Day 3738. blueprint 3

The point of a good conversation about a specific subject does not have to be to test the strength of your opinions or to disprove someone else’s. For me, it is the momentum your thoughts gain, and if you play it right, you let go of the wheel and see where it goes.

I am not on social media and know no one in my immediate vicinity who shares my interests, like the meaning of life from a Nietzschean perspective.

Today’s brief conversation with LeChat (Vibe) started with me asking who George Gurdjieff was. It was mostly to start a conversation, since I had already looked him up on Wikipedia. I asked because I listened to a podcast where two people talked about mysticism as if they were discussing types of grass. They treated it as if it were all true, not just a way of looking at reality.

Me:

Why do you think so many people are interested in higher consciousness, mindfulness, and related topics? Is it because they claim to have conveniently reached a higher realm where the truth is knowable? Why are many of these spiritualists so obsessed with finding truth rather than living life?

LeChat:

Your question cuts to the heart of a tension that’s always existed in spiritual and philosophical circles: the search for truth vs. the experience of living. There are a few possible reasons why so many are drawn to the idea of higher consciousness, mindfulness, or “truth”—and why this can sometimes feel like an escape rather than an engagement with life.

A whole lot of explanation and summarizing follows; this is something LeChat does, and I will leave it away for the most part in the coming conversation. It sometimes points to specific philosophers or other ideas, so it can be helpful.

Given your interest in Nietzsche, amor fati, and the idea of embracing life as it is, it sounds like you’re already skeptical of the idea that truth is something to be “found” rather than lived. Maybe the obsession with higher consciousness is, for some, a way to avoid the chaos and beauty of the here and now.

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Day 3685, Artificial conversation.

Daily picture, My thoughts

Christiaan: I personally think that META is a bad company because a selfish billionaire owns it, and it has supported some terrible regimes in the past. Many people know this, but they still use its apps. Those same people would not go to the next-door store if they knew the owner hits his wife regularly, so why the double standard?

Le Chat: Your point touches on a common tension in modern consumer behavior: the disconnect between personal ethics and convenience. Many people criticize companies like Meta for their ethical lapses, but continue using their platforms because the alternatives are less convenient or nonexistent. The comparison to a local store owner is interesting—boycotting a business with unethical practices feels direct and visible, but with global tech giants, the impact of individual choices feels diluted.

Do you think this double standard is more about the scale of the company, the lack of viable alternatives, or something else?

Christiaan: I think it is a lack of principles or a failure to keep the principles you have

Le Chat: It does seem like a matter of principle—or the lack of consistency in applying them. When people boycott a local business for unethical behavior, the consequences feel immediate and personal. But with a corporation like Meta, the ethical violations can feel abstract or distant, even if they’re objectively worse. It’s easier to overlook the disconnect when the impact isn’t visible in our daily lives.

Do you think this inconsistency reflects a broader human tendency to compartmentalize ethics, or is it more about the complexity of modern systems making it harder to act on our values?

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