I'll begin by saying how beautiful the video is and yet daunting. Pills, you're the greatest philosophy/theory content creator of our time! You possess this gift to make highly complex ideas very digestible (and stick with great examples) to all of us; doing so quite aesthetically, with great humour and high degree of self-reflectivity. My gratitude to you to bring thinkers like Merleau-Ponty and Baudrillard into the conversation - both of whom aren't as widely read as they should be in academia. Also for making thinkers like Lacan or even someone like Deleuze, Heidegger, Nietzsche accessible. - Your content is REAL education. Thanks also for being vulnerable (and authentic) to your audience: outside the podcast, I had rarely seen you express your thoughts explicitly in these public videos. Also for making this highly personal, with a glimpse of baby Pills. We do live in a world full of images with no depth, just mere surfaces. We are in an endless split, where all content repeats itself infinitely. Also, the paradox of brands being people and people being brands (or a book about simulacra which itself becomes simulacra) does make one think profoundly; and I believe to make the viewer/reader have thoughts of their own is what I'm sure you are always aiming for. It was really important for you to point out the presupposition we take as a given: doubting the existence of the world ALREADY assumes a profound experience & knowledge of the world. All the work you've put in the past two years has been beautifully enmeshed into this video, as a whole. Thanks for pointing repeatedly that phenomenology IS first philosophy - I think more people should consider this. Something like you say "go, touch grass" or "don't be too spiritual, or you'll miss it." Fuck, that's a ton of thank yous - but thanks for helping out, us, fellow lost birds to find our way back home i.e. where you already ARE.
Agreed, holy shit was that baby pills? That's...fucking adorable...and I hate children! Also, as an idiot, I've never heard of Merleau-Ponty, so now I get to check out all his shit and further customize my Plato's Cave (tm) reality. There is no spoon...until there is!
That seems to be the daily shows and last week tonight’s strategy too because those are the “what sucks this week” shows so adding a bit of humor helps
I love the final takeaway. "Be here now" is the reminder I hold on to. This present moment, right here, right now, contains everything that matters. It's flawed and messy, ugly and incomplete, but it's the only home we'll ever have.
I have one, very close friend that I can get into philosophical, existential talks with. At least he's the one that really throws ideas back at me and keeps it engaging enough that I always leave thinking of three more things that could be discussed. During a car ride, with me driving and amidst some kind of conversation he asked something like "how can we really know anything?" And on the fly, off the top of my head the best answer I could give was: "experiencing something is knowing something." Thinking about it more, I think I might've been right or at least, it's a rare occasion where I feel confident in my immediate answer. Experience. All we truly know that we have. Thus the only way that we truly know anything. Things not read about, or read or heard about: but experienced as first handedly as possible. Experience. All that we can know, all that we are. As far as I can tell...as far as I've experienced lol.
This video really gave a structure and language to what I have been thinking for a long time. Especially reading philosophy and especially being culturally taught the notion of the duality between mind and body. However, as you said, it is our bodies that exist and it is our bodies that constitute our categories of existence. Touching grass is a widely known syntagm, however, practicing it is more useful than one believes. Go out, leave your phone at home, live, create something! This alone will elevate you and will give you back something that you actually never lost.
oh HELL yeah!!!!!!!!!!! Found your channel yesterday through your videos on Lacan and you’re already one of my favorite creators. Excited to watch this!
One of the best UA-cam Videos I have ever seen. The outro was beyond perfect. I just wish you would have left out the last sentence on the redpill, since I think the effect would have been stronger, if you had just let the viewer sit with the atmosphere of the ending afterwards
Great video, as always. I wonder if there are people who are, for all intents and purposes, in a virtual reality because they only know the world through the media, and what the existence of such people means for this theory. Sure, we're not yet permanently strapped into a VR rig, which may not matter anyway per this theory, but I imagine there are people for whom the distinction is negligible. For these people, nearly every minute of every day is spent consuming what is truly a simulation of reality. And, what's more, one that is tailormade for them. Here, I imagine we create people whose virtual reality has transcended fantasy to become actual reality, to the point that time away from the simulation, in that humble world where we spent our childhood, is time spent attempting to live out the simulation: everything is measured against the simulation. When things come up short, it's because their location is backwards, degenerate, it's just a matter of finding the right place where the simulation is manifest. Same goes for the people they may come across. The simulation amounts to some kind of lost future, maybe better to say lost present, because it's right there in their pocket and it feels like home, and reality is coming up short, and will always come up short, otherwise we'd be dealing with something other than fantasy. This is a major area of concern for me. The virtual does and is manifesting itself in the real world. People convinced of the superiority of their simulation will look out at reality, see that their virtual one isn't represented anywhere, and attempt to change that. But what are they manifesting? What is their simulation built upon? Love? Hate? Who's to say. Whatever the case is, the humble world of childhood can and will be changed fundamentally. Can it happen that the humble world could be destroyed, become the desert of the real? And for what? Advertising revenue?
Nice comment. It reminds me of a Baudrillard quote: "When the real is no longer what is was, nostalgia assumes its full meaning" (Sim&Sim, 1981, p. 6). I‘ve often wondered how that quote was supposed to be taken. Does it mean that nostalgia assumes *all the meaning of reality? Like it covers everything that is 'real'?* I mean, everything *is* nostalgic inside the alternative reality of media which is where we all now live (in endless repititions of videos, video games and other simulations). Or does it mean that nostalgia achieves it *full* potential as it is the most viable emotion in postmodernity whatever that is? And does it mean 'reality' is dead? Or does it mean that we pine for reality as it was because it can no longer be? I can‘t help but think too that this war right now is not real. War has not been strictly 'real' since the Gulf War. But what can I do to corroborate my fears? I have no way to know. Roland Barthes wrote a brilliant piece about Jet-Pilots in 'Mythologies' in which he talked about the Jet as being faster than fast to the point it surpassed speed (1957, p. 81). Nothing is sensed by the Pilot but a "coanaesthesis of motionlessness" - an experience of feeling one‘s body frozen by speed. What is that if not a metaphor for the Net-Man too? Speeding through information yet utterly unaware.
