Thursday, August 16, 2012

Feeling a Wee Bit Cynical

In the classical sense, that is.

To wit, my personal situation is on a bit of a knife's edge. The next 72 hours will probably resolve things somewhat, but it's too early to tell whether that means "settled in a new domicile with e.g. food, water and Internet access" or "attempting, like Diogenes, to live in a tub on the square (hopefully near an open wifi network) and hope someone throws me a scrap of food in exchange for purported wisdom now and again."

I can't really bring myself to bellyache about the situation from a personal standpoint. I've been down for a long time with the whole "possess nothing and be possessed by nothing" idea (which I mistakenly attributed to the Sufis until I came across Antisthenes and the Cynics; ah, the influence of Hellas is pervasive to this day!). Apart from some clothing, my main possessions are books and computers (and the former are now increasingly accessible via the latter, so losing my physical library wouldn't be as big a blow as it would have been 20 years ago).

The problem with the "become a wandering mendicant philosopher" scenario, though, is that if Diogenes tried to live in a tub in downtown St. Louis, he wouldn't be left alone by the authoritahs, let alone lauded as the founder of a wonderful new school of philosophy. He'd get dragged off to jail and/or a "mental health care" institution and his tub would be hauled to the landfill.

So anyway, developing.


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