Metaphysical Exile

Patmos is the Greek island where John wrote the book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible. There, while waiting for the end of the world, the disciple of Jesus remained isolated, without producing any descendants. Even if we do not agree with the thesis of cosmic pessimism that states that sentient life itself is a constant flight from negative states to fleeting and illusory positi...

In memory of my cousin, Juliana (1977 - 2023) There are conditions with such horrifying prognoses that it's easier to find people claiming to have been “cured” of them by taking highly dubious dietary supplements than to find reports of cures through faith. It's as if even God doesn't want to get near these diseases, and all that's left are the lowest forms of charlatanism. Full te...

When weird things began appearing in the skies and stories of new US government investigations begun circulating, compatriots of mine rightly pointed out how those things were just another distraction from real, more pressing issues—another deception the rich and powerful were more than welcome to promote. However, from a certain perspective, even our day to day lives, with all of its seriousness,...

In this essay, I discuss the possibility that our yearning for things such as artificial general intelligence and intelligent extraterrestrials come from a need we have to not be the only beings endowed—or cursed—with deep consciousness. I also briefly discuss "longtermism", the newest philosophical fad in the first world. Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com Music: http://www.twinmus...

In this essay, I discuss how almost everyone is dissatisfied with the world of becoming. Religious optimists, religious ascetics, unbelievers who create their own meaning, unbelievers who reject the illusion and existence: they all started their careers realizing that there was something wrong or strange with reality. Essay: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/202... Music by REPULSIVE

In this essay, I discuss how work was viewed as a curse during most of the last 2,500 years. It was only in the last few centuries that work came to be considered an activity that ennobles men. This aura of nobility regarding work became the object of dispute between antagonistic political movements. However, from the perspective of philosophical pessimism, the modern conception of work is somewha...

In this essay, I start by commenting on a heated political argument that occurred among Brazilian musicians during an episode of famous podcast in order to discuss the idea that conflict is inherent not only to human societies but to existence itself. Utilizing the perspective of negative or pessimist philosophies, I argue that, given the intrinsic role conflict has in existence, we humans can eit...

In this essay, published in April 4, 2021, I despair about how Brazil tends to become a militarized banana republic with a theocratic flair. While in the 1960's the religion of most anti-democratic reactionaries was Catholicism, today this role is played by neopentecostal churches—churches that had an absurd growth in the last 5 decades, especially since the incentive given by the military dictato...

In this essay, I talk about how the unsuccessful attempt to unite the creator deity with the savior deity in the first centuries of the Christian era ended up producing a sea of violent fanatics throughout the centuries — fanatics who are willing to murder people so they can be saved, an attitude divorced from logic that could only be brought about by a belief in a God that is, at the same time an...

Reading of an essay published on December 16, 2020, about the dangers that theocratic and reactionary Christian tendencies represent in contemporary Brazil.  Essay: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/202...   Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...

In this essay, I discuss the antinatalist hypothesis as a solution to the Fermi Paradox. Maybe intelligent enough species choose to peacefully come to an end via non-reproduction after realizing the cosmic pointlessness of it all; that is, after seeing how the struggle and suffering they endure through the ages amount to little or even less. But, by the end of the essay, I discard the possibility,...

In this essay I discuss divine wickedness once again and add that, if He existed, God would also be a sadistic cosmic abuser, since He not only makes us suffer but also requires us to kneel down and give thanks for the suffering.  Text on my blog: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2022/05/god-sadist.html Music by REPULSIVE: https://www.youtube.com/c/REPULSIVEMUSIC

In this essay, I deal with the common belief that God is good all the time. Assuming that our existence was in fact created by the Christian God average people believe in, then he can't be considered to be a benevolent deity all the time. In the Bible, God himself unequivocally states that he is the creator of both good and evil, light and darkness, peace and pain (Isaiah 45:5-7). In this context,...

We live in the era of batshit crazy. While philosophical pessimism and ascribing a negative value to birth (i.e. antinatalism) are minority views, they have been around for thousands of years: one can find them in the Bible, in Buddhist scriptures, in Greek tragedy, and in Philosophy. Those ideas have been discussed normally by people holding opposing views for a long time. This isn't what happens...

In this essay I discuss how — even though we might yearn for freedom and fulfillment in personal, social and political ways, and even though many of those longings are perfectly justified and worth fighting for — we (that is, sentient, conscious beings) will never be truly satisfied. I argue that there's only one way to avoid this existential oppression and dissatisfaction: never coming into exist...

QAnon is one of the craziest, stupidest and most dangerous far-right cults out there. In this essay, I talk a little about how it's not even creative, since it borrows heavily on old antisemitic conspiracy theories. Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/11/q-and-blood-libel.html  Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcavSftXHgxLBWwLDm_bNvA

In this essay, I talk about how even the best lives aren't worth starting. Suffering and pain, being intrinsic to conscious existence, will always make themselves felt. By coming into conscious existence, we got an extremely bad deal. From a negative ethical standpoint, then, we shouldn't pass it forward.  Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2020/11/life-is-very-bad-and-never-worth-it.htm...

It is amazing how little frightened most of us are of our circumstances. It is as if the entire business of humanity is to build a wall around reality and nature, which is violence, pain, death, decay and rebirth.  Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/10/be-very-afraid.html Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcav...

In this essay, I discuss how Nietzsche was influenced by and eventually denied Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, favoring a life-affirming posture. Later, in the 20th century, Cioran criticizes this.  Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/06/nietzsches-dionysian-pessimism-and.html Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcavSftXHgxLBWwLDm_bNvA

Utilizing a metaphorical and poetic language, we can state that our consciousnesses are imprisoned in our bodies, our flesh. However, the reality is even worse: our consciousnesses are part of our bodies, they arise from our flesh. They themselves are a prison. Once generated and born, we cannot escape. In this essay, I discuss how we're "locked" inside our bodies, which themselves are imprisoned...

All of us are part of nature's insidious game. If we took a good in the mirror we'd see in ourselves all the horror of the world — and if we were prudent, we'd deny the program in ourselves and refrain from making new fellow sufferers and monsters.   Text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/05/the-reflection-in-mirror.html Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcavSftXHgxLBWwLD...

In this essay, I discuss how existence is not only filled with suffering and death, but have suffering and death as its intrinsic features. I also discuss how, no matter the type of universe we happen to live in — one with a definitive beginning and end, or one that recycles itself and always gives rise to new suffering beings — the negative ethical imperative against the creation of new conscious...

Birth, life, suffering, death, repetition — and just the right dose of dopamine to keep us from realizing how pointless this whole process is. Nature is insidious in how it makes us perpetuate ourselves. Even human events and history ends up being an endless repetition that goes nowhere.   Full text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/09/repetition-and-decomposition.html  Music by CO...

In this essay I go through a few reasons why it would have been better not to have been, and how not even an Utopia would change this preference.   Full text: https://www.metaphysicalexile.com/2021/04/better-to-remain-in-potentiality.html  Music by CO.AG: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcavSftXHgxLBWwLDm_bNvA

In this essay I emphasize the idea that while, from a pessimist standpoint, the best is not to be born and so we should abstain from creating new conscious beings, that doesn't change the fact that there are people alive today that live under immense man-made forms oppression. These are forms of oppression that could very well be remedied if only we stopped preying on each other. Telling oppressed...