Our Excruciating Modernity

On the concentration of the self

We have learned too much on too little

A new world has opened up to Man, that of knowledge, which has been made accessible and ubiquitous to an extent never before seen. We are in the age of knowledge, and though this may seem a statement contradictory to what I've described as the intellectual languor of Man, we must make a crucial distinction. There is perhaps a relationship of inverse proportionality, in the loosest sense of the word, between knowledge and engagement, but only after a certain threshold. The more knowledge and consequently information there is in the world, for we haven't yet, as a society, been able to properly condense increased quantities of knowledge into decreased quantities of information, which would be extremely favourable to education and the development of Man, the lower the amount of engagement from Man towards this new knowledge and eventually, towards all that surrounds him. But, keep in mind this occurs only if the quantity of new information is excessive, and though I do not know where the line of excess is drawn, I do know that we have passed it. This overshoot is visible, Modern Man is drowning in information and his mind has been flooded by distractions, such as those mentioned in On all that is media. In the very same essay, I ponder the cures to the malady of Modernity, but in this undertaking, avoid considering a crucial element, the very composition of this malady. Therefore, I shall do just that and establish my line of thought around the simplistic but helpful premise that the malady of Modernity is the consequence of an excessive influx of information through the gates of the mind of Man. But, this information is of extreme value and brings, as stated above, knowledge. Why should one refuse the prospect of knowing more? Because the pools of knowledge that languish in the caves of the mind are useless if left to stagnate, which they often are. Indeed, there has come increased knowledge with increased information, but only a knowledge that is of no use, for, initially, the information it is founded upon was trivial. The root of the issue is the quantitative and qualitative state of the gigantic waves of information that are breaking over Man, which was initially administered as droplets that have coalesced into a swamp that automatically and senselessly regurgitates data. Man must clear the accumulated detritus from the siphons of his mind, which is a process I have termed as the concentration of the self. In this, Man will filter the information he has been fed by Modernity to preserve only what he deems essential to the essence of his existence. But, he must undertake this operation carefully, for the aggregate of information he will assess, which constitutes his mind before the concentration of the self, has as final purpose to be distilled and purified into his very own pearls of wisdom. But for Modern Man, commencing and completing this procedure can be achieved only through a temporary yet absolute isolation from all that makes him Modern, from all that constitutes the seemingly inextricable attributes of his epoch. John, the Savage from Brave New World, explained that he would "rather be unhappy than have the sort of false lying happiness you [Lenina, representing the masses] were having here", and it is Man's false lying happiness, the current state of his situation, that he risks by filtering information, entertainment and distractions, concentrating the self and taking the risk to encounter an unhappiness that may be bleak, but at least is genuine, and true.

L'Homme va enfin cultiver son jardin pour n'être qu'homme, vulnérable et remis en question, mais en faisant cela, en terminera avec la douce vague de la masse et prospérera, agrandi, enrichi et éclairci.

For Man, the assessment of what he knows must be performed so as to keep, in his mind, only therapeutic information, or in other words, information which he knows will be vital to his individuation and search for, and finding of, meaning, which will never force him into positions of fear or anger, and which will be applicable at any point in the spacetime continuum of his life. Once Man has applied this criterion and filtered the information in his mind, he will use the remnants to concentrate the self. In this, the essentials of knowledge will not only be hoarded, but shamelessly exploited by the hoarder, for the hoarder, that being Man. If he has not succeeded in condensing information into packets of knowledge, he should fear not for our world is one of technological connectivity, and though his devices are source of many troubles, there is undeniable value in their ability to gather, encapsulate and effectively communicate information, large quantities of which, under the form of knowledge, are already available to Man. Indeed, useful knowledge is accessible with such facility online, an unprecedented opportunity of indescribable worth, that it has been dismissed by Man as ordinary and, therefore, not worthy of his attention. In doing this, he has made a grave mistake, for online, if he knows where to look, which he does if he completes the aforementioned filtering of information, he shall find attainable understanding, wisdom, and excellence. But, I employ the word "attainable" cautiously, because these states can only be attainable if Man concentrates the self, or, to put it comprehensively, abandons his passive state of distraction and develops a thirst for knowledge and the will to draw upon the realisation that he can learn anything, in little time, using few resources, for no money, but not without effort, which shall be, for Modern Man, the hardest obstacle to overcome.

Man can excel but must first dare to instruct and educate himself.