Very poetic finish there. Nicely done. In my own personal path, I went from disillusionment with consumer culture and the limitations that it brings upon us, to existentialism and phenomenology, and ultimately spirituality. For me, spiritual practice was the means to enrich and awaken consciousness; to understand my nature beyond the trivialities of this world, and to enliven myself to deeper layers of existence. States like samadhi give insights that reveal the paradoxical, and transcendent nature of our being. In your video about meditative consciousness from a Buddhist perspective and phenomenology, you touch on this concept that meditative states are allowing us to have new insights into our phenomenal experience of the world. I believe this to be true, but would go even further. The ancient sages were master phenomenologists who created whole systems of subjective investigation to dive deep beyond everyday waking consciousness. The essential or pure consciousness revealed through meditation practice is freedom itself, being the material cause and substance of the world, and transcendent of it. This pure consciousness is the "God" that Sarte says we all seek to be, and is in fact our eternal nature beyond the body/mind mechanism. I guess what I'm trying to say is that phenomenology, in its deepest investigations, lends itself entirely to the field of spirituality and spiritual practice, since it is through meditative practices (and states like samadhi) that the essential nature of all phenomenon is discovered.
Dear Eric Dodson, I love our precise abstraction of our modern world and our different considerations including, also my personally favorite philosophical views. You really hit the mark on the motives of consumption and production and the "new" values, which haven't always been in the heart of humans (being always on point and effective). I really would like to recommend you the the works of Erich Fromm and Jung. They gave me huge inspiration and new insides in life. They have written about those very issues, you mentioned in this video, although they approache this issue more in ways of psychoanalysis. But it's worth reading their books. Keep on and thanks for the videos.
commodity culture overwhelms me, I see it as a plague, the feeling that it is the only way, toiling as a wage slave daily and feeling so empty and dissatisfied life, how does one shun such a lifestyle but somehow thrive in it well enough that they can enrich themselves beyond what such a mundane profit driven society offers? how do you accept reality when it is so bleak, and some how live a fulfilling life in such a reality.
daleleg The focus is all on the world and what it delivers. The assumption being that happiness is conditional on the state of the world. It's not! Happiness has to be discovered without such conditions, and after that it may inspire us to change the world. Until we can bring our own happiness to the world it remains an essentially dead place for us.
"Commodity culture" is not the problem. Human nature is the problem. We are built to be unsatisfied and always pursuing the next distraction. If it were a cultural phenomenon there would be a way out. There really isn't. Just understand that contentment and distress only come from expectations. What makes one person smile can make another frown if they take better things for granted.
I like this video very much. It certainly would help realizing my second years marketing students about the role of marketing these days in perstisting that culture.
Your videos are fantastic and very thought provoking im curious though where you stand on the free will vs determinism debate maybe you could make a video about that?
When you say the main point is "to awaken to the reality we're inhabiting" I would say that's only slightly less constricting than the lock-in of the commodity culture. Both are predicated on the notion that the world as experienced is reality, which ignores the role we play in creating our own experience. The commodity culture, being much more crystallised, can reveal the process by which we create our consensual reality. So a deeper awakening happens when the lights are shone on the entity doing the inhabiting, creating and dividing the world by concretising its own concepts, seemingly unaware of its own activity. The deeper reality then is not just something you inhabit, but something you are.
Well, I pretty much agree with what you're saying here. For me, we ARE the reality we're inhabiting. So there's not much difference between "something you inhabit" and "something you are." To awaken to that is to become aware of it, conscious of it, mindful of it -- and of course to live one's life accordingly. So, it seems like you're saying the same thing I am, but with a somewhat different semantic emphasis. I suppose that I also agree with Abraham Heschel, who once opined that, "everything holds the secret." If so, then so does commodity culture (like I'm saying at 8:59).
Yes, apologies for overlooking your point at 8:59. I made this comment after seeing the rather hopeless one from daleleg. Commodity Culture, and culture itself, is a game that is taken too seriously - seriously enough that we can put a more conspiratorial slant on it e.g. Orwell's "films, football, beer and gambling". We habitually lose ourselves in the external, and if we question it at all we tend to pin the problem on external actors, ever reluctant to take responsibility as the source.
You're right, it's a battle that can only be won internally, within each individual. There is a certain inevitability to it though. Being mindful of commodity culture (or human nature, as it could be more accurately described) alone does nothing to diminish it. In fact, misguided attempts at combating it as though it is literally a cultural phenomenon create even more problems.
Commodity culture? How do you distinguish between consuming to live, or living to consume? Either way, I don't see it being eliminated. And as such, interpreting it might not be a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of thing. As with anything, some play the game and some game the play. Motives/values are hard to pin down. Everybody has their own. At best, all we can do is try to make it a fair "game".
Very poetic finish there. Nicely done.
In my own personal path, I went from disillusionment with consumer culture and the limitations that it brings upon us, to existentialism and phenomenology, and ultimately spirituality. For me, spiritual practice was the means to enrich and awaken consciousness; to understand my nature beyond the trivialities of this world, and to enliven myself to deeper layers of existence. States like samadhi give insights that reveal the paradoxical, and transcendent nature of our being.
In your video about meditative consciousness from a Buddhist perspective and phenomenology, you touch on this concept that meditative states are allowing us to have new insights into our phenomenal experience of the world. I believe this to be true, but would go even further.
