Dan Christian Sabao

2014

March

The New Idols of the Postmodern Era

A Protocol Paper on Francis Bacon
The Dawn of Man followed a history of belief and faith in a deity
of some sort or deities of sorts. Man believed that someone looks over them,
a powerful being that possessed magical powers that seek to control the
lives of the human race. They did not their absence but made it a
compulsory thing that something is out there more powerful than them and
they didnt stand a chance: to satisfy the pride of the gods, they have made
themselves idolaters of the gods who as the humans worshipped them,
didnt have the proof that they exist or have control over them.
In connection with these things that I have written at the top, I
would like to discuss first the concept of Francis Bacon in his light of the
Novum Organum which in it denied the Logic of the famous Aristotle which
the Christians for me adored very much so as to lead to some biases and
foreclosure to some of the most snubbed Philosophies of the time until today.
Francis Bacon thought that we human beings are servants and
interpreters of nature so as to lead to my explanation of the human thought
of a deity: we human beings assert (the old ones, dont count me, are you
one of them?) that something powerful is out there, this belief is governed by
the idea of Bacon that we ourselves interpreted the motion, frowns and
smiles of nature so as to conclude that we are lower beings eventually
believing that nature is god or parts of nature are they themselves gods so
as to lead thus we human beings to become servants of the interpreted.
Interpretation requires a direct form of acquiring knowledge that
we can say that he is a proponent of empiricism in which in it said that we
acquire knowledge through the powers of the senses and with it experience
the world or can we say nature so as to collect datum and tickle the mind
into the reality of reality.
I would like to discuss about the aphorisms on why man is a
servant of nature and idolaters of it thus leading to the concept or idea about
the idols that prevent us from attaining the real truth an knowledge in which
Francis Bacon believes can be cured by crushing this idols and turning back
from it and start all over again by the process which he popularized, it is
called induction.
The first aphorism which I read out of the actual Novum
Organum says thus: Man, being the servant and interpreter of nature, can do
and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in
thought of the course of nature: beyond this he neither knows anything nor
can do anything. These support the thought that I have that man throughout
its existence have long observe and known about the facts and movements
of nature and interpreted it as thus as I have said in the latter part, beyond

this it supports the thought that I thought that man as the interpreter and
servant of nature only interprets it and saying this thus man cannot know
anything about its true course or powers: for example, I as a primitive man
believe that because the sun is hot and I cannot endure it conclude that it is
a god and its powerful, beyond this notion that it is a god, I cannot no longer
know anything about its nature or can do anything about its hotness or its
flaring light: I am weak and the sun cannot be endured thus I interpret it is a
god and I can no longer do anything about it, I just need to worship it so my
crops wont dry out.
To produce a new logic, he must think of a proposition first to
tickle the mind of his leading to a new idea like Descartes have done or the
eureka of the Greek person I forgot the name about due to clumsiness. The
twelfth aphorism in his philosophical work says thus: The logic now in use
serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their
foundation in commonly received notions, than to help the search after truth.
So it does more harm than good. It just makes things worse he says so I
Francis Bacon proposes a new logic in which to help as discover the truth, it
is induction! Instead of believing about the present manures of the time
beholden, we fecalate it in the garderobe and start over again and by
experience which I proudly believe would help us attain the truth, we collect
interpretations of nature so as to build a collection and attain the truth by
joining and analyzing this interpretations or rather observations of nature. I
just pretended to be he so as to truly feel what he felt about when he coined
this idea.
Now, let us get straight by discussing the idols in which man is
hypnotized and lead misleadingly into believing false ideas and arrive on the
opposites of the true truths of the real realities. On the thirty-ninth aphorism
he said thus: There are four classes of idols which beset men's minds. To
these for distinction's sake I have assigned names,calling the first class
Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the
Market-place; the fourth, Idols of the Theater.
The idols of the tribe as I the sole interpreter of what he said
about it have foundation on my human nature itself together with other
peoples human nature. I would say about our human nature and the nature
of the universe itself: we as humans have beliefs and ideas that our human
nature I capable of thinking and experiencing, this human nature have set us
to conclude various things which are true including our reality as we thought
about it; but, this human nature has brought us more trouble than good and
we must not rely on it very much so as to say that we as interpreters of
nature, nasty and imperfect, blended our disgust with the perfection of the
nature of the universe so as to thus corrupt its true reality leading to false
truths and misleading ideas.
The idols of the cave as I the sole interpreter of what he said are
the things that the individual man have: the things he sought at birth, the
things his parents taught him, the things that he experienced, the people he
admired so as to form biases, the people he loved, the things said to him by

