Nothing says “philosophy” quite like a picture of Carl Jung. Just look at him, it’s like he’s got philosophy written in his wrinkles!
I’ve just looked at the Blog Stats for this week. Wow. The pain.
It appears that while I initially got good view ratings when I began posting about Anime, this novelty has worn off. Why has it worn off? Is it because, despite my blog name, there has been a severe lack of philosophy?
Now that all depends on your view of “philosophy”. To some people, philosophy means “Aristotle” or “Nietzsche”. To me, philosophy can mean something as simple as “Train Man” or “Can an Asperger’s patient blog about Anime?”.
Because philosophy has been around so long, it’s changed a lot from what it originally was, men talking about how the universe and their lives worked, and whether gods or God exists. But nowadays people associate “philosophy” WITH old men talking about things they now grumble about since nobody listened to them as philosophers when they were younger.
HOWEVER! Philosophy can be complicated, but it can be as simple as contemplating a work of art such as a work of Anime in the simple terms of whether it expresses emotion effectively, or how an Asperger’s person reacts to a form of expression that requires them to read faces, which they find difficult to do.
I started this blog as a mixture of Geek and Nerd Philosophy, and gradually it turned into an Anime blog as I made connections with other bloggers. This blog was originally my set of manifestos about the Geek and Nerd community, and because I tried to become popular by doing Anime reviews, forgetting my original purpose, I have met with some criticism in the few weeks this blog has been young.
To me “Geek Philosophy” is a mass philosophy, one that is easily accessible to a wide audience. It does not have any pretensions, just like a Geek or Nerd isn’t pretentious about liking one Anime show or Computer Operating System over another. “Geek Philosophy” is not so much what is put into lengthy arguments about what an Anime or Sci-Fi show really means, but Geek Philosophy is more about how a group of outsiders can be united, instead of divided, by the forms of popular culture they enjoy.
We don’t need a civil war inside our community, we already fight to be accepted by society, we fight to be loved by men and women who we hope in our heart of hearts will love us back, and wanting nothing else but their love in return. And we do this even if the man or woman is a two dimensional animated character, an illusion of life.
Geek Philosophy isn’t about taking down the foundations of the society we are outsiders in, no, Geek Philosophy is knowing that no matter how lonely we feel as individuals in this crazy old world, as long as we have our Geek and Nerd subculture and embrace it, we will never be alone.
I started my quest in Geek Philosophy with a book called Train Man by Hitori Nakano. It was a gift from the Geek Pantheon, a thunderbolt to my Nerdy skull. This book taught me that the internet was not entirely the realm of miserable misanthropes who would hurt anything that moved, but it was a place we could make better through our own actions. It is our actions as Geeks and Nerds that define us, what make us part of the world within and outside the Geek and Nerd community.
The world is bigger than our bedrooms that we make into our Fortresses of Solitude, but never, ever, use fear as an excuse to hate your fellow man. Chances are they’re just as scared as you, and everybody needs their friends. We can hide in our bedrooms, but it is when we emerge that we have realised the sun may burn our skin if we don’t wear sunscreen, but it won’t kill us. No matter how many Vampire books you read, it won’t kill you.
I started Geek Philosophy as a reaction to the despair of the otaku counter culture, and taking what I knew from my own Australian culture, and the Geek and Nerd subculture I experienced locally, I knew there was something in what Geeks and Nerds had that could be used as a great power of good. That power of good is the collection of misfits and freaks who will one day be the people who are the CEOs, the graphic designers, and the benevolent bigshots who will shape our planet’s future.
That is Geek Philosophy. Even the aesthetics of Geek and Nerd culture such as fashion are merely an expression of the true Geek and Nerd qualities within, which I hope people will look inside themselves to find. There are millions of us, and we are not alone.
Wow… this is a rather profound and all-encompassing entry. Me likey! /0..0\
It’s interesting that you’ve given a title to something I’ve been interested in pursuing myself. So that’s what it’s called… “geek philosophy,” eh?
Also:
CARL JUNG OWNS!!!!