10 thoughts from Nicolás Gómez Dávila
1. You're not free: Modern man is a prisoner who thinks he's free because he refrains from touching the walls of his dungeon.
2. On architecture: Modern man destroys more when he builds than when he destroys.
3. On civilizational suicide: Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.
4. Against the media: "In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn't know." Being uninformed is better than being ill-informed by an incompetent and corrupt press.
5. Against reason: "The modern tragedy is not the tragedy of reason defeated but of reason triumphant." Reason is a useful tool, but it can't become the sole yardstick for judging ALL of life. We don't suffer from irrationality but over-rationality.
6. Against false equality: Those who proclaim that the noble is despicable end up by proclaiming that the despicable is noble.
7. Politics is circular: Ideas of the left give birth to revolutions. Revolutions give birth to ideas of the right.
8. On myths: "The enemies of myth are not the friends of reality but of triviality." Myths deal with deep and timeless questions. To throw all myths out of the window is to only be left with trivial queries...
9. On worldviews: "The genuine coherence of our ideas does not come from the reasoning that ties them together, but from the spiritual impulse that gives rise to them." Your unified worldview won't come from logic but a deeper impulse.
10. Last days of beauty? Dávila: "Civilization seems to be the invention of a species now extinct." Beauty is a rare, fragile, and temporary spark lit against the unending darkness of the ugly, the uninspiring, and the mid...
1. You're not free: Modern man is a prisoner who thinks he's free because he refrains from touching the walls of his dungeon.
2. On architecture: Modern man destroys more when he builds than when he destroys.
3. On civilizational suicide: Violence is not necessary to destroy a civilization. Each civilization dies from indifference toward the unique values which created it.
4. Against the media: "In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn't know." Being uninformed is better than being ill-informed by an incompetent and corrupt press.
5. Against reason: "The modern tragedy is not the tragedy of reason defeated but of reason triumphant." Reason is a useful tool, but it can't become the sole yardstick for judging ALL of life. We don't suffer from irrationality but over-rationality.
6. Against false equality: Those who proclaim that the noble is despicable end up by proclaiming that the despicable is noble.
7. Politics is circular: Ideas of the left give birth to revolutions. Revolutions give birth to ideas of the right.
8. On myths: "The enemies of myth are not the friends of reality but of triviality." Myths deal with deep and timeless questions. To throw all myths out of the window is to only be left with trivial queries...
9. On worldviews: "The genuine coherence of our ideas does not come from the reasoning that ties them together, but from the spiritual impulse that gives rise to them." Your unified worldview won't come from logic but a deeper impulse.
10. Last days of beauty? Dávila: "Civilization seems to be the invention of a species now extinct." Beauty is a rare, fragile, and temporary spark lit against the unending darkness of the ugly, the uninspiring, and the mid...
Dávila was a brilliant aphorist
I'm curating insights from him and other master aphorists like him: Gallery of the Greats
Find inside: Rochefoucauld on fake virtues | Napoleon on logic | Nietzsche on the false virtue of humility
And more👇🏻
memod.com
I'm curating insights from him and other master aphorists like him: Gallery of the Greats
Find inside: Rochefoucauld on fake virtues | Napoleon on logic | Nietzsche on the false virtue of humility
And more👇🏻
memod.com
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