The Wes Cecil Podcast

One of the significant challenges of our current environment is that our own imaginations have been turned against us. Much of our needs come from our imaginations and are very much focused on the way acts and products signify - their sign value. What this means is that our very real desire for change ends up being recuperated and being sold back to us products that reinforce the very system we wish to change. Traditional skills and ways of living become “Trad Wife”, anti-capitalist movements are sold back to us in posters and t-shirts, and despair becomes a market oppo...

While Taoism emphasizes knowing and being nothing, it does have a positive value - tranquility. Virtually ignored as a value in the Western tradition with its powerful focus on “meaning” and “knowing” Taoism focus on feeling the world and, it argues, the feeling should be tranquil. Chapters 15 and 16 of the Tao Te Ching are central to these ideas.

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NO HISTORY FOR YOU!

In my second lecture I explore the bizarre and necessary historical amnesia that besets American culture. For the first 200 years of American settlement, the Native American culture was forcibly erased, then actively ignored once the ‘Natives’ problem had been “solved”. Also, the invisibility of the African American presence in much of the US, which represented 40-50% of the population in some states, created a further barrier to American history. Finally, the internal patterns of settlement and mass migration cemented a near total disregard for framing our cultural understanding in any historical sensibility.

Si...

The overriding narrative of revolution features a defined enemy inhabiting a defined space that we can, with courage, suffering and sacrifice, overthrow and inaugurate a new and better world. However, as Kafka and Musil demonstrated we live in a world that is diffuse, multi-layered and without center. These more uncomfortable and less entertaining versions of our world demonstrate the fundamental naivete of the notion of revolution that, functionally, becomes a disabling myth. Rather than revolution or nothing, in which we get nothing because we can’t have the revolution, I argue for the value of resistance, which is both av...

Taoism posits that the meaninglessness of life is not a basis for Nihilism but for Joy and Liberty. The palpable despair imparted by the advance of science and the increasing awareness of the triviality of humanity on a universal scale disoriented - and perhaps is still disorienting - virtually every culture in the world. Taoism, however, provided an inspiring response to these problems 2,600 years before they appeared.

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Q & A - WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?

Wes and Jeremy take questions from listeners on Lecture I: "What is an American?" Apologies for the audio quality on this one—it improves as the series moves along.

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2,000 years ago Cicero warned us against the idea that other people are functionally prey from whom we extract the profit. Unfortunately, his arguments have been forgotten and we inhabit a society that insists that the exploitation of others is not only acceptable but necessary and admirable. As Deleuze and Guattari and others have demonstrated, this logic leads to an idea of the self that is entirely devoid of human sympathy. We think we are exploiting others but we are in fact re-conceptualizing ourselves as extraction/consumption machines that have no other values or functions. Within this context, caring for...

While Taoism emphasizes ‘not knowing’ it does so in a very different way than Socrates’s claim of knowing what he does not know. In Chapter 17 of Chuangtzu we encounter a classic example of both the limits of knowledge and the importance of experience to the Taoist tradition. In many ways, Taoism refutes the entire basis of the Platonic/Socratic tradition that underlies most of the western philosophic tradition.

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WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?

In my introductory lecture I explore the uniquely powerful role America plays in the contemporary world and the history that underlies its global dominance. 250 years ago, the United states had a tiny population, was loosely organized and beset by internal conflicts. A rapid and massive demographic and geographic expansion brought this relative backwater onto the world stage and then to global dominance. The cultural transformations that proceeded with this transformation created a society that is, for good or ill, extremely influential and uniquely American.

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Resistance rather than revolution and Joy rather than suffering. Within our contemporary cultural environment, understanding the tensions in how we respond to the world can help feel more powerful. Creating meaning and joy will also transform our sense of ourselves and, by extension, our world.

Books Mentioned: 

Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right by Karl Marx

The Rebel by Albert Camus

Mai 68, l’heritage impossible by Jean-Pierre Le Goff

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

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Taoism’s view of the world is dramatically opposed to the standard outlook of western civilization. Life has no meaning, no path, no truth, no goal and no actual relationship to individuals. This can be read as a type of early Absurdism or as a liberatory outlook that frees us from fundamentally misunderstanding our relationship with nature.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the co...

Our world is inundated with ‘information’ that is designed to mislead and disorient us. I suggest a few approaches to help us develop our own understanding of our world and ourselves to help combat one of the fundamental challenges I at least encounter almost everyday.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.

Starting...

The goal of Taoism is Harmony with the Tao. However, unlike traditions like Buddhism, Christianity, or Stoicism, Taoism does not view this as a static goal to be completed. Rather, like Jazz Music, the melody of life keeps changing and evolving and the key is to continually evolve ourselves to stay in harmony. Nature does not stop and neither should we. Taoism is a dynamic concept that invites us to continually create beauty with the universe. There is no end.

