Obscurantism answer thread

[PANZERCATWAGON]

Ok, so I read over the recently locked 'Obscurantism' thead and I realised that Smegma had done a ruddy good job of confusing and thoroughly pissing off nearly everyone. Now I hope to clear some of that up so it may never be brought up again. A notice to Church and other mods who may think this is a continuation of that thread, it's not, I intend this to clear up issues with actual answers instead of confusing, meaningless gibberish. Also, for the people wanting answers, Smegma will probably reply saying that my answers are incorrect, and true that may be (and not true and neither at the same time), for the purpose of understanding between me, you and the internet, just take it that what I say is true.

Right so, the main question I gathered from it was; what the hell is obscurantism? Is it a religion? To answer that, no it is not a religion. It is on the same kind of level, but there is no real worship involved. Instead, it's more of a general way of thinking or understanding. I'll go a bit more in depth.

Imagine a picture. You know those kind that are made up of something ... say black streaks or blobs, and they have a hidden picture amoungst their position. This way of thinking, obscurantism, is kind of like that, in laymans terms. If someone tells you to "find the old woman in this picture", you'll be concentrating really hard on specific spots trying to see a little old woman. Wheras if you where just given the picture to look at, with no pointers, you would be looking at the entire picture instead of specific spots and will probably end up seeing the hidden old woman faster. Anyway, I know that doesn't really work because someone could just point out the outline of the woman, but I couldn't think of a better metaphor so **** you I did my best.

Anywho, so now you see why Smegma believes you can't be told what Obscurantism is, because you can really only 'get it' by figuring it out for yourself.

Now you may be thinking, "That's great, but I still don't know what it is". Like I said before, it's a way of thinking. It's sort of like the same way bhuddists meditate. By cutting out everything else around them they can achieve a heightened state of awareness. Obscurantism is going on that kind of level, but not physical awareness, just a way of thinking.

Now just for all of you that were wondering stuff like, if it's so great then maybe I should 'do it' or whatever. First off, don't be that hasty. Obscurantism isn't for everyone, in the same way that it's not for me. Having thought about it quite a lot, I can say this:

If within yourself, you fear certain things, if you are unsure of what to believe in or unsure in your faith in your beliefs, any question of fear you may have of absolutely anything then from my point of view it is ok to try and become enlightened by Obscurantism and will probably benefit you in some way. But if on the other hand, you fear nothing, and I'm not talking about physical reflex you get from ... I dunno, having a tiger growl at you or something, I mean proper fear, the kind where you go out of your way to stay away from, if you fear nothing in that way, do not cower in the face of death, if you are truly brave, then do not bother with this, it will not benefit you in any way.

I hope this has cleared up some stuff, but I'm sure Smegma has critisisms and some of you may have more questions, so fire away.

[Iridescent]

Very well written.
Hopefully it will stop a whole load of whining. I liked that thread, rather the intention it had.
May I ask why you didn't 'go for it'?

[DePhille]

Pretty funny, I thought people would actually see what Smegma was doing after I posted the "Stop playing games with these people"-post.
Apparently not.

[PANZERCATWAGON]

Very well written.
Hopefully it will stop a whole load of whining. I liked that thread, rather the intention it had.
May I ask why you didn't 'go for it'?

Because it is my goal, at some point, to die.

That may sound stupid because everyone dies, but most people don't actually want to die. I do want to die, I don't care when, but I do not fear death in the slightest.

[Iridescent]

Pretty funny, I thought people would actually see what Smegma was doing after I posted the "Stop playing games with these people"-post.
Apparently not.

He wasn't 'doing' anything. He was showing people

Very well written.
Hopefully it will stop a whole load of whining. I liked that thread, rather the intention it had.
May I ask why you didn't 'go for it'?

Because it is my goal, at some point, to die.

That may sound stupid because everyone dies, but most people don't actually want to die. I do want to die, I don't care when, but I do not fear death in the slightest.

But I accept death. I know it will come, I know it might be tonight when I go to sleep. However due to this fact it strengthens my belief that I should be as fully as I can be and to stick to my path.

[PANZERCATWAGON]

Very well written.
Hopefully it will stop a whole load of whining. I liked that thread, rather the intention it had.
May I ask why you didn't 'go for it'?

Because it is my goal, at some point, to die.

That may sound stupid because everyone dies, but most people don't actually want to die. I do want to die, I don't care when, but I do not fear death in the slightest.

But I accept death. I know it will come, I know it might be tonight when I go to sleep. However due to this fact it strengthens my belief that I should be as fully as I can be and to stick to my path.

Forget the fact that you have no control over when you die. You might think "Yeah if I lived forever, a zillion years or something, then I would want to die at some point, I'd get bored" or whatever, but think of it as just your human time frame - 80 years or there abouts. If you know when you are 79, when you are certain your death is near, that you will not wish for another year or two on top of that. That's what I mean.

EDIT: fucking typos

[Iridescent]

Well, I don't really know how I'll feel then.
Now I know I've had fun. I haven't managed to do everything I wanted to do, but if I find out that tomorow is my last day all I'd worry about is being able to say bye to everyone.
Sure I'd be sad and all that. But 'its my time'.

[PANZERCATWAGON]

Then you do fear it. At least at the moment. Don't worry though, it doesn't mean you are 'weak' or whatever, it just means you are human. Well mostly, hahahahaha.

[Iridescent]

Maybe I do fear it. Yeah, call me what you like
So if you were told you would die tomorrow what would your reaction be, how would you change your lifestyle? None at all?

[PANZERCATWAGON]

My lifestyle would change the same as anyone else's would. I'd go out and try and cram in as much stuff I could do before I died, but it's nothing out of fear.

[Iridescent]

Okay then. Fair enough. Everyone has their ways. Yours are simply wrong....nah just kidding

[Fluffy]

My lifestyle would change the same as anyone else's would. I'd go out and try and cram in as much stuff I could do before I died, but it's nothing out of fear.

Then what is it out of?

[PANZERCATWAGON]

The fact that I haven't done certain things that I want to.

Wanting death doesn't mean you don't want to have fun too.

[Fluffy]

You don't believe in any religion, is that correct?

[PANZERCATWAGON]

Yes.

[Smegma]

You ruined it for EVERYONE panzer!


Plus, I didn't go to obscurantism because I "feared" something. It came to me. You do not achieve this level, it just is. Its like many mysticisms, without the dogmatic structure, however focusing around text but not the language. Anyway, panzer can "explain" the tip of the ice berg but never truly see it...yet.

[PANZERCATWAGON]

It's your own fault.

[Smegma]

It's your own fault.

ITS YOUR FAULT TO.

I edited my post.

[Iridescent]

He didn't ruin it.
Using the same metaphor as PANZER did.
He simply showed where the painting was. He hasn't said anything else.

[Smegma]

He didn't ruin it.
Using the same metaphor as PANZER did.
He simply showed where the painting was. He hasn't said anything else.

But that RUINS it.