The Wes Cecil Podcast

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 others as valuable and even beautiful is an act of resistance.

Books mentioned:

Cicero De Officiis Book 3 50-57

Deleuze and Guattari A Thousand Plateaus - Plateau 6

Delueze and Guattari Anti-Oedipus

Koran Al-Mutaffifin and Al-Isra (amongst many other passages)

Deluzism by Ian Buchanan particularly the last chapter.

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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.

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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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

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.

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 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.