The Clouds

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
- Confucius

Wikipedia informs me Confucius worked as a shepherd, cowherd, clerk and book-keeper.Also, as a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table.

Kinky.

Interesting digressions deserve another blog.


Returning to the matter at hand - I'm not sure which of these jobs it was that Confucius loved so dearly, but I think I see the man's point.
Technically of course, academics isn't a job...however to paraphrase the eloquent Justin Timberlake:

"You see these shackles baby...
I'm your slave"

The past four years have witnessed the systematic destabilization of my entire being.

The seemingly solid edifice of "truths" taken for granted, crumbles to the ground in a cloud of dust upon the feather-touch of a closer glance. The effort required to let your self be decimated, and to then recreate a skeletal system of thought is colossal. Even as you take your first shaky steps towards a deeper understanding, the everydayness of the world constantly threatens to swallow you whole. Technicolour panoramic views of a glossy, unexamined (and thus flawless) reality seduce you with their naivete.
Pop art, pop wisdom, pop spirituality...when information parading as knowledge is just a few taps on the keyboard away, why bother to delve any deeper, right?

And then there are other minor glitches along the way...the top accusations hurled at philosophy students in particular and pretty much anyone who is - for the lack of a better word - possessed by their area of study, are :

1. "Pseudo Intellectual" - Although I've never understood the blurry line that divides the realm of "pseudos" from the "genuinely" intellectual. Grey hair, perhaps? Or balding heads (even better)? Surely our worthy detractors wouldn't make such an obviously ridiculous generalisation?

2. "Pretentious" - Ugh.

3. "Aloof" and / or "Snobbish" - Honestly, there might be some truth in the aloof bit. But rather than being produced by the notion that one is better than the rest of the world, it's produced by a conviction that one is sorely out of place in a world which after a point simply ceased to make sense.

4. And finally, if you're really lucky..."Crazy" - I'm partial to this one. Every one I love and respect is a loon in their own right. (No, that doesn't translate to "I love all you crazy people out there". If you're a psychostalker and are planning to contact me after this reading this, don't bother. I won't find you oddly charming and want to exchange neuroses over a glass of wine.)


The exact reason why I signed up for this lifetime of mental contorting to begin with is a bit hazy, but I have to say it was the best decision I ever made.



Of course there is the unlikeliness of ever getting an actual job.


Hmmm.