@@MGSVxBreakpoint Remember the map that is as large and detailed as the terrain. The map is confused for the real or assumed to be as much but, crucially, it isn't. The real is there underneath it. That is, until it isn't; when it rots away and all that is left is the map. What we are left with is some approximation of the real, and no telling how accurate. We miss what we didn't know we lost, and when we go to look for it again, all we find are the trappings of something long lost. It gets into our minds that perhaps, at least for a moment, we might experience what we once had. But, we can't. Our memories are in Technicolor, and feature Happy Meal Toys, Sunday morning Cartoons, Britney Spears, and Scream, the horror movie and nothing of the real, only the memes of that time. No wonder that this is all we can seem to conjure up in The Real of now, or the Not Real, for Nostalgia assumes its full meaning when the now and the future are just copies of a copy of a copy...
@@alexjeffreys2546 Ya, bud. I have read Baudrillard too xD. Reality being compromised is quite a 1st-world problem though when we get down to it. There is plenty of it around if you look for it.
Touching upon the following: "I wonder if there are people who are, for all intents and purposes, in a virtual reality because they only know the world through the media, and what the existence of such people means for this theory" I think this video addresses this, though--at our core, we're bodies operating by largely frictive forces. Could we make virtual the physical process of digestion, of respiration? For as long as we're biologically living creatures which require what we require to physically sustain ourselves, we'll undergo a learning of behaviors and norms which bind us to the physical world around us. This basis is, I think, what Pills is suggesting as a platform of response to the creep of the virtual into reality. Maybe an interesting next step would be to question how thoroughly our physical needs (and emotional, but that seems to require much more typing) which provide the axes for our modes of conduct could be addressed through 'virtual' means. If a grocery store simulates the hunter/gather principle by providing us segmented areas of nutritive sources from which to collect, that doesn't mean I don't digest an apple just the same. Neither does does a media campaign selling me pears replace my actually eating them. Could replacing social spheres vital to physical development with VR headsets (both literally and metaphorically) as you suggest truly lead us to a place where virtual reality subsumes reality entirely--again, however we're defining reality--and thus invert the real/virtual dichotomy/distinction?
Glad to see another video that isn't too 'splainy. I remember, in childhood, having touched grass before I knew what grass was. Seen dust motes in a sunbeam. Smelled old canvas tents. Heard rain hitting a tin roof. As I understand Merleau-Ponty, his work points to a preconceptual experience with thickness. Is it language that thins out the world? It certainly distances us from it.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Even seeing a rainbow for the 50th time has to have less impact than the first time. If only we could go back. But to go back we have to un-become us, and not know that reality is more "thick" than the one our "grown up" selves left behind.
@@edubmf , psychedelics can do that. A child's brain, in which the neurological paths haven't thickened yet is overwhelmed by sensory input. As msri images have shown, psilocybin stimulates the brain in a way, that communication between different brain parts increases highly. That's maybe why the experience can make you humble. You again experience the child like state and how difficult it is to make sense of things and deal with the sensory data coming in. But I don't want to promote anything. I'm just a little sad, that these magnificient tools are still seen in the same category as stupid performance enhancing substances, which have a high potential for addiction and rather make you an even more habitual robot, while our circumstances demand highly adaptable behaviour.
Zeno believed that motion is nothing but an illusion. According to Simplicius, Diogenes the Cynic [Chad] said nothing upon hearing Zeno's arguments, but stood up and walked, in order to demonstrate the falsity of Zeno's conclusions.
What a strange era in history we live in. Debord called it when he said: "as culture becomes completely commodified it tends to become the star commodity of a spectacular society" (SoS, 1967, p. 107). We‘re all just trading scraps of information for the thrill of it these days. Because it‘s fun, because it tastes nice, because it‘s cool. Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opium of the masses. *Information* is.
Well done. Leaving my comment in the hope that the great UA-cam machine can surface a well crafted message to more would be watchers. Truly, well done. I'll wait for the chance a of proper sequel
"What you are reading right now are pixels, electrical impulses, colors, sounds, preconceptions, etc. It is with the help of preconceived ideas that you think. One must experience the boundaries of Spinoza's Causa Sui and/or Nagarjuna's Middle Way vision. These two boundaries are topos known as cenomorphic concepts. Deleuze knew Spinoza but did not experience Nagarjuna's vision. What for? There was no need after WWII (...).-The Cenomorphic Concept.Trade Mark. Excellent videos. My Philosophy Professors were both Gilles Deleuze' students.
I'm so glad I found your videos. This was the second that I've watched and I found it so thought-provoking, grounding and moving. Looking forward to watching more. Really digestible but nice to have the references for some deeper exploration. And a beautiful message to end on. Thank you!
Your videos are very well done, an exhaustive analysis that you give to these phenomenological observations, which will alter us, being functional neurotics. Recommended by Diego Ruzzarin as well as his channel.
Very happy to have found your channel. I was completely lost at first because I've never even remotely thought about any of this kind of thing. But after watching some of the videos 3 or 4 times, I feel like I'm starting to pick some of it up. Extremely interesting and really makes my brain hurt in the best type of way. Thank you. The patreon is legit as well if anyone else is curious.
Pillz you make me feel so much less alone in the world. I've found that meditation is my best way of remembering my fleshyness and I was wondering if you have a practice?
Loved it! I think your content is truly amazing and it's a bit weird that it has so little views. I think you should play with the titles of your videos.. Not sure if I would click on a video titled "Phenomenology of Touching Grass" if it was in my recommended list
based as fuck, after watching this I went backpacking in the desert for a month and experienced enough friction to make me connect to the real for a bit. Now I'm back working and staring at a screen alone in my room all day but at least I uhhhhh gained something? Maybe? A fleeting sensation that will soon pass before I once again delve into the loop of reading philosophy and then realizing it's all a bunch of masturbatory interpretations of meaningless signs
Great vid, now im gonna go sit in my gucci pajamas watching my disney show on my disney tv on my disney couch with my gucci simulacra and simulation copy on my marvel themed tabletop
Have you ever read David Abram's 'The Spell of the Sensuous'? He ties animism with Merleau-Ponty's theories related to phenomenology, and covers what you've gone over in this video in great detail.
