Gurus and Quacks

[FilmSnob]

People that are smart in a transcendent way are always quacks.

But you, you sane people, are always asking for transcendence: for that key to that door which will finally open the doors for you and flood you with knowledge that you are supposed to have but somehow don't. You want an other-ness, a thing that already is, but is completely separate from everything you know now, a truth that nobody else can have because they don't have the spiritual force that you do. Except, of course, the guru that will illuminate you.

But you are surrounded by gurus! And you call them all quacks; not because they cannot reach the heights that you demand, but because what you demand isn't heights. You believe that if you can just resolve this question, you will finally be set free, but your question has already been answered a veritable multitude of times. Quacks are your deformed children, and you are guilt-ridden abusive parents. Perhaps if you didn't simply constantly have sex among each other... Perhaps if you allowed some new genetic codes into the mix...

But that optimistic tone is a lie. Because you aren't even the ones asking the question! The question isn't an expression of your own incompleteness, it is a clever manipulation by your authority figures to deal with the incongruence between what they offer you and what you get. When you aren't looking, a lackey gently introduces a demand, a question. When you look back, you immediately embrace it because your feelings respond so perfectly to it: it must be your own.

When you realize that the difference between an authority figure and a pusher is no difference at all, you will be able to overcome this lie and understand what it is you actually crave.

"Oh, but pezer, stop being an asshole and tell us what it is we do crave!"

It's not that I won't, it's that I'm unable to.

[Stoic Guardian]

You know i've never onced heard the term "Guru" on this site used once in a positive way.

[FilmSnob]

You know i've never onced heard the term "Guru" on this site used once in a positive way.

Yeah, this forum does have its redeeming factors.

[Pandora]

There are people on this site who treat published philosophers as if they were gurus.

Majority of philosophers are quacks too.

[Amorphos]

People that are smart in a transcendent way are always quacks.

If they are right then your ‘sane’ people are quacks! te-he

…and you state they are smart, thus assumedly there is something about them you consider intelligent and right.

[FilmSnob]

People that are smart in a transcendent way are always quacks.

If they are right then your ‘sane’ people are quacks! te-he

…and you state they are smart, thus assumedly there is something about them you consider intelligent and right.

Originally I had writen the OP in an "us/you" format, including myself among the guru quacks.

I accidentally erased that one and ended up writing this one in 3rd person.

[statiktech]

When you realize that the difference between an authority figure and a pusher is no difference at all, you will be able to overcome this lie and understand what it is you actually crave.

It's the authority. It always has been. People want authority; - someone pushing, motivating, directing, overseeing. It isn't a trap some naive people unwittingly fell into. Authority is built of, and around, the people it governs. The deception, or perhaps delusion, is in the faith that said authority remains for the people, or in their collective interest[s].

[FilmSnob]

But what does authority mean? What is it about the phenomena of being told what to do that people crave?

[statiktech]

Perhaps direction and unity? Authority brings people together, establishes common grounds, gives common guidance. Also, I think people desire to thrive and are forever curious about how best to do so.

[Amorphos]

But what does authority mean? What is it about the phenomena of being told what to do that people crave?

as above +
If one wants that power, then they have to accept it in others [at least on a subconscious level]. it’s the same thing with royalty, there is no logical reason to accept it, but for those who do I assume it means they are somehow better by extension.

[FilmSnob]

Statiktech: So it's thriving that is saught? And unity and authority are percieved as ways to thrive?

[FilmSnob]

as above +
If one wants that power, then they have to accept it in others [at least on a subconscious level]. it’s the same thing with royalty, there is no logical reason to accept it, but for those who do I assume it means they are somehow better by extension.

I like this a lot. So people let themselves be duped, subconsciously effectuating their fantasies of themselves duping others?

[Amorphos]

I like this a lot. So people let themselves be duped, subconsciously effectuating their fantasies of themselves duping others?

Indeed, they want the power in some way in their lives, and so ‘respect’ it when it occurs in others. The most effective methods appear to be those which entertain the little power brokers, such that they can too exert some power. Then there’s just a hierarchy of that.

I hate those damned traffic wardens.

[FilmSnob]

It seems that whatever it is people do crave from authority changes from person to person... not to suggest that each reason is unique.

[Amorphos]

It seems that whatever it is people do crave from authority changes from person to person... not to suggest that each reason is unique.

True in the way you say it, yet if power was a room in the mind they’d all be in it. In other words its mostly want of the same thing, desire for desire. it’s the colour red in a house full of shades. Opaque and obvious yet equally different and ambiguous.

As soon as you see it in someone you see it in the multiplicity of such someone’s.


Think I said it better first time around lol

[Fixed Cross]

"Power is a shadow on the wall, it resides where men believe it resides."
Men who don't know that power resides in them (who do not have power) will always dance to the whims of shadows.

[Joe Schmoe]

To seek Power is to seek control.

One wants to be able to control one's destiny. This drive becomes skewed, and is spewed out towards others. "I can control YOU, so I must therefore have Power". Is it denial? Is it fear?

We have the Power to act in our interests, or to not act in our interests. Do we have the power to change or even choose our interests? Not yet, not yet.

So far, Nature is the authority. Nature can fuck you up. Jelly?

I think I am.

[FilmSnob]

Power is too abstract of a term. It is obsolete, except in the still-young discipline of magic.