs the world of a certain type of "glory" that is an otherwise vital political resource. neoliberalism turns "ambition" into something like a "resume-sheet"--this, in turn, depletes attempts to pursue the "good life" of any collective or philosophical value. neoliberalism pretty much depletes the political world of any resource that would contribute to something like an idea of the "sacred":

pykewater.com/catiline-conspiracy/2020/9/9/neoliberalism-and-the-loss-of-gloryambition

come at me, bros.

>>12103578

just curiosity: i haven't posted a single image of my library, how the fuck do you keep assuming the nature of its quality? how have you acquired such undue certainty? i'm genuinely, earnestly curious about this type of leap of faith. help me understand your retarded fucking ways.

>>12052643

i'm this poster (>>12052565, >>12052490)


its this attitude that i find truly emblematic of a sick soul

here's a tip: anyone who sets out to get into an elite university as their goal almost never does--or if they do, they are exactly the type of mediocrity you seemingly are so quick to condemn and despise.

i got into harvard, like a lot of the people i hang out with here, not because we did well on standardized tests--i had a solid 3.8 from a great high school, i was pretty smart on paper, but nothing stellar, and my SATs didn't breach the 2200 mark. i got into harvard because i was interested in an unresolved problem in the world (in my case, the relation between how academic institutions relate to funding initiatives and implementation campaigns in the state-building programs of kenya), worked my ass off understanding it, and by the time i was a senior in high school i was working with levick in DC as a senior consultant, working directly with their team in nigeria and having dynamic contact with figures like buhari.

you know what machiavelli says about greatness, the quickest way to achieve glory? it's to actually go out and fucking do something great--hence why it's theseus and cyrus that are his heroes, not the weasels, followers, manipulators and changelings that represent the vast majority of your average college applicant.

you will never get to where you want simply wanting to get there--look beyond, elsewhere, to something actual people care about. address yourself to that, and watch as the accolades, the recommendations, the acceptances roll in.

anyone who doesnt attend an elite school will judge and criticize and cry havoc, but in reality, the best way to get into a top school (if you are not well-connected and a legacy, or a pro-athlete) is to 1. discipline yourself, 2. find a relevant problem in the world. e.g. commit yourself to improving the common good, and 3. put all your fucking eggs in that basket and let them incubate.

the reason your aren't going to get in is because its all about you; same reason the average christian can never get into heaven: to you, the only thing at stake is the salvation of your own soul; ironically, you ignore others at your own expense, especially when it comes to doing something worthwhile in the world that would actually get you recognized by a top school

>>9042564
>>9044078
>>9044111
>>9044153

in sum, i would say: plato and nietzsche deploy the lie in response to the perennial problem of how to persuade those who refuse to listen. their answer, ironically, is that you can't--at least not directly, not by operating on the same faculties of rationality and reason that you would the philosopher already concerned with such matters. you can drag them out of the cave (coercion-- the discipline of augustine's platonism, and the reason why the philosopher stakes his very life returning to the democratic abyss in plato himself); or you can remake the entire political world around them, rob them of power, and then console and assuage them through lies--either the realization of the platonic republic or the realization of the nietzschean aristocracy of ubermenschen. this is what i meant when i said the lie "mortared" both.