17:00 - love the Heideggerian defending of the "world" from Descartes and doubt. You should look into the Christian idea of the incarnation and embodiment. They are everything Ponte and Heidegger have articulated and much more. It's not a metaphor to say that we've lost our souls in the West. We don't even know what "soul" means, and consequently that of body.
As a matter of fact, you and your videos are far better than Baudrillard. I saw him here em Belo Horizonte in 1999. Oh, a friend of mine said: "contemporary French philosophy, based on stilts".
More great content. One point to challenge you on again, nostalgia. You often portray it as illusionary, a time that before that appears better in hindsight but is 'false'. However, you essentially summarise (from around 17mins) the importance of nostalgia in relation to identity and your perception of reality. Feeling 'at home' under the mountain of experience. Is that not nostalgia? Nostalgia is like a value and emotional exchange with yourself, through your memories (which are always 'reflections' or images of that reality), an exchange that re-inforces your identity.
@@fidii347 I think some kind of 'nostalgia' is inevitable, it's how the self is formed and lived. So yeah i agree with 'relying' on those imprints, in a way. Continuous self affirmation. We're just programming, responding to postive feedback loops starting from that very first day of the mirror stage. Pills is always so negative on nostalgia and i can agree that there are some negatives. Its used as a tool of consumerism (resulting in this cultureless modernity we live in) and as a weapon, to evoke those values that are useful to whoever is wielding them. But, big but, those feelings are still real. Each one unique and engrained in the minds of every single human being.
pills, have you read the zhuangzi (or chuang tsu, by other romanization systems)? Much of the core ideas there closely closely mirror this video, but the aesthetics of doom gloom and neurotic panic are instead replaced with that of laughter. It's a pretty ingenious approach to the "problem" of the matrix, and it's been around so long that we don't even really know if the accredited author was a real person. I'm pretty sure you'd dig it, but what I'm really curious on is, how does the fact that this is taught in practically every chinese school affect how that society runs? Does it even make a difference?
Chuang Tzu is largely regarded as the second greatest Taoist philosopher whether he was a single real person or not. His work, collected after his death? Is a true masterwork of great philosophy. You say this is taught in every Chinese School? Brilliant. This is an amazing sign for the world and China's influence in it. I don't expect our host to examine the comments on a year old video with any sense of urgency. But I do hope that I can see any reply, especially from PlasticPills.
Ohh man this is so great, just the turn i needeed in this moment of loads of phi meditations, we do tend to forget the meaninfull everyday experience of the flesh.
"wherever you go, there you are" "The Great Mystery" - How does one see without seeing? Hear without hearing? Think without thinking? Choose without choosing?
"Guilty" admission I was one of those 22 million that likes to be advertised too...I love it BB gimme a 20 minute infomercial next time damn, how dare you 'sell' me short
“purpose” is a strong word, a little bit of humanism still left in you yet. i try not to assign so much intention personally, as i see them as symptoms of an indifferent structure
The algorithm apparently was listening to your dissing of religion by showing me an ad about Jesus 😅. Nice video, yours that is, not the Jesus commercial.
Also, what you consider the red pill (reality), the world of flesh, rings of Thich Nhat Hanh signature mantras "I have arrived, I am home, present moment, wonderful moment, peace in every step, with every step I have arrived." Dude was touching grass deeeeeeply.
One is missing one thing, that is happening, with the Matrix remake using newer technology. If they continue creating new remakes, computer games and whatever entertainment product the new technology provides, VR, better VR, and so on, one day the Matrix itself as a product will become so realistic that one will be able to plug themselves into, as in the first movie... so the Matrix is manifesting itself through time and its rehashes...
Mr. Pills (Mr. Plastic P? Mr. PP?) unusual question but are you, per chance, Canadian? Something about your vibe is vaguely reminiscent of a YTV host (respectfully).
If i'm the product of my own fantasy then i'm extremely schitty in fantasizing. That being said, we think of Simulation as a modern convention and it must've come up when all this social media came up. But writers in the past have also expressed such possibilities that one day, technology would create a false reality and we'll be living in it. So, that much, is the given. But what i find fascinating is that the idea, that reality isn't real but is an idea in itself, and this has been said since Plato's time. Everyone, regardless of the "time" has preferred to live in their "idea" of the world. So, we all live in our idea of this world too. Just the moment something truly horrible happens is when we meet the reality.
It's easy to get caught up with the potential metaphysical implications of "The Matrix"; but in my mind, that's not the point of story. The Matrix isn't a virtual reality, that's just a tool, it could just as easily have been dream magic, or some spiritual bs as the vehicle of what the matrix really is. The matrix is a Narrative, spread in order to control people and extract a resource from them, their "electrical power" in the case of the movie. The narrative provided by the machines was that of a life, a society, a history. The technology was used merely as a means to provided believability to the life stories of the inhabitants. There is no being "red pilled", even in the "real world", the people of zion where living according to various narratives, some believed in Neo, others didn't, and these competing narratives caused tension. The narrative of Neo itself was used to as a means of control by the Oracle. There is no escaping the realm of narratives, it's how we understand the world. The question is: What are the origins of your narrative, and which narrative do you choose to believe?
