The Wes Cecil Podcast

In Chapter two of Chuang Tzu, we read a clear questioning of the value of ‘Truth’ and the inability of the language to reliable capture the reality we experience. If we move from a concept of truth to one of engagement, discussion, reflection and conversation we are much closer to the Taoist approach to knowing than when we argue about ‘Truth’ or ‘Right’ or ‘Goodness’.

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NIHILISTIC MATERIALISM
That American culture is materialistic is an accurate but often unhelpful distinction as it is our particular kind of materialism that America manifests that is important to understand. In this lecture, I explore the peculiar Nihilistic elements that shape American materialism. Significantly, all the standard critiques of materialism - that material goods will not give your life meaning, that shopping is just coping mechanism for deeper ills, that the press of consumerism is driven largely by corporate greed - have little to no grip on the American psyche because everyone knows them and consumes anyway! America combines both a disbelief in consumerism with aggressive consumerism into a curious and counterintuitive set of outlooks and behaviors that shape important elements of American society.

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As if just to illustrate the ideas we’ve been exploring, the students of France are out on the streets to protest the latest French government budget. Not only is this a repeat of some of the key elements that led to the revolt in May 1968, it also underlines the degree to which the government will go to not have to admit they have utterly failed to deliver on its many promises over the last 20 years. The joy of resistance is getting very real indeed.

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 at $2/month: https://www.patreon.com/wescecil
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The popular American conception of balance associated with Taoism is almost entirely misleading and very probably anti-thetical to the core principles of Taoism. While the ancient Chinese had a word for balance as in a balance beam or equal scales, this word never appears in the Tao Te Ching. Rather it uses the words for Harmony, Middle, Stillness and Equilibrium. Our concept of placing two things opposed to each other until they cancel out and become static is simply wrong within the conceptual space of Taoist thought.

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 at $2/month: https://www.patreon.com/wescecil

Image credit: Thanato, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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Q & A - AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM
Wes and Jeremy take questions from listeners on Lecture III: American Individualism

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.