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A few questions have come in about teaching so I thought I would spend a moment reflecting on my approach to teaching. Mostly, I think simply valuing whatever subject you are teaching and enjoying the students will create the best experience for everyone.

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I encountered the notion that the Tao Te Ching in particular and Taoism in general is really not for. Rather, it was written for a ruling political elite in ancient China and that we misunderstand its political message when we read it as a guide for living for lowly peoples in the modern world. While this argument has some merit in a very narrow sense, in the broader context of Taoism and history it is not just wrong, but politically suspect.

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The research is perfectly clear that the single greatest determinant of our longevity, health and happiness is having a few meaningful relationships. It is in other humans that humans find their greatest sense of purpose and wellbeing. Unfortunately, as is the theme of the entire series, our current society makes bonding meaningfully with other humans both difficult and, indeed, a bit unnatural. To go from I, Me, My, Mine to thinking of a few key friends and family members is likely the greatest change that one can make for personal health and a sense of joy and peace in...

I realized that perhaps more helpful than comparing Taoism withing the context of Mohism, Legalism and Confucianism would be to compare it to Calvinism. Calvinism, derived from Platonism, is THE dominant cultural influence in much of the west and comparing the key elements of the Calvinist and Taoist worldviews side by side is, I hope, edifying.

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A lot of the narrative around our struggles with the modern world focuses on individual responsibility. However, the rates of stress, sleep troubles, prescription drug use, depression and more all point to a systemic problem not a personal one. Our struggles are neither personal nor accidental, the systems we inhabit seriously challenge our ability to live simple, human lives.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is acti...

Two tales from Chuang Tzu emphasize how we consistently pay too much attention to Language rather than Experience and hence stay confused. By emphasizing the importance of the individual and experiencing over knowing, Taoism consistently resists the concept of universal or even broad ‘truths’. When one learns to think in this fashion, it highlights how much we rely on agreeing with the ‘known’ to construct our sense of the world.

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As one cultivates a sense of the human it is difficult to not notice how inhuman much of the world is. Our encounters with people and the environment around us will be a constant reminder and challenge for pursuing our own humanity. The aftermath is a seemingly inescapable level of friction as one slowly unwinds both internal and external patterns that have shaped our outlook and habits for much of our lives. So a slight warning, be prepared - as with all adventures, there will be interesting challenges ahead.

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Besides a cultural bias towards action, we also have a strong drive towards suffering, overcoming, grit, drive etc. in pursuit of external goals. Taoism argues this is exactly the wrong approach. Acting without acting means to work in accordance with the Tao - as experienced through nature - and our own selves. When we cultivate the Tao and reject suffering, difficulty and similar experiences, the Tao flows through us and we live more fully and more easily.

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The bankruptcy of Thames water represents a pattern in infrastructure failures that are increasing and will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. The question is when, and perhaps if, elected officials and citizens begin to demand and implement different approaches to solving society's problems. Important notes on Thames water to keep in mind:

They Bankrupted themselves - they were not bankrupted by the government it was a clear strategy to extract maximum value for a few at the expense of the many.

The two buyout options - which are in fact bankruptcy proceedings...

Lin-Yutang, Henry James and Herman Hesse all agree that kindness is perhaps the central value for any civilization. Obviously, our current dominant culture has little or no place for kindness as a goal. However, it is the cultivation of kindness and the capacity for kindness that underpins our capacity for joy. Kindness is not sacrificial but rather additive in that it is beneficial for all. 

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If you reject laws, codes, rituals, and words as guides to organizing life and society, what is left? Nature! To understand the Taoist emphasis on Nature it is important to understand that it is offering a concrete, experiential response to what they saw as abstract, metaphysical and ultimately self-defeating approaches to living. Key to this was Taoism’s co-evolution with the I Ching as a central text and guide to thought.

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If we want to be happy, we can go to the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ for the low cost of $5,000 to $15,000 for a family of four. Food, water, love, friends, joy, beauty, and more are continuously being re-packaged and sold back to us AS IF they are scarce and not available to us without some intermediary. However, as with competition, this notion of scarcity simply alienates from the most human elements of our own existence which, in any case, can’t be sold. Freeing ourselves from this notion from this scarcity mindset is a key element of recapturing our humani...

Two key insights from a key section of the Tao Te Ching ask us to question 1) Our propensity for committing ourselves to pre-established narratives and 2) Our love of language games. By throwing these fundamental tendencies into doubt, Taoism provides a radical critique of pretty much every conceivable system, not just the prominent schools of Chinese philosophy. While the passages seem a bit gnomic and mystical, they are rather a very clear articulation of a key source of human confusion and unhappiness.