Well put. Within the story, a lot of people forget the importance of the oracle. She was a tool of the system just as neo was and the matrix as a whole was. Your question really leads you round in circles tho, even with reductionist thinking. This is addressed in the trilogy, altho i don't think they offer a solution. You could, and a lot do, end in a nihilistic gloom with the realisation that no choice is ever made freely. I like the dialog with the oracles when shes says "you're not here to make the choice, you've already made it, you're here to understand it"
@@0quisuismoi0 yes, the question of what narrative you choose to believe, and what its origins are may be circular, at least causally. Your starting narrative will influence further choices in narrative you choose to believe. The point though, you can't be "red pilled", you can't "wake up", or be "enlightened". Once you start to question a narrative, what you're doing is constructing competing narratives and assessing which is the most plausible. That's not to say that all are equally valid, just that any choice you make is just the adoption of a new narrative, or the same. In terms of 'The Matrix', once Neo starts to question the reality of his life, he is in search of a new narrative, and Morpheus (and by proxy, the Oracle) provides one, which he accepts, yet continues to question, at least as to whether he is indeed "the one". As far as 'The Matrix' is concerned, the narrative that people are trapped in a virtual reality is, as far as we know, objectively true, but some viewers have questioned whether or not 'the real world' was just another simulation. With respect to the signs and symbols we see in media and advertisements that pills touches on, these, in my mind, are just another means of constructing a narrative, another 'technology' if you will, a visual language. In the end, what we choose to believe is our responsibility (disregarding any debate on 'freewill'), and in my mind, that's empowering, not nihilistic. That being said, we should be cautious, what potential motives might those who provide pieces of a narrative to us carry? That's the reason to question the origins of a narrative, are those behind a narrative like the machines, trying to extract a resource from us? What resource might that be? Taxes? Votes? Purchases? Some form of support in a conflict? Credibility? What you choose to believe will either make you provide those resources willingly, or not, but in the end, we are responsible for our choice.
@@toddfulton2280 I think the 'resource' extracted from us is our participation, in whichever 'matrix' that is. As in, Symbolic exchange is its own purpose. I think thats how our consious brain and perception itself works. Thats how we exist in this reality, or 'matrixes'. With Neos journey, and pursuit for a new narrative, i think its presented as he releases himself from those narratives through 'self' sacrifice. After learning he is himself a form of control, he initially rejects that narrative by going back to trinity, herself another narrative in that context (altho listening to the wachowkis they use 'matrixes' for their description) After shedding it all, his final conversations with smith, nudged by the oracle again, he 'self' sacrifices. He does what he is, if that makes sense. As in the only way to become 'free' or to be himself (which is what neos journey is. "wake up neo") Is after he gave up everything else and is just left with himself, which is a mechanism to reset the matrix.
Isn't science an escape from narrative? Not to say that science can't be narrativized, but at its grandest and loftiest, science shows us things about reality which are impossible to reconcile with ordinary experiences of reality (ex: quantum mechanics and its strangeness)
@@josephmariani-mezera4171 At its core, science gives us the ability to make predictions, period. When used as a means to describe reality however, it falls into the realm of narrative, or philosophy. The description depends on our interpretation of the models we construct, and there are many competing narratives, especially regarding the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics. Do you believe that mathematics is an intrinsic (objective) aspect of reality, or is it a subjective set of rules we've created to capture patterns we find in the world? To say that mathematics is subjective is not to say that it's arbitrary, 1 + 1 = 2 according to the rules of addition, but does 2 mean anything to the objective world, or is it an abstract, subjective, symbol we use to describe the world?
The present is all there is was and will be. Nostalgia Drippers / Revolutionaries / Bead Touchers appear confident in their world view yet I wonder to what extent this view creates anxiety/fear/regret/pain behind the scenes. Are they having a more comfortable time than us? Us being those who actively search out content like Pills + likely already doubt simulated representations in order to experience reality as it is. Or are they having a bad time and just praying like hell when they get home? Would it be ethical to show people our world view or is pulling someone out of the matrix an act of harm? Well. Even however they do it, I couldn't live like that. My brain wiring just doesn't allow it. Can't knock em too hard, it's pretty tricky navigating the world these days without hoping for another reality. Anyways, hella good content Pillz, now pardon me while I pull up the top 10 grass.jpg
Taking both pills and laughing with & at the outcome, is one of the more necessary options. Mine/ours was the obvious purple; I don’t think Zizked attached a color to his.
I'll begin by saying how beautiful the video is and yet daunting. Pills, you're the greatest philosophy/theory content creator of our time! You possess this gift to make highly complex ideas very digestible (and stick with great examples) to all of us; doing so quite aesthetically, with great humour and high degree of self-reflectivity.
My gratitude to you to bring thinkers like Merleau-Ponty and Baudrillard into the conversation - both of whom aren't as widely read as they should be in academia. Also for making thinkers like Lacan or even someone like Deleuze, Heidegger, Nietzsche accessible. - Your content is REAL education.
Thanks also for being vulnerable (and authentic) to your audience: outside the podcast, I had rarely seen you express your thoughts explicitly in these public videos. Also for making this highly personal, with a glimpse of baby Pills.
We do live in a world full of images with no depth, just mere surfaces. We are in an endless split, where all content repeats itself infinitely.
Also, the paradox of brands being people and people being brands (or a book about simulacra which itself becomes simulacra) does make one think profoundly; and I believe to make the viewer/reader have thoughts of their own is what I'm sure you are always aiming for.
It was really important for you to point out the presupposition we take as a given: doubting the existence of the world ALREADY assumes a profound experience & knowledge of the world.
All the work you've put in the past two years has been beautifully enmeshed into this video, as a whole. Thanks for pointing repeatedly that phenomenology IS first philosophy - I think more people should consider this. Something like you say "go, touch grass" or "don't be too spiritual, or you'll miss it." Fuck, that's a ton of thank yous - but thanks for helping out, us, fellow lost birds to find our way back home i.e. where you already ARE.
Agreed, holy shit was that baby pills? That's...fucking adorable...and I hate children!
Also, as an idiot, I've never heard of Merleau-Ponty, so now I get to check out all his shit and further customize my Plato's Cave (tm) reality.
There is no spoon...until there is!
nah its entertainment not education
This is masterful. You're just getting better and better and i can't wait to seeing what you will cook up next. Thank you so much.
brother the end gave me goosebumps. Quite lovely.
Beyond the thoughtful and timely content, the craftwork behind this video is absolutely incredible.
Can’t wait to find out if reality is real, if anyone knows pls don’t spoil it
I love the comedy in this. It feels like the only response to this problem is to try not to let it get you down.
10:22 this is the best way to get a feel for reading philosophy
...to _get a feel_ ...for reading...philosophy...you see...
