Don't Look Within

There's a visible pattern in bad philosophy: It requires us to undergo an internal struggle as a means of dealing with our internal misery, with the expectation of causing external good. The problem with this mentality is that the mind of the subject is not a good foundation for meeting existential needs. The essence of the individual is what gives him the strength to carry on. Without the essence there is no peace, one's own body carrying out its basic functions for survival can cause the subject harm if he lacks the essence to protect himself, therefore it is imperative that any philosophical viewpoint that lacks a healthy foundation for one's essence be replaced with one that does.

An early example of this is Gnostic Christianity that requires understanding the knowledge of Jesus Christ's teachings as a means of going to heaven instead of the typical process. Interestingly enough the Gnostic gospel's Jesus has a Nietzschian vibe that's antithetical to the Jesus we typically know of. The knowledge of this Jesus's teachings is more important in this case than our faith in him, however even in the possession of this knowledge new holes form. Those who are spiritual, yet lack religion are merely using their religions as a means to create their own world narrative, enter protestantism.

Now Protestantism has a different history, and it's certainly become something different from what it originally was. However the variety of different denominations with different principles shows that it certainly goes through the motions a lot more than usual: Pentecostals that value undergoing religious experiences, 7th day adventists with their strange diet plan, and Calvinists with their predestination beliefs. Once you step into these churches, you typically learn that God has a plan for each and every one of you, how do you know of this plan? Just look into your heart, maybe he wants you to sing right now, or maybe he wants you to open a charity, but he has a plan for you. Of course Satan is also speaking inside your head, so you have to make the distinction from the voices of the flesh and god's plan.

Going back to AP English/your freshman year in philosophy class there's also nihilism, which embodies the words of Nietzsche. Nihilism is interesting because almost every political ideology is based on this viewpoint. Everyone uses Nietzsche for their thesis, even though everyone's debating each other. It's not hard to tell why: God has "died", yet everyone's an ideologue nowadays. The problem with nihilism is that on one hand it believes that man can transcend without god, and on the other it believes that some men can fall into the abyss and take off with anything of value. Sadly many people have tried to fall into the abyss because of this, and instead of leaving as transcendent beings, or monsters, they leave as Rainbow Anthropomorphic Ponies.

V for Voluntary!