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Agenda of taboo questions and dangerous ideas: What I seek and offer

Does Philosophy actually any longer strive for arête, or only investigate in the abstract ?

“Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”   — Epicurus

Love, success and wisdom are not any payoff from knowing the answer, but a serious agenda of actively seeking value together

There is no shortage of ever the same common sense free advice, that doesn't actually work, or all manner of popularity and success gurus with whatever great secret. As if struggling with such silly obscure riddles, any more than simply following instructions, were ever, or ever could be, the key to life! The very question actually most substantively crucial and so often overlooked in approaching human interaction, is simply of the satisfaction of intrinsic interpersonal stimulus needs:

“The only truly happy people are children and the creative minority.” — Jean Caldwell

Thus our challenge : to forge a CREATIVE MINORITY!

There is no external intrinsic meaning out at large in the indifferent universe. Meaning, in any sense of the word, is only created in the mind individually and constructed culturally. And fulfillment is contingent upon human nature. The problem of attaining fulfillment is better reframed as the problem of how to be any happier by bringing about improved match between needs and circumstances, situation or environment. Because there is no Zen problem of suffering, only the appropriateness of grief in response to adverse circumstances that require improvement. Alas, one most tiresome and destructive approach in solution finding to this non problem of the very capacity for suffering in and of itself, a theme nevertheless so popular even from antiquity, is to modify, minimize or even seek entirely to eliminate needs, intrinsic and extrinsic alike, all together. In short, that the lunatic self-loathing remedy to all frustration by quelling all appetite through abstinence, a fraudulent doctrine of deepest despair fobbed of as brightest hope.

 

But the other more interesting and constructive approach to the far more worthy problem posed by whatever adverse circumstance and privation, is to improve circumstances in order better to meet all manner of needs and desires, and at all to mend adverse circumstances, all as best possible. Historically, humanity has struggled to meet the most pressing and basic and practical of needs first, and the loftier ones later if ever at all. But in affluent technological society, the problem has become of reconciliation of priorities, of material and practical survival on terms dictated by intrinsic needs essential to fulfillment. And intrinsic needs are met or failed by social stimuli resultant from interaction that is a function of circumstances, situation or social environment. What, then, are the optimal social stimuli? -that which has even been called: the opposite of loneliness. And under what optimal circumstances, situation or social environment via what best implementation strategy? That is the often tabooed central question of the individual within the community that serves as the primary focus of FoolQuest.com

 

Addressing an often undirected yearning for real freedom and greater power over ones own circumstances, a frustrated dream everywhere expressed, and speaking often in fundamental generalities only because Logic and Axiology move from the general to the specific, where the specifics whereof depend upon personal desire and opportunity, the following ought to even be actually conventional, obvious and more readily available to enter into or begin actively seeking value together, towards implementation all even from scratch: 

 

Taking the design approach to intentional activity: A situation analysis, problem statement, simple forecast of human needs, and straightforward proposal for happiness in the greatest effort you'll ever love: This is a solid pitch targeted directly to the all to often so frustrated and underserved deepest of human needs, as best as we currently understand them. The cutting edge of Psychological research lately finds itself ever more in closest concurrence with wisdom of the sages of old rediscovered, regarding the very nature of authentic wellbeing that is innately the target of most relevant intrinsic motivation, alas so enshrouded in taboo. For Freud, exaltation from any creative motive, no matter how ostensibly Platonic in sublimated expression or outlet, is called: Eros. Or, if one prefers, Eudemonia anciently names that authentic well being as arising through ones best in active pursuit of excellence living as one's best, or: arête. Hence the grand ambition and prime agenda of FoolQuest.com is any degree of self realization towards the pinnacle of what it is to be entrepreneurial according to the definition of Bolton, WK and Thompson, JL (2000) ‘Entrepreneurs: Talent, Temperament, Technique’, Elsevier: “a person who habitually creates and innovates to build something of recognized value around perceived opportunities”. 

 

It has long  been observed how gifted students amongst their own true gifted peers, suddenly and mysteriously no longer require the great and dubious boon of socialization! In short, perhaps in whatever social context, it might be not only better and wiser, but arguably perhaps even healthier and more natural, actually to study and emulate gifted interaction, then deliberately taken as the new model for an intentional social functionality amongst community of equal peers, in order thereby to improve and enrich life and autonomy support for everyone, than endlessly conniving and bullying to make such a shining great favor of such relentlessly flagrant conditionality and peer pressure "providing structure" aimed only at dumbing down and heteronymizing our best and brightest in order to glorify mediocrity.