*_*dodges tomatoes_**
existence is a prison and life is a curse, so might as well watch a bunch of tiktoks that make you laugh!
That seems to be the daily shows and last week tonight’s strategy too because those are the “what sucks this week” shows so adding a bit of humor helps
making me cry homeboy talking about our home(s)
I love the final takeaway.
"Be here now" is the reminder I hold on to.
This present moment, right here, right now, contains everything that matters.
It's flawed and messy, ugly and incomplete, but it's the only home we'll ever have.
I have one, very close friend that I can get into philosophical, existential talks with. At least he's the one that really throws ideas back at me and keeps it engaging enough that I always leave thinking of three more things that could be discussed.
During a car ride, with me driving and amidst some kind of conversation he asked something like "how can we really know anything?"
And on the fly, off the top of my head the best answer I could give was: "experiencing something is knowing something."
Thinking about it more, I think I might've been right or at least, it's a rare occasion where I feel confident in my immediate answer.
Experience. All we truly know that we have. Thus the only way that we truly know anything. Things not read about, or read or heard about: but experienced as first handedly as possible.
Experience. All that we can know, all that we are. As far as I can tell...as far as I've experienced lol.
This video really gave a structure and language to what I have been thinking for a long time. Especially reading philosophy and especially being culturally taught the notion of the duality between mind and body. However, as you said, it is our bodies that exist and it is our bodies that constitute our categories of existence. Touching grass is a widely known syntagm, however, practicing it is more useful than one believes.
Go out, leave your phone at home, live, create something! This alone will elevate you and will give you back something that you actually never lost.
oh HELL yeah!!!!!!!!!!! Found your channel yesterday through your videos on Lacan and you’re already one of my favorite creators. Excited to watch this!
It's good to see Diego on a Plastic Pills video
One of the best UA-cam Videos I have ever seen. The outro was beyond perfect. I just wish you would have left out the last sentence on the redpill, since I think the effect would have been stronger, if you had just let the viewer sit with the atmosphere of the ending afterwards
The placement of that (real) ad was just impeccable
Love the cut to Zizek at 10:43, dude keeps it real.
Great video, as always. I wonder if there are people who are, for all intents and purposes, in a virtual reality because they only know the world through the media, and what the existence of such people means for this theory. Sure, we're not yet permanently strapped into a VR rig, which may not matter anyway per this theory, but I imagine there are people for whom the distinction is negligible. For these people, nearly every minute of every day is spent consuming what is truly a simulation of reality. And, what's more, one that is tailormade for them. Here, I imagine we create people whose virtual reality has transcended fantasy to become actual reality, to the point that time away from the simulation, in that humble world where we spent our childhood, is time spent attempting to live out the simulation: everything is measured against the simulation. When things come up short, it's because their location is backwards, degenerate, it's just a matter of finding the right place where the simulation is manifest. Same goes for the people they may come across. The simulation amounts to some kind of lost future, maybe better to say lost present, because it's right there in their pocket and it feels like home, and reality is coming up short, and will always come up short, otherwise we'd be dealing with something other than fantasy.
This is a major area of concern for me. The virtual does and is manifesting itself in the real world. People convinced of the superiority of their simulation will look out at reality, see that their virtual one isn't represented anywhere, and attempt to change that. But what are they manifesting? What is their simulation built upon? Love? Hate? Who's to say. Whatever the case is, the humble world of childhood can and will be changed fundamentally. Can it happen that the humble world could be destroyed, become the desert of the real? And for what? Advertising revenue?
Nice comment. It reminds me of a Baudrillard quote: "When the real is no longer what is was, nostalgia assumes its full meaning" (Sim&Sim, 1981, p. 6).
I‘ve often wondered how that quote was supposed to be taken. Does it mean that nostalgia assumes *all the meaning of reality? Like it covers everything that is 'real'?* I mean, everything *is* nostalgic inside the alternative reality of media which is where we all now live (in endless repititions of videos, video games and other simulations). Or does it mean that nostalgia achieves it *full* potential as it is the most viable emotion in postmodernity whatever that is? And does it mean 'reality' is dead? Or does it mean that we pine for reality as it was because it can no longer be?
I can‘t help but think too that this war right now is not real. War has not been strictly 'real' since the Gulf War. But what can I do to corroborate my fears? I have no way to know.
Roland Barthes wrote a brilliant piece about Jet-Pilots in 'Mythologies' in which he talked about the Jet as being faster than fast to the point it surpassed speed (1957, p. 81). Nothing is sensed by the Pilot but a "coanaesthesis of motionlessness" - an experience of feeling one‘s body frozen by speed. What is that if not a metaphor for the Net-Man too? Speeding through information yet utterly unaware.
@@MGSVxBreakpoint Remember the map that is as large and detailed as the terrain. The map is confused for the real or assumed to be as much but, crucially, it isn't. The real is there underneath it. That is, until it isn't; when it rots away and all that is left is the map. What we are left with is some approximation of the real, and no telling how accurate. We miss what we didn't know we lost, and when we go to look for it again, all we find are the trappings of something long lost. It gets into our minds that perhaps, at least for a moment, we might experience what we once had. But, we can't. Our memories are in Technicolor, and feature Happy Meal Toys, Sunday morning Cartoons, Britney Spears, and Scream, the horror movie and nothing of the real, only the memes of that time. No wonder that this is all we can seem to conjure up in The Real of now, or the Not Real, for Nostalgia assumes its full meaning when the now and the future are just copies of a copy of a copy...
@@alexjeffreys2546 Ya, bud. I have read Baudrillard too xD.
Reality being compromised is quite a 1st-world problem though when we get down to it. There is plenty of it around if you look for it.
@@MGSVxBreakpoint sorry man. Wasn't intending to condescend, just attempting to explain what he meant re: nostalgia and the real.
