Tag: philosophy

The man reaches the apex of his humorous vocation in revolt. The best clown is the one who best simulates irritation. Whether it is the absurdity of petty everyday events, or impotence in the face of the universe, revolt springs up and essentially exposes the ridiculousness of his condition. All humor arises from a contrast: revolt arouses laughter because it is painful and absolutely useless. I say and go into the inevitable: is there anything funnier than blasphemies? An insect indignant at a god… He cries out, screams, fries his nerves in vain. In his rage, he resorts to offense, risking eternal punishment. For the pleasure of judging to scratch, in an instant, the reputation of an infinitely superior being, he places himself, vulnerable, as a candidate for the target of a terrible wrath. It has been said that all blasphemy is, at the bottom, a manifestation of dignity. Maybe this is right… What is laughable is that it is of no use at all.

My prejudice against philosophical systems borders on the irrational. I have, beforehand, all the arguments against the applicability of any temple erected to reasoning. Logic lacks life, lacks the real. To isolate reasoning, to take it as an autonomous entity is to deprive it of its usefulness, of the important role it plays within a subjective and complex conjuncture. Reduce reality to a logical schematization, subjugate it to the rational, endow it with order, sequence, justification: these seem to me to be the essential errors of any system. A system can only be assertive when it talks about itself or about other systems, i.e., when it revels in its particular world. As an analyst of reality, unfortunately, it is useless: reality laughs at any systematization.

In the foreground, the practical world; then, thought itself. Ties, shackles everywhere. A very limited field of action and a role to fulfill, by necessity. Wherever reasoning directs its lens, there are the claws of convenience. And none of this frightens, all of this is nothing but normality. A few—madmen—awaken, however. They manifest themselves through revolt. To them, due to blasphemy, all the ferocity with which an animal reacts when it feels threatened. And there remains rebellion, therefore, inadvisable—for those who follow advice. And for the few, the happiness of knowing they are not the majority. As Fernando Savater said, it is necessary the vocation of freedom to recognize oneself as a slave.

From the moment businessmen, that is, men of money, that is, men who dedicate their lives to grow financially, expand businesses, conquer markets and all the rest, from the moment these men make speeches quoting Marcus Aurelius and Seneca or, as they say, the “stoics,” then the best thing is to burn all the books at once, because they are useless and teach nothing. Marketing is perhaps the most odious of sciences because it has no scruples, because it appropriates everything that appears useful in order to sell. In a good dictionary, it would be described as the art of lying. To see conceptual aberrations such as “stoicism applied to emotional intelligence” is something that could lead to indignation or despair. It does not, however, as long as the world is seen for what it is: a ridiculous and infamous circus.