Mankind

 

Everyone is a liar. Everyone is a scumbag. When reason was invented around 585 B.C., it only took about a century for the irreasonism of skepticism and religion to become solidly established. This was seen in the bizarre irrationality of Parmenides and Zeno the Paradoxist, as well as the alien mystery cults of Orpheus, Dionysus, and Demeter.

As for the strong reasonist thinkers of Anaxagoras, Socrates, and Aristotle who came afterwards, they only moderately resisted these false and evil epistemologies, metaphysics, and cosmologies. And they essentially never noted how much skepticism devastates human understanding and quality of life; nor did they note how clearly the gods have no impact upon life and give no evidence of their existence. Anaxagoras and Socrates were quizzical and ironic about this while Aristotle was abstract and obscure. But there was evidently no passion denunciation or call to arms against these two related and horrific philosophical evils.

Thus all three thinkers were liars. All three were scumbags. And so were their Greek and Roman offspring. Every one of them was a skeptic of reason, or monotheist, or both.

Modern philosophers are little better. From the religious philosophers of Bacon, Locke, Smith, and Reid, to the skeptical philosophers of Hume, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, to advocates of both, like Descartes and Berkeley. The lone advocate of reasonism, who also opposed skepticism and religion, was the very recent Ayn Rand.

But Rand largely created a cult, not a full and robust philosophical school. She had an aggressive and riveting style of written argumentation and verbal public discussion. It promoted submissive deference to her authority and blind faith in her words. Ayn Rand’s unnatural, unhealthy, unhappy cult and community forbade serious discussion and debate. She vigorously and viciously excommunicated intellectual dissidents – even those who agreed with almost all of her radical ideas and who loved her personally. Now that’s she’s dead, most of her serious followers exhibit the same cult-type behavior, with ferocious moralizing and psychologizing directed toward any honest or competent questioner or critic of her philosophy. Thus Rand and the Randians are all liars and scumbags too.

What lowlifes and monsters human beings are! Or, at least, for the most part.

Humans deserve credit for being by far the smartest creatures on earth. They’re at the top of the food chain and are the apex predators on the planet. People also improve their culture and lifestyle over the generations and centuries. This is a vivid contrast with their rival wolves, whales, parakeets, and chimpanzees. And altho it’s true that Homo erectoids and Neanderthals also raised their level of civilization and culture over time, they’re long gone. Only humans are left to progress and ascend.

Still, what massive liars and scumbags people are today! Strong evidence indicates they always have been and always will be thus. Skepticism and religion are still with us after an inconceivable 2500 years. And while human beings have significantly improved their lifestyles and societies over the millennia, they seem to progress at only about 1/20th the speed they could and should. So humans are vermin.

I study people like the anthropologist I’ve been forced to become. And the objects of my observation and analysis seem to be remarkably strange, contemptible, and disgusting demons. If humans can think, say, or do something stupid or evil, they will. It’s the nature of mankind to always exhibit a high level of fatuosity and depravity.