Touching upon the following: "I wonder if there are people who are, for all intents and purposes, in a virtual reality because they only know the world through the media, and what the existence of such people means for this theory"
I think this video addresses this, though--at our core, we're bodies operating by largely frictive forces. Could we make virtual the physical process of digestion, of respiration? For as long as we're biologically living creatures which require what we require to physically sustain ourselves, we'll undergo a learning of behaviors and norms which bind us to the physical world around us. This basis is, I think, what Pills is suggesting as a platform of response to the creep of the virtual into reality. Maybe an interesting next step would be to question how thoroughly our physical needs (and emotional, but that seems to require much more typing) which provide the axes for our modes of conduct could be addressed through 'virtual' means. If a grocery store simulates the hunter/gather principle by providing us segmented areas of nutritive sources from which to collect, that doesn't mean I don't digest an apple just the same. Neither does does a media campaign selling me pears replace my actually eating them. Could replacing social spheres vital to physical development with VR headsets (both literally and metaphorically) as you suggest truly lead us to a place where virtual reality subsumes reality entirely--again, however we're defining reality--and thus invert the real/virtual dichotomy/distinction?
To paraphrase michael tyson,
"Everyones gotta simulation, til they get punched in the face"
this is almost literally what the "signs and truth" chapter of "proust and signs" is about
(read the book)
@@heartache5742 it is now in my basket, but i cannot guarantee i shall understand
And he’s back !!! Missed their videos so much.
Glad to see another video that isn't too 'splainy. I remember, in childhood, having touched grass before I knew what grass was. Seen dust motes in a sunbeam. Smelled old canvas tents. Heard rain hitting a tin roof. As I understand Merleau-Ponty, his work points to a preconceptual experience with thickness. Is it language that thins out the world? It certainly distances us from it.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Even seeing a rainbow for the 50th time has to have less impact than the first time.
If only we could go back. But to go back we have to un-become us, and not know that reality is more "thick" than the one our "grown up" selves left behind.
@@edubmf , psychedelics can do that. A child's brain, in which the neurological paths haven't thickened yet is overwhelmed by sensory input. As msri images have shown, psilocybin stimulates the brain in a way, that communication between different brain parts increases highly. That's maybe why the experience can make you humble. You again experience the child like state and how difficult it is to make sense of things and deal with the sensory data coming in.
But I don't want to promote anything. I'm just a little sad, that these magnificient tools are still seen in the same category as stupid performance enhancing substances, which have a high potential for addiction and rather make you an even more habitual robot, while our circumstances demand highly adaptable behaviour.
Yes, language does thin out the world and distances us from it. But that is its greatest power
Pills is dropping shit for real. Man is in stride! Glad you took time over the autumn to recharge.
Zeno believed that motion is nothing but an illusion.
According to Simplicius, Diogenes the Cynic [Chad] said nothing upon hearing Zeno's arguments, but stood up and walked, in order to demonstrate the falsity of Zeno's conclusions.
amazing video. i really enjoy seeing where you‘re going with this channel, and i really enjoy seeing and listening to your thoughts! thanks.
What a strange era in history we live in. Debord called it when he said: "as culture becomes completely commodified it tends to become the star commodity of a spectacular society" (SoS, 1967, p. 107). We‘re all just trading scraps of information for the thrill of it these days. Because it‘s fun, because it tastes nice, because it‘s cool.
Marx was wrong. Religion is not the opium of the masses. *Information* is.
Religion was the information of its day
And censored and controlled at that
Culture is the commodity that sells all the others
@@joeymcauley1 grossly ironic because culture IS the most abundant and demanded commodity today XD
This is a really great take… I will steal it from you
What I like about this video is the depth of its artistic dimension. It's a deliverance. Bravo!
Well done. Leaving my comment in the hope that the great UA-cam machine can surface a well crafted message to more would be watchers. Truly, well done. I'll wait for the chance a of proper sequel
I didn't cry while watching this. I didn't.
the only youtuber that is sincerely trying to get me, not offline, but into the world
Great video as always! That Merleau-Ponty quote hit close to home.
"What you are reading right now are pixels, electrical impulses, colors, sounds, preconceptions, etc. It is with the help of preconceived ideas that you think. One must experience the boundaries of Spinoza's Causa Sui and/or Nagarjuna's Middle Way vision. These two boundaries are topos known as cenomorphic concepts. Deleuze knew Spinoza but did not experience Nagarjuna's vision. What for? There was no need after WWII (...).-The Cenomorphic Concept.Trade Mark.
Excellent videos. My Philosophy Professors were both Gilles Deleuze' students.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. Respect
You always make great content but I think this is your best video yet.
I have been thinking about this all week, great timing!
You're a humble genius❤ Great going
Damn, that was good. You are an ambassador of Touching Grass
I'm so glad I found your videos. This was the second that I've watched and I found it so thought-provoking, grounding and moving. Looking forward to watching more. Really digestible but nice to have the references for some deeper exploration. And a beautiful message to end on. Thank you!
Great content as usual 👍 would love a video about Merleau-Ponty's work.
Great, great video, your editing has gotten stupidly better
Your videos are very well done, an exhaustive analysis that you give to these phenomenological observations, which will alter us, being functional neurotics.
Recommended by
Diego Ruzzarin as well as his channel.
This video helps ground me so often ty truly
You're an artist
Very happy to have found your channel. I was completely lost at first because I've never even remotely thought about any of this kind of thing. But after watching some of the videos 3 or 4 times, I feel like I'm starting to pick some of it up. Extremely interesting and really makes my brain hurt in the best type of way. Thank you. The patreon is legit as well if anyone else is curious.
This is your best video so far. Thanks.
Another banger, Mr. Pills!
Pillz you make me feel so much less alone in the world. I've found that meditation is my best way of remembering my fleshyness and I was wondering if you have a practice?
Loved it! I think your content is truly amazing and it's a bit weird that it has so little views.
I think you should play with the titles of your videos.. Not sure if I would click on a video titled "Phenomenology of Touching Grass" if it was in my recommended list
Wow , your content is marvelous keep doing this , thank so much.
So much respect for you
It's interesting to draw analogies between your conclusion of being here in the world and zen philosophy.
