Old Ideas
What ideas are old? Aren’t all of them? Have you ever had an original thought? I have not. At least I don’t think so. Even when I think I have an original thought, I soon find out that someone else has already thought of it. Curiosity will often cure you of thinking of yourself as original.
Damn!
So what are some old ideas? Or, should we say old ways of thinking?
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How about individualistic thinking? I think for myself. Don't you? We all think for our selves. So, what's wrong with that? You gotta problem with individual thinking? Nobody is looking out for you except you.
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How about dualistic thinking? We do a lot of that. No we don’t! See: do and don’t are binaries — dualistic. So what’s wrong with dualistic thinking? Well, if it weren’t wrong it would have to be right? See, we can’t think ourselves out of duality to ponder more possibilities than two. Pizza or pasta?
How about hierarchical thinking? We do that a lot too. Well, I’m better at it than you! See, already in hierarchy mode. We love to rank, to file, to order things top to bottom, to think in superlative categories, to make top ten lists. What has hierarchical thinking ever done to me? Ain’t I the hero of this story?
What about progressive thinking? You mean like liberals? Progressive liberals? AOC? No, I mean thinking that everything is always getting better or that it will get better. Yeah, I hate to rain pessimism down, but that is unrealistic and very short-sighted. But, it is not really pessmistic. Pessimism isn’t always the opposite of optimism (unless you are a dualistic thinker). Progressive thinking has led us down a lot of dangerous paths. But things will get better, right?
How about ancient wisdom? What the hell is that? Philosophers in Ancient Greece 2500 years ago couldn’t figure out what wisdom was, and no one really has since. At least not that we all can agree upon. How could there be ancient wisdom, if we haven’t already figured out what wisdom is? What if we did figure it out and just forgot it?
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How about metaphorical thinking? That is literally not literal. Maybe it is the kind of thinking that helps us understand certain things through other certain things, that makes stories more interesting. What can metaphorical thinking do for us? Can it help us see meaning?
Since we as a species are prone to dualistic thinking, this question naturally follows:
If there are old ideas, are there new ideas?