We are not particularly concerned about growing our community. In the domain of philosophy it doesn’t come as a surprise that most people won’t show any serious interest. As the humblest of communities we’d much rather consist of only the most dedicated members. 

Some of our content may be fairly challenging. As a community that encourages personal development, we are by no means only recruiting the intellectual elite. We do, however, require all our members to have a genuine interest in philosophical matters. That doesn’t mean that we hold those who lack the curiosity to inquire about metaphysical concerns in contempt, though we refrain from letting the unlearned interfere with the discussions of highly sophisticated ideas.

One of the prevailing challenges in establishing proper grounds for the discipline of philosophy is that a lot of laymen think themselves qualified to comment on metaphysical issues without having demonstrated the necessary curiosity to give these sufficient consideration. Questions that appear unanswerable to them are assumed to be unknowable to everyone. Here is where the Dunning-Krueger effect reaches its full bloom. The simple fact of being alive does not automatically qualify a person to speak on philosophical matters. Even less sophisticated life forms have a capacity for perceiving the world to a greater or lesser extent, but that does not mean that they can equally conceive of what it means to be alive; just because you drive a car does not mean you know how to fix it, which is why you don’t see laymen telling mechanics how to fix their cars.

It is no secret that most philosophers live with their head in the clouds, always concerned with the bigger picture. They may therefore fail to appreciate the particularities in more specialised domains, and as a result lack any seemingly conventional and pragmatic sense. Thales even fell into a well while studying the heavens. But there’s no shame in admitting to one’s limitations. Let the pretty maidens laugh. As Nietzsche had already made clear, the higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

A similar lack of appreciation can be witnessed when it comes to the work of musicians and other artists. The current world we live in seems to place an exceptional emphasis on the importance of pragmatism but has thereby come to neglect the purely aesthetic and mystical aspects of life. But, if not death, then what is the end we seek in a world where forests turn to concrete jungles? 

Let’s reinject the soil with a fruitful dose of mystery and wake the sleepwalking orbitals from their cyclical self perpetuating slumber.

Yehi ‘or.