Einzelgänger

Dear subscribers,

I’ve decided to step away from this channel for the foreseeable future.

The platform has changed a lot, and so have I.

To share a bit more: I’ve been feeling increasingly drained.

I have been struggling to create new content for Einzelgänger. I haven’t felt that creative drive for quite some time, perhaps because it is time for something new.

Another factor is that I don’t feel much at home on YouTube anymore (changing algorithms, chasing views, flooded with AI channels).

I don’t know if I’ll return (or in what form), but I won’t rule it out.

Thank you to everyone who supported this journey. I’m deeply grateful.

Until next time,

Einzel

2 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 8,955

Einzelgänger

Taoism for Inner Peace is now available. Get it at a special price until the end of March. For more information, check: einzelganger.co/tao/

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 947

Einzelgänger

Taoist philosophy teaches that everything is in constant flux—the universe’s natural state. All things are interdependent; every action triggers an effect, and every effect sparks a response. Life follows its course: death follows birth, and aging begins from the moment we’re born. We are placed in a world beyond our control, facing the realities of human existence.

Yet, people often struggle to accept change. We embrace it when it suits us but resist when it doesn’t. We see change as good, but only if it happens on our terms. So, we spend our lives trying to control fate, forcing the world to bend to our will. We resist reality, trying to impose our will on its natural flow. We want to fight it. We want not to give an inch.

While the Western world sees a ‘hard stance’ as a sign of strength, Taoists recognize that such rigidity can just as easily be a weakness. A famous example from Lao Tzu is the brittle, dry plant—its inflexibility leads to its downfall, while softness is its true strength.

The idea of non-resistance stems from the power of softness and flexibility. Often, it’s wiser to flow with events rather than resist, even when resistance feels like an instinctive choice.

Resisting reality rarely works. What must happen happens. We can’t stop it. That doesn’t mean we cannot influence our circumstances, but we don’t control the outcome. If we did, we’d all be millionaires, every Joe would find his Jane, and hardship wouldn’t exist. But life doesn’t work that way. And often, resisting isn’t just futile. It could also make things worse.

This week’s (upcoming) video explores the Taoist concept of non-resistance.

Stay tuned!

2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,895

Einzelgänger

Capitalism as we know it has been dying a slow death, according to Yanis Varoufakis (economist and former Minister of Finance of Greece). And instead of moving toward a better system, we’ve fallen into something much worse: technofeudalism.

Technofeudalism describes a society where feudal lords and serfs re-emerge, but this time within a technologically advanced landscape. A key difference is that technofeudalism isn’t about land but cloud space. And the feudalists in a technofeudal society are, therefore, “cloudalists.”

Varoufakis compares the early Internet to the medieval commons—land no one truly owned where peasants could freely grow food. Over time, landlords fenced off these commons for private use, known as the “enclosures,” leaving peasants dependent on the landlords to access land and make a living.

Now, like these landlords enclosed the common lands, Big Tech enclosed the internet. As the early internet consisted of numerous independent spaces, Big Tech turned it into giant enclosures, owned by powerful platforms, home to millions of technofeudal serfs, sustained by the low-wage workers, Varoufakis calls “cloud proles.”

The shift from capitalism to technofeudalism has many consequences, not just for how we work or conduct business but also for our lives as a whole.

This week’s (upcoming) video explores technofeudalism, how it affects our lives, and how we can deal with it.

Stay tuned!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,643

Einzelgänger

When society is in decay, could walking away be the best option?

It’s not just seclusion but also a renunciation of society that characterizes hermits. They realize they cannot change the world. But they can distance themselves from it.

Whether it’s corruption, wicked people in the government, moral decay, or today’s self-exploiting achievement society: they’re done with it. It has nothing more to offer them. The juice simply isn’t worth the squeeze.

Just look at the world today: tensions between powerful nations, deepening polarization, rampant greed, and a small group of ultrarich individuals holding most of the power.

Have you had thoughts lately such as, “I don’t want to be part of this anymore” or “I wish I could just walk away from all this?” Well, you’re not alone. Renunciation of society is a universal phenomenon; the hermits have been doing it for ages!

Based on their accounts, many hermits find their lives improving in solitude. Moreover, people have consulted them for advice as long as they’ve been around. So, people sought guidance for living within society from those who turned their backs on it. That’s ironic, isn’t it? Apparently, people see something of value in the hermit’s existence.

So, what makes the hermit’s life valuable? What do hermits find in solitude?

This week’s (upcoming) video explores the hermit's philosophy, history, motivations, and whether there is a modern approach to becoming one.

Stay tuned!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 3,500

Einzelgänger

The French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre believed that, aside from our biological features, humans come into existence without a predefined essence. Unlike forks and trains, we are fundamentally free to create our own identity and define our own purpose. We exist first; essence comes afterward. As Sartre stated:

“Man simply is. Not that he is simply what he conceives himself to be, but he is what he wills, and as he conceives himself after already existing – as he wills to be after that leap towards existence. Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism.” (Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism).

