Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Eckhart Aurelius Hughes]

The Scott (a.k.a. Eckhart Aurelius) who writes this now is 36 years old. In the year 2000, which was 23 years ago, I was 13.

If I read my book, In It Together, when I was about 13, I'd probably have disagreed with much of it. Overall, I'd judge the author to be a superstitious fool using spiritual platitudes to rationalize his inaction to fight the system and help the oppressed who suffer in our shared present.

Not knowing the author (me) was actually his older self, younger Scott would probably mispercieve me (36-year-old Scott) as believing in paranormal and supernatural things (which I don't at all). In fact, I (older Scott) would argue that I am much more skeptical than he was and that I use Occam's Razor even more aggressively than he did, but he would believe the opposite.

Not realizing I was just an aged version of him, Young Scott would call me inert, and he'd use the below Matrix quote (his favorite movie) to deride me as his enemy and a fool, and he wouldn't be completely wrong on either count.

But, ultimately, whether he noticed it or not, my words would change him way more than his words could or would ever change me, at least more than they already have in times past, for I have heard them before. Like rain when I'm running, his words wouldn't affect me at all today. They wouldn't affect me because I already know everything he has to say.

But sometimes you have to say your objection to hear the objection to your objection to understand the truth. There was things he still had to learn, and if in some weird time travel paradox he read my book he would learn many from there but he was destined learn them either way. Indeed, there is nothing in my book that isn't in countless other books. Some by concentration camp survivors. Some by Soviet gulag survivors.

I'm sure you reading this are much wiser and more knowledgeable than 13-year-old Scott, but either way I am sure we can both learn from each other, since from thesis comes antithesis and only from both can we ever get to the usually much wiser synthesis. So, please, if you disagree with even a single sentence in my book, please let me know in this topic dedicated specifically to that or reply right here.

Alternatively, if you don't disagree with anything in the book, but have any questions for me at all after reading, please ask. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about my book after reading it, or even during reading it for that matter.

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[Liza Chulukhadze]

It's interesting how our outlooks on matters change with time. I am sure it feels great to have written a book and be able to think about what your younger self would've thought about it. Would he be proud? It is very interesting.

[Liza Chulukhadze]

It's interesting how our outlooks on matters change with time. I am sure it feels great to have written a book and be able to think about what your younger self would've thought about it. Would he be proud? It is very interesting.

[diana lowery]

I don't know what you were like as a thirteen-year-old, but I do know that the thirteen-year-olds that I teach would have a difficult time understanding the concepts in your book.

[Qwerty Writes]

I can't say for sure if all 13-year-olds are the same. But definitely, I know the past self has yet to grow more than anything. Every little concept is what made you who you are today and that's something people shouldn't beat themselves up for. Everyone has their own growing stages. That's what makes us unique and beautiful.

[Sushan]

I think with age we tend to tame our aggressive nature and be more accepting what we can't control, as you describe in your book. Thinking of myself in the past I see how I fought with and struggled with things that I could not have controlled, and I do not do so anymore. I too wish if I could have read your book earlier I would have gained this state much earlier.

[Hyda Kerubo]

At 13 years old I would not have understood this book as much as I did. At that age, I had not embraced the idea of material things being my identity. Additionally, I did not know or had any experience with evil. Moreover, I was convinced that hell and heaven exist somewhere outside me. I would have ended up more confused reading this book at that age.