his wife or even the depressing things that happened in his life. These things
happened because of his human nature and I as a Human being have my
own cave and in it have grown predisposed on the things that I have seen
and learned from there so as to mislead me from the true reality because of
the formed biases that I have acquired by living in that cave for a while or for
a longer time.
Before the discussing the last two idols of the four idols
mentioned, I will be commenting about the present disgust of people towards
philosophy so as I have observed in our school that few men and women
dare enroll on such course that I love most and believe lead us away from
the capitalist idealism of most other courses that we encounter. Be wary of
thus because it is a kind of idol that Bacon suggested, an idol of the tribe and
the marketplace in which majority of kids out there believe and has
accustomed themselves in their own homes that nature as interpreted
revolves around who has the most money and who is the most aesthetic of
all: it will lead to the false notion that life is a form of grandiose existence in
which we humans have placed ourselves in the middle as gods themselves.
The next idol, Idols of the Marketplace can be best understood by
limiting ourselves on the people we see every day: the people we disgust
upon, the people we love most, the people that we lust most, the people that
we admire most and the people that we believe possesses the way to the
truth we want to have. These people have something to say which we dont
know influence the way that we think and act. The people we disgust upon
are the people we say vulgar things most, this vulgarity leads to the
misinterpretation of nature using words that are deemed for use for the good
that we use to insult the people we disgust upon leading to the false notion
that this world is full of evil rather than perfection that we find in the
universe. The people that we love the most are the people we believe the
most and this people as part of the tribe influences us to an extent that what
they say becomes universal truth for us so as to lead to beliefs which are
indeed false but put belief in them because it was said by the one we love.
The people we lust upon are the people we seek most: out of wickedness and
recklessness, we are lead to believe what they believe so as to conform with
them to get what we want; either sex or money so as you choose upon. The
people that we believe possesses the truth are the people we admire upon:
these people can be leaders, artists, presidents, or as I may say influential
people who are famous for what they say so as to believe that what they
have said are the absolute reality of the of the false falsities. Gossip, as one
naysayer has put it, is deadly like a serpent of the strongest venom; by it, we
can be poisoned by the misleading words of language that we encounter
everyday in the noisy marketplace of this world.
The idols of the theater visualize the world a very big theatre or I
may say stage in which various people of different talents and capabilities
perform. We are part of the cast of characters and the director of the theatreplay is we ourselves or rather we say there is no absolute director but I
approve not of the idea that there is none because for me nature is the

director of the play and we as its servant follow its actions and cuts. These
characters which have different talents of sort are the philosophers of the
past, present and future that we hungry people who wants the taste of truth
cast upon our favors on whom shall we believe naysay true to the every
word which come forth from the mouth of the wise. As we have said, these
philosophers are also humans with human nature and they themselves, err.
These casts of characters perform a play which if we place an audience of
people can be disgusted or satisfied upon the performance of the talented
ones. The ones who disgust and satisfy are also human beings who have
human nature and in a way when we believe in what this performers show is
self-defeating; meaning, this stage plays cant be accurately be acted upon
by the actors as what the director or I say the way Nature written the script.
The actors (philosophers), the plays (ideas) in which humanity interpreted
the written script (the way of Nature) which has been written by the director
(Nature) and the stage (the World) are corrupted by the misinterpretations of
some of these wise men, some of them correct (but we cant know beyond
nature as the 1st aphorism have said) but cant be curtained upon. These
acts are corrupt and must not be watched upon by us. We must abandon the
theatre and go to our homes not as actors but directors of our own ways in
which we would attain the whole truth by empiricism or observation blended
by induction.
Now that these idols are well understood, I can now discuss the
postmodern idols which are now more relevant. The idols of Bacon as I may
say is very primitive so as to his age are of primitive men of the trunk-like.
The new people have abandoned these idols not as to have attained the
truth but have turned into new idols or gods that further have sadly,
corrupted the human race.
The postmodern world is riddled by many ideas, all of them are
new but majority of them are from the past. Some of these new ideas are
indeed new and these are where the new idols of the new people have
descended upon. The creation of a new world has been achieved by these
gods not out of nothing but out of us, ourselves.
The four idols which I thought about are these mannequins of the
postmodern age: the first class Idols of the Post-Modern Family; the second,
Idols of the Mansion; the third, Idols of the Social Media; the fourth, Idols of
the Simulacrum. I have come up with this kind of intent because primarily I
live in the postmodern era and you reader are too.
The idols of the Post-modern family I can say is self explanatory
but how can this postmodern family interfere with the acquisition of the true
knowledge? I can answer that with this following explanation that I suppose
can also be related upon by our dear reader of my philosophy: The
postmodern family can be understood by first starting on the traditional
definition of the family which is composed by the Father, Mother and the
Children; I have observed in the defense of theses this year in the Philosophy
course, my dear classmate has deemed to be safe upon the traditional than
meddle on the postmodern way, thats a good move I suppose for an

