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Montaigne - the First Hippie...

The flux of the mind continues - YES ... the feverish traffic of the brain, myself included ... we grant you this fact, Montaigne, so hold your horses - but also those deep obsessions - sources of continuity for me at least... 

You have issues with Montaigne? The French guy? 

Famous Skeptic, Stoic, Epicurean, nominal Catholic (very nominal and slack)... Inventor of the modern essay... All-around-"chill guy" -- Yes, yes, yes and more yes...

He annoys you?

Oh - he's so very relaxed all the time - isn't he?

It's a pose you think?

Well - how could it not be in part - writing during the wars of religion, living through the plague,  giving advice to kings, those episodes with kidney stones - and falling off his horse that one time - nearly died... 

And?

Oh - I don't know... the essays meander on for pages at a time...All those digressions - I have no idea what he's getting at half the time...

So what is it?

Well - he's the first hippie (philosopher) for starters...

Hippie? Surely you don't mean...

Okay - the first 

The guy who says let us all pitch the tent  in the privacy of our own backyards... build the room in back of the shop - tune in, drop out, groove to the soundtrack of our own making, don't take life too seriously, dare to question authority, smoke our peace pipes, wear the clothes that make us feel hip, learn the mantra of self-acceptance and yoga... That GUY!

So a liberal sensibility...

Yes sir... Individualist extraordinaire...Encourager of nonconformists... cataloger of exceptions to the rule.... defender of varieties of form... maker of room for outliers (for this part I thank him ....... in part).... Annoying...

Annoying? In ringing the bell for greater...

Please don't say freedom...That overused word...

But...

Yes, yes... but do we have to say it... You forget about things like order, discipline, protocol, measure, limit, stricture, obligation, goal-setting, comparing oneself to others...

He must seem quite satisfied - with his life - his wisdom 

Quite!

And you detest that he's not more uptight...

Well - now you're on to it... There's something UNREAL about all this...

What is lacking then?

There is something UNREAL in all of this... It's a papering-over of... of... Life - the hurt, the glaring singe of ouch, the confusion - if you have to ask...

What then?

No place that I can see for the FEAR, the GUILT and the SHAME - three big emotions that keep most of us going...

So he downplays the negative...as a part of the mix...

I think so - but to quote Montaigne - What do I know?


But he's trying to do you a favor. He's offering a balm for the stings of life... Why begrudge him that?


A fantasy I tell you - which is what the modern individual craves by the way... Give the people what they want... 







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