I have not had many philosophical thoughts the past few days. It’s probably because I haven’t been reading many philosophical things. whatayagonnado?

I guess I could talk about the phenomenolopticon. if you don’t know what that is, you should really study more philosophy. but anyway. the phenomenolopticon is a mashup of phenomenology and panopticon. the former is the philosophical study of phenomena, the latter a type of prison shaped to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single corrections officer, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched. so the phenomenolopticon is just the combination of those things. simple.

not unrelated, I’m a big Freud guy. I really think he was kind of cooking with "the It", "the I", and "the Over-I", and it’s in my humble opinion that these are the three defining features of a person: what they are (the It), within what they exist (the Over), and who they are (the I). furthermore, I think there are things that people often innately, or at least deeply desire even if unconsciously (the It) but they might not be able to sufficiently or appropriately express because of cultural parameters (the Over), and thus the result of the process is their personhood (the I) and the behavioral repertoire defined by their actions.

also not unrelated, Freud is also one the author of possibly my favorite quote ever, and something intimately tied to my worldview: “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his finger-tips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”

it’s like, nothing can ever fully be kept secret. the truth — the It — always comes out. it’s always expressed through the symbols of culture — the Over — and ultimately defines the individual — the I. information yearns to be expressed. we are all simply radio towers broadcasting waves of consciousness on the graph of existence (almost threw up from typing that).

so how does the phenomenolopticon mesh with our boy Siggy Freud? it doesn’t, in any meaningful or practical sense. I guess if anything it means that information is always leaking out of its containers, and someone is always watching. doesn’t mean they understand what they see, and often they don’t, but it’s out there.