WHAT IS PHILOSOPHREAKS?

Wordplay is something that I have always enjoyed since I was a little kid. I find it entertaining linking two seemingly dissimilar concepts together with a little bit of creativity. I guess it stems from a little bit of my inquisitive nature or being generally observant of my surroundings. It’s fairly easy to make connections that are seemingly obscure if you pay close attention to everything everywhere all at once. (fuckin loser)

Philosophreaks is just one of many of the latest compounds of words that I have ineloquently SMASHED together that somehow conveys my message accurately. It’s a combination of two things that I have come to enjoy up to this point in my life. Philosophy and chaos…

Fanart I received during a research live-stream about goblins (don’t ask)

The combination of philosophy and chaos might, upon first glance, seem an odd duo, but I don’t think it’s that odd at all. I would probably go as far to say that the two have been connected the entire time, but philosophy comes with this air of elegance to it that I don’t think is very accurate. Especially in a mind riddled with ADHD, thoughts and ideas are more comparable to a whirlwind than something that is reminiscent of anything orderly. Not to say that whirlwinds couldn’t be elegant, if they weren’t so damn loud.

As I’ve ventured deeper into philosophy (keep in mind I still got my floaters on pal, it ain’t that deep) I have found that I don’t like appealing to other philosophers as some other people tend to do. “This philosopher says this thing about this” seems like such an odd thing to do when trying to form your own thoughts. I think it is immensely valuable to not spend your time re-inventing the wheel, however you should be able to examine the hypothetical wheel with a magnifying glass to at least identify what it’s made of.

I suppose the best way for me to explain what Philosophreaks is, would be to explain why I even want to write these posts in the first place. About a year ago, I played this game called “Wander Home”. It’s fairly similar to DND (Dungeons and Dragons), except in Wander Home there isn’t a system of rolling dice and it isn’t combat heavy. If you enjoy the aspect of DND that allows you to roleplay as your character and world-build, Wander Home is the game for you.

I played this game for the first time with a group of really amazing people. Fortunately, the friend that introduced this game to us was a really good story builder and managed to present amazing themes every session. The first session our characters came across this rural “cow town”. We came to find out that this cow town had a yearly ritual of sacrificing all of the kids that were born on a specific day. And so the adventure spurred on from there. I’m not sure if the game is naturally bent towards presenting philosophical dilemmas or if that was just our DM’s doing, but regardless I enjoyed it.

Cover art of “Wanderhome” by Jay Dragon

However, there was a session that struck a chord with me the most in relation to the topic of today. This particular session our characters found themselves in a town inhabited by ravens and crows. The currency of choice was not money, but ideas. The more ideas you had, the higher up in society you would be held. So the incentive was to hold onto as many ideas as possible if you wanted to be able to live in the upper levels of the city. Naturally, there were some ravens that found themselves “at the bottom” of society because they either had no ideas or they decided that sharing ideas was more important than keeping them all to themselves. (fucking socialist ravens lol)

I bring this story up, because I feel a strong inclination to share my ideas. This realization only recently dawned on me, but it has been pretty obvious to any observant onlooker. It’s the reason I felt the need to make “commentary videos” or more notably if a person asks me what I think, I gladly let them know. I have this innate drive to share as much as I possibly can to anybody that I can, because what else is there to do?

When it all ends, are all those ideas you had throughout your life better kept in your head for only you to have heard? Or are they better expressed out in the world for somebody to do something with it?

I am of the belief that if you have the drive to share your ideas with the world, then you should. But, as some may point out, that comes at a cost. Many people have a drive to do things, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good endeavor. What if my drive to share my ideas with the world causes me to introduce harmful ideas to the world? Well, that is why I write. Writing allows me to work through the muck of shitty ideas that come to me, so that by the time I do share, I have gone through a filter. Not a filter that creates dishonesty, but a filter that cleans and purifies the erratic nature of the mind. (Or at least the erratic nature of my mind)

This filter won’t significantly change the core of my thoughts, but it will allow me to express them in a way that puts forth a more positive angle to represent the idea from. The filter isn’t in place really to appeal to as many people as possible either. It’s really just there to allow me to solidify what I truly want to say. To allow me to introspect further into an idea that crosses my mind. For me to take the idea and fully understand the why, what and how of it. Even if people don’t like what I have to say, at the very least it isn’t a half-baked thought. I have many of those as well, but typically those stay within our discord calls and group chats. (or on stream if you listen closely)

When I look to some of the greatest people who have walked this earth, it isn’t depth of their pockets or the excess of material they managed to attain. The greatest people on this earth weren’t dragons guarding their wealth, literally or theoretically. The greatest people, in my opinion, were the people who left something behind. The people who shared their ideas with the world and didn’t care if they got anything in return. There are some who did manage to attain notoriety and wealth as a bi-product of the ideas that they shared, but it wasn’t the goal. The goal was to give absolutely everything, because you take none of that with you when it all ends. Be careful about misconstruing this with the idea that you MUST reach a lot of people in order to be “great”. There is ONLY one person you are REQUIRED to reach.

And that’s what I’m trying to do.

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