 

All manner of celebrated creative entrepreneurial solution finding problem solving groups emerge every day, discovering and hammering out innovative solutions to the challenges of our day and beyond, with unflagging progress towards implementation. Why can't that be us, you and me, gentle reader, together with any others? It can be. Let's! It begins merely with the perseverance of a core group that is at all serious, working steadily to better understand and then to fill the gaps, step by step. And the first byproducts will include elevated mood, improved public image making and more effective outreach and networking to cement social connection, and all simply from steadily ongoing discussion and research, even further recruitment as need emerges, all at our own pace, without oversensitivity or passive aggression.

 

Creative people are perpetually dissatisfied, faliblist, critical, curios, flexible, imaginative, experimental, boredom prone, problem-friendly with the unexpected, therefore enjoying the eustress of creative tension, forthcoming, playful and expressive, hard working and persistent, optimistically and enthusiastically embrace challenge, value their ideas without becoming wedded to them, any first idea being, after all, merely the starting point in the process of fleshing out cross-connections towards challenging assumptions and reframing, ambitiously pushing the envelope and taking fresh and different perspective towards testing great ideas arising to compete in the market place of ideas. For most of all, creative people recognize environments and cultures of respect that reciprocally optimally foster creativity.

 

“Philosophers, writers, artists, even scientists, not only need encouragement and an audience, they need constant stimulation from other people. It is almost impossible to think without talking. If Defoe had really lived on a desert island, he could not have written Robinson Crusoe, nor would he have wanted to. Take away freedom of speech, and the creative faculties dry up.”  

 

— 'Conversation with a Pacifist' by George Orwell"

 

It's not just singles who suffer, left out: The affiliation, however genial, of neighborhood parents with little else in common, is often fallow ground for any deeper connection. And matching couples, demands compatibility by a factor of four. Alas that we have fallen prey to an heteronymous dependency upon the stifling behaviorally structured environments of school and employment, to provide propinquity for forging close and enduring friendships: convenient proximity, repeated unplanned interaction, and a setting for unguarded moments to confide in one another. Hence clichéd social advice typically centers upon recourse to even more arbitrary behavioral structure, such as facilitated by hanging out at the same bars, discos or gyms etc., interminably, or joining and subordinating oneself to various clubs or undertaking the drudgery of volunteer work. But in the alternative, reliance upon spontaneity alone, is futile without actual disposition to spontaneity. For autonomous intrinsically motivated interaction to provide the same and actually better social opportunity, the participants must be responsible and indeed intrinsically motivated to continually reengage one another of their own accord, and to network and exchange social support, all even without behavioral structure of schedule or propinquity for regular chance reencounter. Exactly such scarce initiative, the lost social skill set of autonomy fallen so out of fashion and into such disrepair, is especially crucial, reciprocally, for sustaining any forward momentum, interpersonally. Too long domesticated, then without any routine provided us, we degenerate into such passive, confused and mistrustful sheeple adrift! But more meaningful shared sought for outcome, a genuine purpose rather than mere heteronomy to arbitrary group cohesion, is well known to engage participants in closer attachment.

 

Being that engagement is the beginning of the state or condition of attachment which is an ongoing, remembered or anticipated and even yearned for state of engagement, hence according to Self-Determination Theory, secure attachment is characterized by attention and responsiveness to one another's needs when turning toward one another to obtain comfort and care. Indeed, prime features of autonomy include initiative being: the forward looking vision and motivation of enterprise and determination that affords any capacity to begin proactively, or to follow through energetically, with a plan or task, together with the need for meaningful engagement fending off boredom and loneliness. Heteronomy, the ever cagey and calculating enemy of autonomy, is also the active enemy of engagement and attachment, of transparent agenda, of open passion and interest of every kind. Therefore, bullying which is heteronymous, stifles initiative. Indeed, the social skill sets of heteronomy and autonomy are so entirely different. Heteronymous social skills correlate to the guardedness and control of heteronomy in the first place, and not any unmet needs of the individual. And yet the exhortations to sublimation persist, of the former as the means to the latter. Indeed, that often seems the only game in town!

