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Once again, I just cannot have such optimism. I think we are not entering a resurgence of life affirmation, but instead we are reaching a new state of decadence — fully materialistic life denial. People are now seeking to escape the troubles of the material world through an increasing reliance on material, rather than some sort of asceticism or heroic action. The dopamine chambers. The Dyson spheres. This is exactly what Heidegger feared about technology, that people would use it to run away from the world rather than to achieve power in the world, which subsequently will turn human beings reliant on technology rather than the vice versa.

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I would say that the life-denying attributes of Platonism are more of a late influence, the notion of “henosis” was introduced by Plotinus who was probably the most life-denying of the Neoplatonists. Middle Platonists and early Platonists were only really interested in demonstrating the underlying oneness of reality, they were less concerned with some sort of soteriology and it was generally agreed that the world was worth living in and that goodness had much more sway over the world than evil. Later more mystical platonists agreed with the goodness of the world, but also viewed enlightenment as the best possible good and sort of a form of apotheosis more than self-immolation. The Dharmic equivalent of this is probably Vishishtadvaita. It still recognizes underlying unity but enlightenment merely brings one close to God (Vaikuntha) while still having a separate being.

I would say Gnosticism is in sort of a league of its own. Christianity is kind of life denying but more in its praxis, with the whole martyrdom schtick. Christians do still believe, after all, that the best end to history is a reincarnation of human beings — that being with a body is better than being without a body

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