How can you not be existential?

How can someone not be existential?

 

you'd be surprised.


i distribute books for the hare krishna temple, and it really is amazing how people shut off when they hear words like "reincarnation", "spirituality", "consciousness"... they get really nervous, as if you've just said, "hello. if you aren't out of my sight within the next five seconds i'm going to shove daggers into every hole in your body."

i know the hare krishna movement and existentialism aren't EXACTLY the same, but they're on the same wave of, "who am i? what is my purpose? how does the universe work?", and that's what people are terrified of. they either act like they have to get away before something terrible happens (they have some scary epiphany? come up with a question with multiple answers, or no answer at all?), or they're REALLY into it, but sadly fear usually wins out.

 

I've always wondered that too. Have you ever had someone ask you to explain to them what existentialism is, and no matter how hard you try, you can't? And then people get weary because they think it's another "ism"-- they don't grasp the fact that it is what we are.

 

Good question. How can one not be an existentialist? By worshipping Krishna, perhaps? Or believing in spirit? Or reincarnation?

 

not sure if you're talking about yourself or me, so i'm gonna clarify myself anyway just in case.

it's scary to scratch beneath the outer surface of existence, however you do it.

 

How are people not existentialists? Simple. As a species, we need to feel a sense of belonging. Nobody wants to be alienated or feel left out. While individualism may be encouraged, individualists still hold to the necessity of being a piece of a bigger puzzle (i.e. allegiance or relation to race, nation, religion, political party...etc.) In doing this, we feed the basic human instinct of companionship. Without this, most people would feel empty, alone, and independent. Existentialism strives to move away from this and put self before all the other things. Because all we have is our existence in this fucked up world. I haven't studied much on exitentialism yet, but this is my take. Feel free to correct me if you hold superior knowledge on this subject.

 

I believe that there's nothing much to us except life and death, and that reincarnation is possible but an afterlife is not.

Having said that we are all selfish pigs, even those of us that help others, deep inside we only do it to make our lives better, or to give us a feeling of importance, death is many ways is the only solution to turmoil. We are individuals, we are not part of anything ( yes I see a fetus as an individual ) so we are responsible for oursleves, this is also why I believe vegetables ( profound retards ) should not be cared for because they are completely worthless.

 

shit dude

 

nietzsche was big on the interconnectedness of things. i see no contradiction between existentialism and interconnection. while our bodies/energies may be part of a greater whole, that does not mean that our personal experience is anything but our own.
i don't see a plausable argument for individualism. we are made up of atoms that were once other creatures, and will go on to be more creatures. every living thing is dependent upon something for its existence.

 

You are joking arent you ?

Ha ha ha, you couldnt get further from the life of a hare crishna than existentialism. With Existentialism there is no power or being or object beyond what is available to us now, at any moment in time. The idea of a god under Sartres brand of philosophy is absurd, and the idea of people worshiping a god is even more absurd. The whole principal of spiritually trying to affect the world by magic and chanting is totally absurd to any sartrean philosopher, and in defining yourself as subjugate to any deity or ritual conditioning you condemn yourself to the proposition that you are afraid and wish for something else or someonelse to take control of your life.

Existentialism has more in line with hedonism than any mumbo jumbo religion
since within both is the basic tenet that to form habits and ritualisation, is to be a failure and not have an authentic existence

it is a recoil from life itself and the decision making process

 

Very nicely put.

 

Can it not be explained due to closed ears or just too hard to define in any sort of wording or phrasing
I mean what is it you try to tell people that doesn't come across? curious

peace dude

 

What then, may I ask, is the POINT of reincarnation, where there to be no aferlife of any sort?

 

why should a point be required?

i fail to see anything as having to exist, or not exist.
simply that which does, does.
and that which does, in all probablility, exceeds our greatest immagining both in number and diversity.

are we not all hungry ghosts?
hungry for some sort of existence?
why then, cling to any existence if we are not?
why then, even concern ourselves that we are living or otherwise?

why then, would anyone either seek death, or to avoid it?

other then to experience what only by living we can?

is not the only real "point" of life itself,
to experience living?

and is there not more of living to experience, then can be in ANY one lifetime?

=^^=
.../\...

 

Im just saying that reincarnation in the traditional sense, has a purpose. Otherwise, it is just energy continuing to exist when our bodies are used up, with no known directon or guidance, which is an obvious fact, and in no way is it necessary to point that out.

 

Nietsche was a precursor to existetial thought. there isnt any "Vs.". He fromed the basis, through"Man and Superman", for a a-moralistic view, which although was pe-existetial, served to propel an reactionary secular humanism in the follwing generations of Srate, Camu, Hussymans and others. But many if not most all modern existrenial thought draws heavily on Niteches brilliant and original concepts of an anti-determinism and materialism. Preceded by Shopenhauers pessimism, Niethces "thus spoke Zarathutsr "is a study into the mind of the man and the forces that drove his philosophy, and serves to sepreate his proselytising phiosophy from his personality.

 

god damn, it's obnoxious when people don't get my point.

my point is, i have spent a lot of time going up to people and asking them how they feel about the nature of reality and existence. and most people just do not want to think about it at all. it doesn't even cross their minds. they won't let it.

personally, i think every belief system can be connected and harmonized with every other one. but whatever, not many other people feel that way.

 

Whole-heartedly agree with you here!

 

It's pretty simple. They simply could believe in some definite metaphysical existence independent of our own human existence and perception. Whether it be God, Buddha, or any other sort of non-human spiritual force, some people will inevitably believe in the literal existence of such things. Whereas existentialism essentially boils down to the notion that we just are, and while spirituality may be a reality, it is a reality defined solely by our own consciousness and perception, rather than some exterior force.

If you're just asking a rhetorical question as to how someone could REASONABLY not be existentialist, then I don't know.

 

i have a question along these lines: i've been reading a lot of existentialist authors lately and spoken to many people about it. I've begun to consider myself an existentialist yet nothing i've read has served to depress me. Interest and confuse me yes- but nothing i've come across has made me in any way sad. Perhaps i'm not interperting any of this right- but most people shy away from the theory as a whole because it seems so depressing. The ideas of complete freedom, and lonelyness appear on the surface frightening and depressing. I'm speaking of sartre's The Flies as a general example- I've been seeing that we have a choice- within all of these- within freeing ourselves to forge deeper connections to thoes around us- not lonely at all. Am I just completely off or is not understanding that point which scares people away?