 

Agenda pursuit specifically tailored towards optimal reciprocal engagement in value maximization:

In our time, never truer spoken are the immortal words of Simone Weil: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” For increasingly, we find ourselves living, as is so often said, in an attention economy, wherein demand vastly outstrips supply. Personal happiness may therefore depend largely upon optimal reciprocal and maximal engagement in productive exchange of whatever the right kind of attention for the individuals concerned, in best sustainable quantity, frequency, duration, quality, type and suitability to the needs of participants engaged therein just as Simone Weil surmised.

 

Autonomy, the intimacy of psychological visibility and effectiveness towards success all demand access to share the uplifting creative frame of mind in the freedom to communicate honestly in open ended Dialectic beginning from unfounded conjecture only then subject only then first to critical preference including such articles as theoretical elegance, and next to investigative and experimental reality testing.

All therefore my thesis here, first of all, is of the crucial importance and effectiveness of creative and exchange and open criticism in authentic wellbeing, and my own recommendation to these ends, begin with collaboration at an interstice of two undertakings in specific, fiction writing and Entrepreneurial new venture creation.

 

Both the discipline of the writing craft and the initiative of Entrepreneurial new venture creation demand creativity and critique, and inspire lively controversy. But whereas the speculation and conjecture of drama may be entirely creative, that of Entrepreneurship being also practical, must be predictive and strategic. Collaborative fiction writing therefore shows great promise as a most conducive mode of play complementary to the work of Entrepreneurial new venture creation. Discussion must be open ended, conjectural, speculative, rigorous, realistic and critical. Agenda of new venture creation needs to be be strategic. Creative exercise of collaborative fiction writing need only cleave to the discipline of the writing craft, drama, plot and the plausibility of the speculative element.

• Defining Fictional Entrepreneurship or: Business Design Fiction, the ability to make the impractical practical. Case study: Time Travel Venture??!
• Triz: Appraisal of current conditions, discovery of the "ideal" (optimum), the measurement of the distance between the two for realistic assessment of requirements for bridging the gap.
• Visioning with ANTICONVENTIONAL THINKING (ACT 2.0) turning upon The 5 Whys

Fictional Entrepreneurship is the application of design fiction towards imagination of striking and unusual new business ventures in order to test the limits of theoretical feasibility and practicality, not the impossible, but possibility derived even from utopian, theoretical, and Philosophical notions. Fictional Entrepreneurship is a means of raising critical and social dialogue, speculation and projection via new enterprise creation, entirely imaginary and whimsy or ever fully implemented into successful reality. For whereas passive denial sinks even the most modest, banal and straightforward proposition into sheer empty pipedream, honest due diligence ekes barest feasibility study at all even out from the most fantastic overreach. Because objectivity is never a secure foundation, but merely an honest intention of error detection and course correction along the way. -Rigorous business planning towards new venture creation as an exercise in extreme Science Fiction futurological scenario planning and detailed World Building even in anticipating and rising to meet new needs themselves yet to arise.  

 

As Paul Raven observes: “Science Fiction isn’t dying at all; it’s metastasizing!”

 

It is well said how writing, like photography, is easy to do, but difficult to do well. Nothing obstructs entry into the activity of writing, nor limits consummate excellence with practice and receptivity to feedback of hardnosed critique. The vehicle of creative writing qualifies perhaps as the readiest and broadest of all access to Philosophical exploration. But bringing such traditionally solitary reflection as writing, first into discourse, an interpersonal interaction, a social activity, thence only as a mode of collaboration amongst equals, remains daunting; shockingly so in any democratic society. While In commerce, the arts and grassroots politics, Entrepreneurship beacons, at least in theory, (all easier said than done, of course) as the most open and broadest conceivable tool of practical implementation and institutionalization of ideas and proposals in human society. And that journey, the more arduous, too, nevertheless begins by discourse and research, in the open mind forearmed with incredulity. -All no less taboo amongst the sheeple.

 

“The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that.”  — Nagle Jackson

 

Thus, for sheer creativity, the unique first key complementary agenda of FoolQuest.com is to meet the need and fill the gap of serious writing collaboration, by bringing together aspiring fiction writers of every skill level, not only for the exchange of hardnosed critique, but full participation in an ongoing writers bull session online, collaborative brainstorming of new fiction writing projects as emerge, not only for intensity of peak experience of shared creativity and growth in the discipline of the writing craft, but an actual high standard of genuine and intensely innovative and surprising new quality output in dramatic fiction writing and Science Fiction. No one else openly offers or attempts this online! Let's alpha test this for a week or two, to see how we enjoy it.

 

FoolQuest.com is also targeted to fill the gap of vastly underserved needs, in the utterly neglected very earliest embryonic path of discussion, research and networking even to the "kitchen table" phase or stage of new venture creation planning and organization, with the productive ambition of even world changing new venture creation and expansion all from scratch, undertaking beyond the resource or wherewithal of any one lone individual, hence actually seeking out and bringing together aspiring entrepreneurs and activists for brainstorming new ideas and following up in every due diligence developing all manner of promising notions, from comprehensive feasibility study and (pre-) incubation of embryonic first concepts, through business planning and qualified Management Team recruitment, all the way to capitalization, implementation and expansion. Side effects of the proposed regimen may include: intriguing self promotion, romantic opportunity, wider interpersonal networking, enhanced social support and connectivity, and ultimately, success. Results may vary. But are you doing something more important? Let's alpha test this for six months or so, and then evaluate.

 

Virtues In Practice by Design in the cultivation of autonomy and respect:

In such an Entrepreneurial collaborative pre-incubator, as with the collaborative fiction brainstorming workshop envisaged as preliminary creativity and bonding exercise, there should be no need of any pressure from arbitrary deadlines, instead just sticking with it and staying interested, reciprocally optimal maximal engagement achieved by creativity and objectivity in correcting, modifying, integrating and improving upon one another's input. Such shared gifted intellectual stimulation and challenge of research and problem solving, when sustained, moves more steadily into any glimpse into another's inner life, the reciprocal understanding called: psychological visibility, wherein good conversation the more uplifting, energizes and deepens acquaintance by free flowing investigative personal information exchange, all greatly accelerating and intensifying the attachment process of friendship over the averages of chance propinquity into acclimatization by intermittent casual small talk. -Indeed, to paraphrase Gian Vincenzo Gravina, all free from the boorishly stultifying heteronymous behavioral structure that socially robs one of solitude without actually ever providing sympathetic company.

 

Neither wishful thinking nor defeatism are ultimately objective or productive. Both fiction writing and new venture creation are speculative, conjectural in nature, hence the fruits of open and enthusiastic imagination and controversy. However, constraints upon the latter may be more severe than those upon the former: whereas engaging drama generally only strives at all for plausibility, sound business planning even in most bold subversion of all convention, must in all due diligence then struggle towards rationally and Empirically supportable recommendations and predictions to at all withstand serious criticism and attempted refutation.

 

The controversial Philosophical explorations, hypertexts in brainstorming and in the discipline of the dramatic writing craft, and compiled business research and Entrepreneurial research on FoolQuest.com, each come in adjunct to the agenda expounded herein, as does the most radical though non violent concept of resistance against pandemic bullying that persists as the very bane of individuality. Further more, FoolQuest.com argues passionately in opposition to unduly fragile misanthropic life strategies of serenity in heteronymous submission to a'priori lowered expectations. In the words of Epicurus: “Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”  And we must extricate from every artificial scarcity and anhedonic heteronomy, the autonomy and abundance of which we are robbed. That is the true to life lesson of drama addressing every hope of growth in Menschlichkeit, any dharmic skill in functioning as more effective and better people towards one another.

 

“Act in such a way that you will be worthy of being happy.”  — Immanuel Kant

 

All therefore, for the nonce, there shall be no attempt at recapitulation of thousands of years of controversy upon competing and all too often cross-purposed notions of virtue, in order, for the moment, instead to restrict focus of discourse to consideration upon the more immediately salient question: Why would which practicable virtues shared, better and more greatly abet happiness and success, living ones best? - that is, aside from autonomous intrinsic motivation of integrity, and that therefore bad faith is dystressful... After all, haven't we all seen, for salient example, morality, kindness and honesty, if anything and all too often, actually punished in life? Answer: Indeed, that just isn't fair, is it? Certainly one virtue of justice and Menschlichkeit in particular deserving of cardinal accolade, would be trustworthy reciprocity and cooperation in all relationship and attachment, on the job and at play, alike.

 

Surely trustworthy reciprocity and cooperation are most desirable in the promotion of authentic wellbeing and life advancement. Because autonomous individuals relate positively to one another in any suitable environment wherein to exercise free choice and develop skills. For such are the motivating intrinsic needs of authentic wellbeing and self-esteem. 