So, what we’re left with is an inherently undetermined existence. Life, thus, is like an empty canvas. There are no fixed rules to this game. There are no definite goals. There’s no overarching purpose. Morals and ethics are all manmade; none are final or absolute. Any claim of a universally right path, a presupposed way of living, is false. The only truth is the empty canvas and our conscious ability to fill it in.

It’s the “nothingness” of our consciousness, the absence of fixed content, that allows us to create our essence, to paint our canvasses however we like: a trait that is typically human. It sets us apart from other existing objects and beings. To explain this further, Sartre distinguished two modes of existence: being-in-itself and being-for-itself.

This week’s (upcoming) video explores Sartre’s existentialism, the nature of consciousness, freedom, and responsibility.

Stay tuned!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,245

Einzelgänger

The ancient Stoics noticed that whenever events and circumstances appear, we form value judgments about them. This process happens almost instantly, almost subconsciously. For example, we see a spider and instantly judge it as bad news: We want to escape it. Or at the sight of a fresh loaf of bread, we feel drawn to it: We want to have it and eat it. We add these judgments to everything we encounter. But not all of these impressions are reasonable.

An example of a reasonable impression is when we see daylight. We see it’s light outside. The sun is shining. Thus, our immediate judgment of that situation is that it’s day, which is probably a correct impression most of the time. An unreasonable impression is that a harmless house spider is a horrific, dangerous creature, and the appropriate response is profound fear and horror.

Judging everything we encounter is our way of making sense of the world. Animals do it, too, by the way. Human judgments can be socially conditioned, stem from religious beliefs, or, perhaps, natural inclinations.

Wherever our judgments come from, they often cause us to feel unpleasant emotions, such as fear and anger. Again, these forms of distress don’t come from the events and circumstances themselves; they come from these ‘judgments,’ these perceptions, and the responses we form concerning those events and circumstances. For example, if we perceive a loaf of bread as delicious, we likely develop a desire for it. If we perceive a spider as dangerous, we likely develop an aversion to it.

Epictetus noticed these two forces (desire and aversion) cause distress, whether it’s fear, anger, disappointment, grief, you name it.

This week’s (upcoming) video explores the roots of suffering and a specific lesson by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus for inner peace.

Stay tuned!

1 month ago | [YT] | 2,465

Einzelgänger

What’s a “serious person?”

From the viewpoint of existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, the serious person is devoted to what he deems a higher purpose that justifies his existence. He seeks identity and meaning in predefined roles, giving him an illusion of absolute purpose and truth. To maintain this illusion, he willingly throws critical thinking overboard. He wants to lose himself in these external entities. Why? Because by doing so, he doesn’t have to think for himself anymore. Big Daddy does it for him, just as his parents did when he was a kid.

Now, which roles are we talking about? It could be anything. Take a mid-level manager, for example, who's basically everyone's pain in the ass. His identity is almost entirely submerged in the company. His holy book? The company’s code of ethics. The sacred symbol he proudly carries on his suitcase? The company’s logo. Not to mention the whiteboard in his bedroom, showing the company’s mission statement and future growth plan.

Okay, this sounds hyperbolic, but seriously (pun intended), most people seek something external to become a meaning-giving entity. They submerge with roles—soldiers, fathers, professors; you name it—and the values these roles entail. Take a serious person assuming the role of a student, for example. Instead of being someone who studies, he begins to act, think, and talk like a stereotypical studious automaton or an archetypical frat boy.

He sacrifices his authenticity, but who cares? He’s now part of the Borg—a safe system that provides stability and a sense of purpose. In this way, the serious person becomes a textbook NPC, moving through life on autopilot and following a script dictated by external values.

The serious person seems selfless, sacrificing himself for the greater good—the student union or the company. But there’s a catch: what truly matters to him isn’t so much the cause itself but the opportunity to lose himself in it.

This week’s (upcoming) video explores Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist philosophy.

Stay tuned!

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,402

Einzelgänger

Is it truly bad to be a loser?

Two friends met each other again after a long time. One of them had become a successful, wealthy man. The other remained poor and insignificant. The unsuccessful friend complained about his fate, which annoyed the successful one, who argued he might just be more "virtuous" and, therefore, more worthy in the eyes of others.

But the Taoist sage Tung-kuo corrected him, saying that worth cannot be measured by social or political success. These things are not something we control. Some people simply have more luck than others. According to the sage, both men were buried in illusions of worth and value based on social norms.

The idea that material success, fame, or achievement equates to worth is strong and widespread. However, from a Taoist viewpoint, it’s also a social construct. It’s not an objective truth. It’s simply what people have agreed upon. The term ‘loser’ has no real meaning; it’s just a label based on society’s focus on shallow measures of success.

Unfortunately, society’s emphasis on success and achievement is substantial, causing people to suffer. But why do we place so much importance on success and failure? And aren’t we wasting our lives being concerned with this dichotomy?

This week’s (upcoming) video explores Taoist philosophy and whether being a 'loser' is bad from a Taoist philosophical viewpoint.

Stay tuned!

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,881