The ancient sages were master phenomenologists who created whole systems of subjective investigation to dive deep beyond everyday waking consciousness. The essential or pure consciousness revealed through meditation practice is freedom itself, being the material cause and substance of the world, and transcendent of it. This pure consciousness is the "God" that Sarte says we all seek to be, and is in fact our eternal nature beyond the body/mind mechanism.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that phenomenology, in its deepest investigations, lends itself entirely to the field of spirituality and spiritual practice, since it is through meditative practices (and states like samadhi) that the essential nature of all phenomenon is discovered.
Thought-provoking, as usual. Thank you, Eric.
Dear Eric Dodson,
I love our precise abstraction of our modern world and our different considerations including, also my personally favorite philosophical views. You really hit the mark on the motives of consumption and production and the "new" values, which haven't always been in the heart of humans (being always on point and effective). I really would like to recommend you the the works of Erich Fromm and Jung. They gave me huge inspiration and new insides in life. They have written about those very issues, you mentioned in this video, although they approache this issue more in ways of psychoanalysis. But it's worth reading their books. Keep on and thanks for the videos.
commodity culture overwhelms me, I see it as a plague, the feeling that it is the only way, toiling as a wage slave daily and feeling so empty and dissatisfied life, how does one shun such a lifestyle but somehow thrive in it well enough that they can enrich themselves beyond what such a mundane profit driven society offers? how do you accept reality when it is so bleak, and some how live a fulfilling life in such a reality.
daleleg The focus is all on the world and what it delivers. The assumption being that happiness is conditional on the state of the world. It's not! Happiness has to be discovered without such conditions, and after that it may inspire us to change the world. Until we can bring our own happiness to the world it remains an essentially dead place for us.
"Commodity culture" is not the problem. Human nature is the problem. We are built to be unsatisfied and always pursuing the next distraction. If it were a cultural phenomenon there would be a way out. There really isn't. Just understand that contentment and distress only come from expectations. What makes one person smile can make another frown if they take better things for granted.
Great video! You treated the subject very respectfully while not being dishonest about it
Excellent stuff! Keep that phenomenology-heart beating, friend!
Hello Eric. Please kindly provide me with the caption at 5:39 ."We typically let its whole..? .."
"It's that we typically let its whole Weltanschauung become..." "Weltanschauung" means a way of seeing the world.
@@ericdodson2644 Thank you very much sir.
Thank you for the video. It's a great video, especially discussing the "exclusive" and totalitarian aspect of the commodity culture.
Thanks Eric, I really enjoy all of your posting!
I like this video very much. It certainly would help realizing my second years marketing students about the role of marketing these days in perstisting that culture.
This is fantastic. Thank you for making these videos Eric!
Your videos are fantastic and very thought provoking im curious though where you stand on the free will vs determinism debate maybe you could make a video about that?
Great video as always, Eric!!
Very well articulated - thank you
When you say the main point is "to awaken to the reality we're inhabiting" I would say that's only slightly less constricting than the lock-in of the commodity culture. Both are predicated on the notion that the world as experienced is reality, which ignores the role we play in creating our own experience. The commodity culture, being much more crystallised, can reveal the process by which we create our consensual reality. So a deeper awakening happens when the lights are shone on the entity doing the inhabiting, creating and dividing the world by concretising its own concepts, seemingly unaware of its own activity. The deeper reality then is not just something you inhabit, but something you are.
Well, I pretty much agree with what you're saying here. For me, we ARE the reality we're inhabiting. So there's not much difference between "something you inhabit" and "something you are." To awaken to that is to become aware of it, conscious of it, mindful of it -- and of course to live one's life accordingly. So, it seems like you're saying the same thing I am, but with a somewhat different semantic emphasis. I suppose that I also agree with Abraham Heschel, who once opined that, "everything holds the secret." If so, then so does commodity culture (like I'm saying at 8:59).
Yes, apologies for overlooking your point at 8:59. I made this comment after seeing the rather hopeless one from daleleg. Commodity Culture, and culture itself, is a game that is taken too seriously - seriously enough that we can put a more conspiratorial slant on it e.g. Orwell's "films, football, beer and gambling". We habitually lose ourselves in the external, and if we question it at all we tend to pin the problem on external actors, ever reluctant to take responsibility as the source.
You're right, it's a battle that can only be won internally, within each individual. There is a certain inevitability to it though. Being mindful of commodity culture (or human nature, as it could be more accurately described) alone does nothing to diminish it. In fact, misguided attempts at combating it as though it is literally a cultural phenomenon create even more problems.
Interesting video. I wonder if you've ever seen the BBC documentary Century of the Self? It's on TH-cam...
That is a great documentary by Adam Curtis. His new film HyperNormalisation is coming 16th October on BBC iPlayer in UK
Jean Vandepoele Thanks!
I experience being first!
Great job!
Commodity culture? How do you distinguish between consuming to live, or living to consume? Either way, I don't see it being eliminated. And as such, interpreting it might not be a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of thing. As with anything, some play the game and some game the play. Motives/values are hard to pin down. Everybody has their own. At best, all we can do is try to make it a fair "game".
"Commodity culture" is a misnomer. It's universal human nature. There is no culture to fight or defeat that will make it go away.
What is that song at the end? Sounds awfully familiar
science and human values
Eric Dodson is goth king and has zero proclivity for black clothing or makeup. This is how real OGs goth.
Just a little more Eric and we can make the next step from Heidegger to Marx.
You are magnificent!
'he who dies with the most toys'.....is still dead!
Guarantee Eric Dodson is genius and is forced to adhere to the whims of some idiot boss on a daily basis.