This was great and I guess I will finally read Merleau Ponty now.
based as fuck, after watching this I went backpacking in the desert for a month and experienced enough friction to make me connect to the real for a bit. Now I'm back working and staring at a screen alone in my room all day but at least I uhhhhh gained something? Maybe? A fleeting sensation that will soon pass before I once again delve into the loop of reading philosophy and then realizing it's all a bunch of masturbatory interpretations of meaningless signs
Your finest vid. Thank you for this!
Love this content! Thanks
this is very good, unusually good -- thank you!
Time to go delete all of my social media accounts, ty for the inspiration pills
This is mind-bogglingly good.
G U C C I G A N G
"the reality you deserve" 🤣
Best Video of the Plastic Pills Canon. Thanks Bruh
No me esperaba la conexión "REAL" entre Diego Ruzzarin y Plastic Pills!!
Great vid, now im gonna go sit in my gucci pajamas watching my disney show on my disney tv on my disney couch with my gucci simulacra and simulation copy on my marvel themed tabletop
Have you ever read David Abram's 'The Spell of the Sensuous'? He ties animism with Merleau-Ponty's theories related to phenomenology, and covers what you've gone over in this video in great detail.
I'm greatful for the gucci ad
One of your best videos. Thank you. Thank you. You seemed almost drunk. But I think I get it.
17:00 - love the Heideggerian defending of the "world" from Descartes and doubt. You should look into the Christian idea of the incarnation and embodiment. They are everything Ponte and Heidegger have articulated and much more. It's not a metaphor to say that we've lost our souls in the West. We don't even know what "soul" means, and consequently that of body.
As a matter of fact, you and your videos are far better than Baudrillard. I saw him here em Belo Horizonte in 1999. Oh, a friend of mine said: "contemporary French philosophy, based on stilts".
More great content. One point to challenge you on again, nostalgia. You often portray it as illusionary, a time that before that appears better in hindsight but is 'false'. However, you essentially summarise (from around 17mins) the importance of nostalgia in relation to identity and your perception of reality. Feeling 'at home' under the mountain of experience. Is that not nostalgia? Nostalgia is like a value and emotional exchange with yourself, through your memories (which are always 'reflections' or images of that reality), an exchange that re-inforces your identity.
It can be either nostalgia or harmony; one can feel fully in the present while relying on imprints from the past to facilitate that feeling, I think
@@fidii347 I think some kind of 'nostalgia' is inevitable, it's how the self is formed and lived. So yeah i agree with 'relying' on those imprints, in a way. Continuous self affirmation. We're just programming, responding to postive feedback loops starting from that very first day of the mirror stage.
Pills is always so negative on nostalgia and i can agree that there are some negatives. Its used as a tool of consumerism (resulting in this cultureless modernity we live in) and as
a weapon, to evoke those values that are useful to whoever is wielding them.
But, big but, those feelings are still real. Each one unique and engrained in the minds of every single human being.
"Now that you've used your head to break through the wall, what will you do in the adjoining cell?" - Someone else wrote something like this.
Tears. Thanks for this
Great video man
pills, have you read the zhuangzi (or chuang tsu, by other romanization systems)? Much of the core ideas there closely closely mirror this video, but the aesthetics of doom gloom and neurotic panic are instead replaced with that of laughter. It's a pretty ingenious approach to the "problem" of the matrix, and it's been around so long that we don't even really know if the accredited author was a real person.
I'm pretty sure you'd dig it, but what I'm really curious on is, how does the fact that this is taught in practically every chinese school affect how that society runs? Does it even make a difference?
Chuang Tzu is largely regarded as the second greatest Taoist philosopher whether he was a single real person or not. His work, collected after his death? Is a true masterwork of great philosophy.
You say this is taught in every Chinese School? Brilliant. This is an amazing sign for the world and China's influence in it.
I don't expect our host to examine the comments on a year old video with any sense of urgency. But I do hope that I can see any reply, especially from PlasticPills.
Amazing video, as always. Baby pills tho ❤️
awesome, thank you.
This is beautiful.... Peace from Costa Rica.
Ohh man this is so great, just the turn i needeed in this moment of loads of phi meditations, we do tend to forget the meaninfull everyday experience of the flesh.
"wherever you go, there you are"
"The Great Mystery" - How does one see without seeing? Hear without hearing? Think without thinking? Choose without choosing?
Tether your heart center to this moment & fear not.
"Guilty" admission I was one of those 22 million that likes to be advertised too...I love it BB gimme a 20 minute infomercial next time damn, how dare you 'sell' me short
“purpose” is a strong word, a little bit of humanism still left in you yet. i try not to assign so much intention personally, as i see them as symptoms of an indifferent structure
Holy f*c$ you guys are amazing. A million thank-yous
I fucking love this dude
that gucci email was completely repulsive LOL
Great vid
Hahaha good one. Just need to read some oliver sacks. My dumb phone comes tommorow. Tired of having my memory leveraged against me
This video essay is hyperreal - it’s about baudrillard yet it’s also entertainment
The algorithm apparently was listening to your dissing of religion by showing me an ad about Jesus 😅. Nice video, yours that is, not the Jesus commercial.
Also, what you consider the red pill (reality), the world of flesh, rings of Thich Nhat Hanh signature mantras "I have arrived, I am home, present moment, wonderful moment, peace in every step, with every step I have arrived." Dude was touching grass deeeeeeply.
Has someone, back in the 1700s (CE), also asked or “felt” that reality was thinner? In 400 BCE?
This is great, btw where can I get that cap?
One is missing one thing, that is happening, with the Matrix remake using newer technology. If they continue creating new remakes, computer games and whatever entertainment product the new technology provides, VR, better VR, and so on, one day the Matrix itself as a product will become so realistic that one will be able to plug themselves into, as in the first movie... so the Matrix is manifesting itself through time and its rehashes...
Mr. Pills (Mr. Plastic P? Mr. PP?) unusual question but are you, per chance, Canadian? Something about your vibe is vaguely reminiscent of a YTV host (respectfully).
and then there are those who claim that consciousness is an illusion
sigan subtitulando los vídeos ❤️
3:54 - "Gene Bowdrilaard"
Came here for Merleau-Ponty, stayed for Baudrillard.