individual not tickled by the postmodern way thus we now proceed. The
family of the postmodern is not composed of the traditional way, it can be
composed of the following format which can be father-father-son, mothermother-son, son-mother-daughter, brother-sister-sex toy, boyfriend-girlfriendcontraceptives or it can be peculiar like mother-father-animal, animalmother-animal or robot-mother-son. If you are in misunderstanding this is the
format type laid out with the traditional one; the first word is the Father, the
second word is the Mother and the last word is the Children (Father-MotherChildren). Someone who is not comfortable with this can be shocked in a
very primitive way so as to oppose this new ideology. Obviously, with this
kind of idol, everything that we like can be possible. That is why these idols
are dangerous, it leads to a worse perception of truth and it can start in the
Family.
The Idols of the mansion are the capitalist ideology. Money was
not invented recently, it has been invented in the past and it was an
instrument of evil and foolishness as the ancients have put it. The difference
is now, money is a good thing and it is a basic necessity and the world of the
neohuman revolves around it. We go to school because we have money, we
buy things because we have money, we want things because of money, we
are made because of money, we live each day because we need money, we
work because we need money, we admire someone because he has money,
we marry someone because he has money, we are satisfied because we
have money, we are powerful because we have money and we live because
we have money. The idols of the mansion are very relevant today and the
new people made the temple of the idol more eloquent and grandiose
leading way to the capitalist society. We must go to school because I believe
it is the right thing to do and not for money but for knowledge. Life and
Justice can now be paid upon and it misleads us to believe in a reality which
is not indeed, the true one.
Before proceeding to explain the next two idols of four idols I
have aforementioned, I would like to comment on the government of the
Philippines and its system. It does not run according to the essence of
governance but it runs for the sake of money, profit (idols of the mansion)
and Dynasty (Idols of the Post-modern Family). I may call the people under it
as uneducated to the extent that they themselves are the cause of the evils
that we are experiencing right now. The democratic government that we
have is not good for people who rebel and devote to self-interest, I think that
we must design a new government scrapping the present forms of
governance in this world because I think that the government that we have is
not designed for us; it was made for someone else, not us. We must indeed
be original and think of something for a people like us and go to success and
progress by change. The people of the Philippines are afraid of change, the
EDSA revolution just made things worse for example because without Marcos
we would not have the majestic highways of today and seeking for freedom
which was not true reality is not t true meaning of what governance be, the
people of that time just wanted freedom so that they can do what they want.

This self-interest is destroying us. The leaders of the our time present and
time past is not the problem here, the problem is the people under it: people
who are nasty, brutish, short, hypocrites (Catholic Church, please make a
move now not to meddle with the state but to counter the devils inside the
Church), child-like and full of words not action. We must help ourselves in
order to help our country.
After that emotional burst of comment, we proceed with the last
two idols of tribe which further corrupt the people of our time.
The third idol is the Idols of the Social Media. The social media is
now very famous that even me myself is corrupted by it. They say that social
media is not evil in itself but I oppose that. Social Media was made for
communication, communication between the gods and us human beings.
The gods are hidden in between the curtains of social media and social
media is a means of communicating evil to us or I may rather say
communicating false truths. The Ethical and Religious persons are counter
acting it by also meddling with it so as to, they suppose, to make it a good
thing. The social media became the means of a new form of belief that
everything that I encounter on it is reality and it is very pleasant. For
example: Cybersex is a misleading reality, porn also, a new kind of Family
can be formed (Individual-Computer-?), Selfies which exhibit the lustful, and
many other things that some of you have already encountered. It leads to
beliefs and knowledge that are not really the truth.
The last idol is the Idols of the Simulacrum. If Francis Bacon
favored empiricism, I wont. I cant believe that knowledge can be acquired
by sense only or experience, it needs rationality. These happen when people
tend to rely on their senses alone, Simulacrum. Jean Paul Baudrillard coined
the word Simulacra scores ago and I think what he thought about is really
relevant. We seek for truth of the truths and it is now difficult to find it
because of the idol of the idols, the Simulacra. Simulacrum are illusions or
simulations of the true reality, these simulations can mimic the true reality
and its appearance but corrupt its essence to use it in a different way which
is obviously misleading us to the real truth. How can we smash these idols
into pieces in a world governed by it? I can answer that by saying that being
Rational is the key. Relying on the senses makes us victims of the
simulacrum. For example: advertisements, porn, internet, computer games
and fetishes are all simulacra. They are simulacra because they represent
the true reality but corrupt the representation so as to mislead people that
this is the reality. Shampoos in advertisements cannot make your hair
straight in an instant, porn is just Sex being done by Actors and Actresses to
make money not to make Love with each other, Internet is a web full of lies
and deception, computer games makes us bad trip when we lose but we
must know that we must not be affected by it because its just simulation
and fetishes are just false sensations that make us think that the object
fetished upon is the true reality of Sex. It can now be understood how the
Idols of the Simulacrum mislead us to the truth.

For us to arrive in the truth, Francis Bacon suggests to shatter

them and start again using experience as the tool for inductive knowledge to
know the truth. I would suggest that after you shatter these idols, we start
again not only using experience but also use Rationality as the tools for
inductive knowledge to know the truth.
These new idols of the postmodern era must be recognized well
so as to destroy them in sight and leave them. The Postmodern era is full of
these idols and I hope that my exposition of their identity can help us attain
the truth as I also deem hope to attain.

Modern Philosophy
Balasta Jr.

Professor

Silvino