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Perhaps one of the most pernicious concepts in modern society is the concept that we are all in competition for scarce resources. In this zero sum conception of the world, each human must, by necessity, compete with others for survival and self-expression. By reflecting on the writings of Primo Levi - particularly his “If This is a Man” - I try to underline how this deeply flawed and dangerous vision of the human condition actually destroys the possibility of simply being a human being at all.

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Taoism has been generally received in the West as a mystical, quasi-metaphysical philosophy. However, understanding its historical context and development helps place Taoism within its political and folk tradition. This series explores the complex and powerful vision of Taoism that may be more relevant today than ever before in its more than 2400 year tradition.

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The dynamic interplay between the external and internal world is the very core of being human. The degree to which we cultivate ourselves within an experience of the world is the degree to which we can evolve and deepen our sense of ourselves and our world. It is this growingness that gives meaning and impulse to lives that thrive. Lacking this, we feel shallow, detached and depressed.

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Congratulations, you’ve read the Gita. Ancient texts are often difficult and a bit offputting but they really help us discover the structures of our own thinking and how our culture has conditioned us to expect certain forms and arguments. While Krishna ends up arguing for acceptance of one’s place in society, he also argues that the way to truth is through inward searching and true dedication. The path of joyful wisdom and duty that is meaningful and light fulfil the brief, not withdrawal, unnecessary suffering and worldly renunciation. Thanks for reading along.

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Bizarrely, in a society that isolates people, we also don’t spend much time with ourselves. Consistently pulled from ourselves, striving for external standards and ignoring our bodies we lose track of the one thing that really makes us ourselves - ie ourselves. It is prosaic to say, but we need to spend some time with ourselves to actually be a person. 

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We move from the Metaphysical arguments about How the universe is to how we should translate that understanding into our lives. And we finally get the argument for why Arjuna must indeed ride forth to kill his family and, oddly, it makes a lot of sense.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.

Star...

We receive endless messages about the importance of being independent, standing on our own, making something of ourselves and so forth that it is easy to forget this is all nonsense at best and life destroying lies at worst. Humans are, necessarily, social animals and can only achieve our potential within the context of being dependent. The question is not one of dependence vs. independence but rather how we construct our relationships relative to the structures and people we are dependent upon.

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The fascinating parallels with the Book of Job in Chapter 11 of the Gita helps to highlight the profound differences between the Hindu and Christian tradition and the concept of the divine at the center of each religion. Books 12 and 13 provide a subtle but powerful reconceptualization of Buddhist values that places Vishnu at the center of Transcendent Enlightenment.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the...

It is commonplace and true that we live in a consumer society. Less noticed is that being a consumer casts us in a role as passive non-makers who do not produce and participate but simply define ourselves by an association with objects or events. It is primarily by making that we can orient ourselves and escape a sense of meaninglessness in the world - which is why the notion of a consumer society is so powerfully anti-human.

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The Atman, Brahman, and Karma are presented quite clearly in book 8 and the implications are then extrapolated in Nine and Ten. These are the key ideas at the heart of Hinduism. The Atman is a challenge for western audiences because it pre-supposes a very different concept of individuality and what constitutes a self. A powerfully metaphysical argument, it challenges quite directly the critiques of metaphysics that have been at the heart of western philosophy for at least 200 years.

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This series is a concrete extrapolation of the ideals of Humanism within the context of our contemporary society. While it might seem like we can’t help but know how to be human, the pressures and structure of our society are powerfully opposed to the expressions of the ideals of Humanism and, de facto, of our human potential.

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It sounds a lot like monotheism, and perhaps this is what Krishna is arguing, but it is a conceptual framework very much different than the Christian concept of monotheism (the Jewish people did not have a monotheistic view of the world btw). In Book Seven we get the very different Hindu framing of this question in which there is only one ‘god’, if Vishnu can be conceptualized in that category, in but Vishnu is also all the Gods and all the practices, both good and evil, so there is no single god or approach or belief that actually frames Vish...

I want to share the live audio of the 2nd lecture I gave at The University of Maastricht, the Netherlands a month ago. This one is from Thursday, April 30.

The focus of this lecture is the deep ontology—the how or why (instead of the what)—of our stories and discourse in the modern world. Here's the write-up for the lecture:

We make sense of the world through our values. Unfortunately, we have become overwhelmed with discourse and media. We no longer feel like we can make sense of the world through our own...

While slightly repetitive, the importance of the idea of holy work and doing as superior to not doing is central to these two books. I spend extra time on the concept of ‘Sin’ and how this is a misleading word to use in translation from the Sanskrit and how Dharma, Karma and Kama are not just about the endless cycle of life but also about how we experience our lives in the moment.

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Plus, ga...