Use grounding exercises to, wait for it, ground the body from thoughts
Reading is the most social thing you can do
If i'm the product of my own fantasy then i'm extremely schitty in fantasizing. That being said, we think of Simulation as a modern convention and it must've come up when all this social media came up. But writers in the past have also expressed such possibilities that one day, technology would create a false reality and we'll be living in it. So, that much, is the given. But what i find fascinating is that the idea, that reality isn't real but is an idea in itself, and this has been said since Plato's time. Everyone, regardless of the "time" has preferred to live in their "idea" of the world. So, we all live in our idea of this world too. Just the moment something truly horrible happens is when we meet the reality.
2 ancient songs that attempt to decipher our wonderous magical illusions of reality: 心经，金刚经.
It's easy to get caught up with the potential metaphysical implications of "The Matrix"; but in my mind, that's not the point of story. The Matrix isn't a virtual reality, that's just a tool, it could just as easily have been dream magic, or some spiritual bs as the vehicle of what the matrix really is. The matrix is a Narrative, spread in order to control people and extract a resource from them, their "electrical power" in the case of the movie. The narrative provided by the machines was that of a life, a society, a history. The technology was used merely as a means to provided believability to the life stories of the inhabitants. There is no being "red pilled", even in the "real world", the people of zion where living according to various narratives, some believed in Neo, others didn't, and these competing narratives caused tension. The narrative of Neo itself was used to as a means of control by the Oracle. There is no escaping the realm of narratives, it's how we understand the world.
The question is: What are the origins of your narrative, and which narrative do you choose to believe?
Well put. Within the story, a lot of people forget the importance of the oracle. She was a tool of the system just as neo was and the matrix as a whole was.
Your question really leads you round in circles tho, even with reductionist thinking. This is addressed in the trilogy, altho i don't think they offer a solution. You could, and a lot do, end in a nihilistic gloom with the realisation that no choice is ever made freely. I like the dialog with the oracles when shes says "you're not here to make the choice, you've already made it, you're here to understand it"
@@0quisuismoi0 yes, the question of what narrative you choose to believe, and what its origins are may be circular, at least causally. Your starting narrative will influence further choices in narrative you choose to believe. The point though, you can't be "red pilled", you can't "wake up", or be "enlightened". Once you start to question a narrative, what you're doing is constructing competing narratives and assessing which is the most plausible. That's not to say that all are equally valid, just that any choice you make is just the adoption of a new narrative, or the same. In terms of 'The Matrix', once Neo starts to question the reality of his life, he is in search of a new narrative, and Morpheus (and by proxy, the Oracle) provides one, which he accepts, yet continues to question, at least as to whether he is indeed "the one". As far as 'The Matrix' is concerned, the narrative that people are trapped in a virtual reality is, as far as we know, objectively true, but some viewers have questioned whether or not 'the real world' was just another simulation.
With respect to the signs and symbols we see in media and advertisements that pills touches on, these, in my mind, are just another means of constructing a narrative, another 'technology' if you will, a visual language.
In the end, what we choose to believe is our responsibility (disregarding any debate on 'freewill'), and in my mind, that's empowering, not nihilistic. That being said, we should be cautious, what potential motives might those who provide pieces of a narrative to us carry? That's the reason to question the origins of a narrative, are those behind a narrative like the machines, trying to extract a resource from us? What resource might that be? Taxes? Votes? Purchases? Some form of support in a conflict? Credibility? What you choose to believe will either make you provide those resources willingly, or not, but in the end, we are responsible for our choice.
@@toddfulton2280 I think the 'resource' extracted from us is our participation, in whichever 'matrix' that is.
As in, Symbolic exchange is its own purpose. I think thats how our consious brain and perception itself works. Thats how we exist in this reality, or 'matrixes'.
With Neos journey, and pursuit for a new narrative, i think its presented as he releases himself from those narratives through 'self' sacrifice. After learning he is himself a form of control, he initially rejects that narrative by going back to trinity, herself another narrative in that context (altho listening to the wachowkis they use 'matrixes' for their description) After shedding it all, his final conversations with smith, nudged by the oracle again, he 'self' sacrifices. He does what he is, if that makes sense.
As in the only way to become 'free' or to be himself (which is what neos journey is. "wake up neo") Is after he gave up everything else and is just left with himself, which is a mechanism to reset the matrix.
Isn't science an escape from narrative? Not to say that science can't be narrativized, but at its grandest and loftiest, science shows us things about reality which are impossible to reconcile with ordinary experiences of reality (ex: quantum mechanics and its strangeness)
@@josephmariani-mezera4171 At its core, science gives us the ability to make predictions, period. When used as a means to describe reality however, it falls into the realm of narrative, or philosophy. The description depends on our interpretation of the models we construct, and there are many competing narratives, especially regarding the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics.
Do you believe that mathematics is an intrinsic (objective) aspect of reality, or is it a subjective set of rules we've created to capture patterns we find in the world? To say that mathematics is subjective is not to say that it's arbitrary, 1 + 1 = 2 according to the rules of addition, but does 2 mean anything to the objective world, or is it an abstract, subjective, symbol we use to describe the world?
The present is all there is was and will be. Nostalgia Drippers / Revolutionaries / Bead Touchers appear confident in their world view yet I wonder to what extent this view creates anxiety/fear/regret/pain behind the scenes. Are they having a more comfortable time than us? Us being those who actively search out content like Pills + likely already doubt simulated representations in order to experience reality as it is. Or are they having a bad time and just praying like hell when they get home? Would it be ethical to show people our world view or is pulling someone out of the matrix an act of harm?
Well. Even however they do it, I couldn't live like that. My brain wiring just doesn't allow it. Can't knock em too hard, it's pretty tricky navigating the world these days without hoping for another reality. Anyways, hella good content Pillz, now pardon me while I pull up the top 10 grass.jpg
11/10 video title
THIS IS THE AVANT-GARDE?!
Based pillz
Taking both pills and laughing with & at the outcome, is one of the more necessary options. Mine/ours was the obvious purple; I don’t think Zizked attached a color to his.