Still Grieving Robin Williams

I know I'm not alone in being greatly saddened by Robin William's passing, and most particularly the manner in which it occurred. A day or two after it happened, Joseph stopped by for a nice long visit and we talked some about my philosophy.

I tried to explain how the idea that depression is 'a chemical imbalance' (the default/total explanation which modern science provides) and is somehow therefore separate and distinct from sadness is incorrect, simply a facet of the Information Processing Theory of Mind and thus a direct extension of Socrates' Error. I did not do well.

He has been receptive to my musings before, but when I happened to bring up the interaction I had with Jake on Facebook a few months ago, and said something about how 'atheists' are (meaning non-POR atheists, atheologists), it went downhill pretty quickly. So to try to wrap my head around the issues, I'm going to write three things that hopefully clarify my reasoning.

First, the horror (yes, horror) of a hugely successful person who was world-famous for making people laugh being depressed at all, let alone being so depressed that they commit suicide, speaks directly to the meaning and purpose of the Philosophy Of Reason. If this is the state of modern society and psychiatry, then they are useless, fatally flawed and counter-productive. I know with complete certainty that Robin Williams killed himself because he felt lost and alone, and that is an emotional state, not a neurological one. In areas of the world without modern mental health systems, many people are known to have melancholy personalities; they are dour and easily saddened. But they are not clinically depressed, and they rarely commit suicide. Rather than dismiss this fact as evidence that people in advanced countries are soft or self-centered as other philosophies do, POR recognizes this means that people in the "modern" (post-modern) world are taught to be suicidal, unknowingly.

But second, the very first time I tried to describe this truth to Joseph, I said something along the lines of "atheists believe...." This was a trigger for Joseph's post-modern instincts, though, as if I had said "all and every atheist believes...." This Socratic approach, both assuming and insisting that words are deductive categories of things, and my label must apply universally or it is entirely fictional, lead us to the problem of "arguments". To the Internet-trained post-modern philosophers that premise their (unrecognized) theology on being anti-religious (atheologists), arguments can be categorized and standardized. There are lists of "logical fallacies" that they use to provide justification for discounting other people's statements. That their own arguments don't fair any better when compared to standardized formula is one of those claims they find it convenient to dismiss in this very fashion. This leaves them ignorant, angry, and depressed, though it is rare you could find one that would be able to admit to it.

So, thirdly, and finally, I discovered years ago that the ultimate problem is that atheologists (non-POR atheists) assume and insist that the only proper reasoning is logic, and deny and ignore the fact that the only possible logic is math. Words are not deductive categories, and therefore cannot be used in the kind of formulaic methods that lists of 'logical fallacies' rely on. For every single entry on any such list, an example can be found when the very 'flawed logic' they condemn in that entry is both necessary and integral to their own understanding of the universe. I'm not ignorant of the success and methods of modern philosophy, but this does not prevent me from recognizing it for what it is: a semi-organized system for intellectual bullying. I've read and dealt with enough 'real' (that is, academic) philosophy to know both that this is true, and that pointing it out, even demonstrating it, does nothing to sway the opinions of those who practice it.

So ultimately this is just a long and pointless rant about how frustrated I am. Frustrated with me, frustrated with Joe, frustrated with all religion and all science and all philosophy, and frustrated most with Robin Williams. And because I am frustrated, and know that now there can never be any opportunity to express that frustration to him in this or any other universe, it is expressed as grief. The recognition of the eternal nature of death. What could be more depressing than that?

I'll tell you what: if everyone around you believes in "memes", and interprets this as a contagious bit of sadness, and allows it to effect our society so badly that the greatest losses in our military ranks are not from combat or enemy action, but suicide. You think it is a coincidence that so many service members kill themselves, and a man like Robin Williams does, too? Then you aren't thinking hard enough.