Areté is indeed an individual achievement in autonomy. And yet, is arête most readily achieved in solitude? Or is not the attainment of arête in truth interdependent? For such is the social psychology, the transmissible culture, of arête, of mastery, meaningful purpose and optimal value maximization in all endeavor together. And doesn't it make more sense to play to our strengths of gifted interaction, than for the gifted instead to embrace mediocrity, dumb down and conform, often so ineptly at that?    

 

How can autonomous equals best interact and cooperate freely and responsibly? Unconstrained spontaneity exclusively, upon mere whim, frequently shows itself to be unreliable or worse, and may therefore quickly find its limits. And in any alternative, as any standard of ethical conduct, autonomous virtues vs. heteronymous false values within any group, will tend to impact outcomes for all. Indeed, happiness comes in meeting ones needs for capable interaction with responsible others. Whereas, instead, when puerile headgames and malagenda of amoral innocuous group cohesion and conformity, even however arbitrarily, remain the only true sole priority, all decency and purpose irresponsibly fall by the wayside. Virtues are not rules but principles, demanding aptitudes of autonomous critical thinking rather that acquiescence into behavioral structured heteronymous obedience. In any controversial discourse, civility and criticality are key, not timid toadying dogmatism, bullying and flaming. And this carries over into any investigation or creative endeavor. More specifically, in dramatic fiction writing, the discipline of the writing craft is key. In business planning and new venture creation, due diligence of feasibility study towards solution finding and answerability to task interdependence in uplifting reciprocal support among equals. These are all virtues not only crucial to individual lone courage, resilience, effectiveness and eventual success, but good morale, shared joy and happiness along the arduous journey together.

 

Indeed, fun and happiness have been found to require, among other things, and to reiterate, neither Zen cessation nor motivational conditioning nor any other snake oil indoctrination to contentment in making do, but first and foremost, in order to overcome negativity bias, engagement in enjoyable and meaningful interaction to begin with, with no less than a five to one ratio in favor of positive experiences, even in the form of frequent small positive acts. Because of our social needs, greater happiness often accrues from helping others; while for the recipient is promoted cheerful optimism regarding the future of the relationship or endeavor. And all that is required is for each to do their part, not merely in so far as solitary division of labor, but all importantly, reciprocal assistance, for resultant ongoing exchange of frequent positive acts, however small, in a continuous stream of fresh reciprocally positive experiences thereof, reliably outweighing negativity bias and reducing frustration by addressing crucial task interdependencies via readiness and efficiency of mutual assistance.

“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.”  — Socrates 

Indeed, freedom and dignity, beyond essential personal autonomy in and of itself alone, is also a practical question beyond any subjective will to power, regarding needed situations of real capability beyond sheer abstraction: connections and resources, wherewithal of opportunity without which even the greatest talent and highest competence become useless, much less freedom entirely in the abstract. Real freedom then, so often greatly depends upon the mitigation of such mundane practicalities as making enough money but without incurring onerously restrictive travail and consuming obligations to others. And indeed, greater freedom and power so yearned for and admired, is attained in actually doing what you want: fulfillment from full engagement in meaningful interaction, and better still, if possible, also achieving the pleasures of wealth and influence thereby! Such is the highly coveted ideal condition of alignment between, in fulfillment of, often conflicting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the very hope and attractive appeal of lifestyle Entrepreneurship. -Or more altruistically, of Social Entrepreneurship and Activism. Or else play with nothing at stake. Indeed, a fine outlet for creativity for its own joy, is collaborative fiction writing, drama and Science Fiction speculation and that depth of engagement that is sheer expansive awe.

“The researchers [who published: ‘The power to be me: Power elevates self-concept consistency and authenticity’] theorized that being in a position of authority would make individuals feel enhanced well-being. [...] "Because power increases the correspondence between internal states and behavior [or (this above all): truth to thine own self], we hypothesized that power enhances subjective well-being (SWB) by leading people to feel more authentic.””  — Medical Daily 

“There is one thing to watch out for in all of this, though. While having power can make you happier, seeking power does not make you happier. There is quite a bit of evidence that people who spend their lives seeking power do not focus on the intrinsic joy of life. So, people who seek power are actually less happy than those who do not. [...] A second way to become powerful is to spend your life getting things done. [...] If you consistently do things in your life that help you and others achieve goals, then your journey is a happy one.”  —  Psychology Today