1.13. Four Goals Of DGBN-Gap Philosophy

Let me list here very quickly four goals of Hegel's Hotel: Gap-DGB(N) Philosophy:

1. To 'bridge the many philosophical gaps' between many different philosophical points of view, particularily the ones that directly and boldly confront each other such as 'black' and 'white', 'liberal' and 'conservative', 'socialist' and 'capitalist'.

2. To 'deconstruct' the prevalence and domination of 'narcissism-out-of-control' in present-day North American culture and society, particular in Canada, my home country. (This is not a new problem to mankind -- west or east, north or south. Narcissisitic hedonism and corruption -- out of control to the point of destruction and self-destruction -- has been the ongoing scourge of mankind since the beginning of history, rearing its ugly head with a particular vehemence -- covertly and/or overtly -- usually just before these same societies 'crash and burn' in their own self destructiveness, ending in war, revolution, anarchy, rebellion, reformation, prohibiiton, and -- as people fully appreciate their great human losses -- a short-lived return to more 'humanistic-existential' values before this whole 'narcissistic process' starts up again, expands, and repeats itself in individual and/or cultural expansion to the point of self-destruction. Narcissism is like a virus that hides itself in the body until the body's defenses are lowered -- then it takes off to wreak havoc on the mind and body. The reason that narcissism is so effective is that it masks itself as 'the pursuit of pleasure' and who doesn't like the pursuit of pleasure? But hedonism, like dionysianism and narcissism, can take one to the hospital, jail, or the grave if one pursues it too vigorously to the point of loss of reason and self-control. Religion, ethics, and morals has always been the 'combined conscience' of mankind, but even religion has fallen victim to narcissistic hedonism over the years, and the combined force of religion, ethics, and morals, is not always (generally?) strong enough to fight off for long periods of time the 'seductive powers' of 'Dionysianism', 'Narcissism', and 'Hedonism' which I will sometimes combine under the acryonym 'DNH'. DNH provides much of the lifeblood of human existence but needs to be drawn in when it disintegrates into political, legal, economic, and/or religious corruption, war, addiction, obsessive-compulsive behavior, crack houses, ecstasy deaths, alcoholism, and the like. Also, without trying to sound like a prude or a socialist, the problem of 'too much money in the hands of too little people' needs to be addressed where the rich keep getting richer and much of the middle class starts sinking into what used to be the realm of the lower class, while the lower class sinks into the street. At one point, people in the 1970s and 80s thought we were heading for a '30 hour work week' while the opposite seems to have happened; '50 and 60 hour work weeks seem to be more the rule than the exception these days as more and more people are finding that they need to work longer and longer hours just to make ends meet. My formula is that DNH at the top of the social and economic pyrramid is causing much undue and unnessary hardship at both the middle and the bottom of the social and economic pyrramid.

3. To work on re-establishing and re-vitalizing 'humanistic-existential values' in the face of the huge 'existential void' being left behind by human narcissism-out-of-control.

4. To work on re-establishing and re-vitalizing the 'Humanistic-Existential-Democratic-Dialectic'(as opposed to the 'Narcissistic-Undemocratic-Dialectic') as a means of promoting all three of the goals and sets of values established above.


*DGBN, October 2nd, 2006, modified Jan. 20th, 2007.

* Short for...
* David Gordon Bain
* Dialectical-Gap-Bridging-Negotiations
* Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism'