Nilsi

Give me a quick briefing: What is the study about? Who are you targeting (students, specific majors, or others)? What do you offer participants (credit points, money, or something else)?

You should’ve asked me.

Damn, you’ve cracked the code. My fragile ego is trembling, and I can’t help but desperately signal my belonging to this pantheon of greatness and wisdom. Obviously, I’m far too dull to comprehend the sheer brilliance of your revolutionary insight - the staggering originality of pointing out that the reasoning for a logical argument in favor of solipsism could also apply against it. Truly, I am humbled by your unparalleled intellect and razor-sharp innovation.

Imagine thinking that reality is „logical.“

Ugh, what does that even mean? Can’t you put some meat on the bones? Framing this discussion through the Hobbes vs. Rousseau debate should help cut through some noise. Sure, I agree with David Graeber: the idea of history as a grand arc - whether from innocence to vice (Rousseau) or chaos to order (Hobbes) - is laughably reductive. Tribal societies expose this; they’re far more complex and diverse than such cartoonish narratives allow. But here’s the deeper issue: the real question isn’t which grand narrative you prefer; it’s whether you can affirm reality as it is or if you need to concoct an idealized version of it just to function. The problem with the latter is obvious enough: even if your utopia were realized, your own psychology would crave it's undoing. This is Dostoevsky’s Underground Man in a nutshell - desire is always structured around a lack, and the real is never what we truly want. And here’s the brutal paradox: we chase the real to escape it, and when we affirm it, we’re crushed by its weight. This is the tragedy of human existence - and Nietzsche’s tragedy too. His final act saw him break free from his self-staged neo-Grecian psychodrama, proclaiming himself Dionysos. But this wasn’t triumph; it was surrender. The Apollonian dream shattered, and the Dionysian real consumed him entirely, plunging him into a madness that endured until his death. I’ll assume the connection to the solipsism debate is clear enough that it doesn’t need spelling out.

It’s all in the mix. Give me top-shelf cocaine, champagne, opiates, beautiful women, and good music, and I’ll blast past the pleasure principle straight into pure, decadent jouissance.

Of course, I do - lol. Pure jouissance, though - only when I’m out and looking for a good time.

I’d rather sharpen my judgment and cultivate the highest level of critique to pinpoint what is truly cool - and then embody that myself. Coolness everywhere? Please. I don’t buy it.

Coolness is the art of excellence appearing effortless.

I think you’re spot-on that approaching metaphysics through phenomenology is where the conversation should be. But I’d push back on whether your nostalgia for “authenticity” is anything more than a symptom of the very "urban life" you’ve identified so incisively. Your lived experience isn’t outside the constructs you critique - it is Jameson’s Logic of Late Capitalism, Fisher’s Business Ontology, Baudrillard’s Hyperreality. To romanticize ideas like “the vast cosmos” or an imagined “pre-modern tribal society” as somehow untouched by postmodernity is to overlook how deeply those ideals are products of the same age you’re critiquing. This, I think, is a challenge that metaphysics itself needs to grapple with - and a blind spot that the so-called “Theorists of Everything” seem unwilling or unable to take seriously.

Lol, what kind of cocaine are you even on? Cocaine feels like a flawless blonde bombshell in a sleek white cocktail dress, perky and perfect, handing you a double shot of espresso straight from Milan while you bask in the glow of your daily financial gains.

I’m not projecting; I’m just describing the vibe those shoes give off. Since you posted this in the dating section and asked for advice, I assume you’re interested in a realistic assessment of what your fashion communicates to others. Of course, I was exaggerating to make a point.

Kraftwerk - the greatest German musical export post-WWII - single-handedly helped revive the Dionysian spirit through techno clubs and underground raves. Ironically, though, this revival occurred precisely on the fringes of German society, for its outsiders, with a fanatical insistence on individuality and a distinctly anti-fascist aesthetic.

Yeah, Germans post-WWII have been uniquely lacking in musical competence. There have been some great visual artists, like Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer. But I actually think this may relate to "German guilt" and an aversion to the Dionysian - loss of self, ecstasy, dance, and music - elements defiled by the Nazis, perhaps beyond repair. The Apollonian - order, rationality, sobriety, visual art, and sculpture - seems to have remained intact.

lol You asked for advice, so don't be butthurt.

Worse. Germany.

But the working class in these places is generally still proud and content. Extreme poverty is, of course, brutal - no one thrives under those conditions. But you won’t find people there complaining all day about gas prices going up by 10 cents or spiraling into radical reactionary politics like people do here, on both the left and the right. Sure, there are capitalist pigs there too, but they’re usually just narcissistic, hedonistic jerks - not psychopathic bourgeois imperialists, whether cultural or economic.

Exactly! Why isn’t that enough for you? That’s the question you should be asking yourself.

I love dancing, going out with friends, sipping cocktails on warm summer nights. I love the beach, and I love warm, sensual women. There’s a lot I appreciate about Europe, too - but I’m becoming disillusioned with the hypocrisy of bourgeois culture. And honestly, I feel like the working class in Europe is often miserable, petty, and unhappy with life. I don’t want to play on either side of that divide. Latin American culture feels more egalitarian, and it celebrates the simple pleasures of life far more than in Europe. I’ll admit, I’m becoming a bit of a solipsist in this sense. I’m tired of the grand aesthetic, political, and intellectual projects that define European culture. I just want to read my books, drink wine, make love, write poetry, do business, and leave all this petty bullshit behind.

This is some classy stuff. I've actually been toying with the idea of moving to Montevideo, Uruguay lately. I’ve always wanted to live in Patagonia, but I realized I enjoy urban life too much and would probably feel isolated in such remote nature, as beautiful as it is. The South American way of life is just so much warmer and more joyful than in Europe - and there are huge tax breaks and a generally lower cost of living that I could really benefit from.