It is no secret: our concept of what it is to be a human changed drastically in the last couple of years. We are still changing. We can, naively, state that what it is to be human (by our own standards) has not been fully formed. This idea is captured in the book "Man, Beast and Zombie" by Kenan Malik. At some stage, he states how our idea of human nature changed from the view that we where gods (Ancient Greeks) to humans being nothing other than beasts (current notion). We are thus seen from the perspective of people today as nothing other than animals, one species amongst the countless others walking the earth. This is not that bad, it is also more complex than this post can go into. The core idea is that the notion of what it is to be human changed from say 2000 years ago, till today. Why is this troubling, to say the least? Because our minds can only adapt so fast. If you open the morning paper and the headline is "You are not human anymore," you won't understand or believe it. But we are living in such era, where one day you can be seen as human, and the next day as nothing. So what now? I propose we can use philosophy to help us cope with this: fermenting your mind to keep you sane.
Fermenting Your Mind with Philosophy
In my previous posts, I tried to show why fermenting food is beneficial. It helps with ageing, it helps with the quality of the food, it helps with digestion and it transforms something from A to B. These four ideas are linked together, they cannot be viewed separately. I will try and deal with them separately for the post, but they are linked as one thing: fermentation. I will then show why this is important for our minds and our view of what it is to be human. The core idea is that we need to adapt, we need to learn how to adapt, and we need to learn how to accept that adapting is the only answer to our problems.
Ageing
To age something is not easy for the fact that life does not stand still. Life is evolving, things die, things change, the unseen world is in charge. We can only see the effects of change, for example, mould on bread, someone entering the stages of dying. The world is a sad but beautiful place. The death of one is the life of another. But we can fight against ageing by using ageing. This may sound contradicting, but when you control the variable, you can use ageing to help against the negative effects of ageing. Take for example whisky or wine: it ages very good because you keep bad bacteria away with the use of the alcohol and the temperature etc. You can also do this with your mind. It is no secret that Alzheimer's disease is on everyone's lips. We are getting older as a species. With old age comes the effect of rotting and the loss of what was once. But you can fight this effect. Like wine or whisky, when you control the variables you can control what happens to you. By reading philosophy, or anything that makes you think, you can start to "ferment" your mind to help it keep good for longer.
Quality
Fermentation helps with the quality of food. It gets rid of the bad bacteria, digests the sugars and things your body doesn't need to digest (see below) and creates something better with ageing. The same can go for your mind. When you start fermenting your mind, you will start to see quality in life, you will be more selective and you will have the "right" mindset to "digest" certain things. The quality things your mind will receive will be better. Your mind will become better quality and it will not spoil. With the help of ageing, your mind will become like a good wine or old whisky: it can last another couple of years without going bad and it will become only better.
Digestion
Fermentation digests sugars and other forms of "food" and turns it into something else (see below). This digestion is an important point with the fermentation of your mind. You will be able to digest certain things better. The news headlines will not haunt you, you will be able to sift out the "fake news", and you will only be left with beneficial knowledge of the world. You will be able to digest texts (everything can be interpreted as text), and give your mind a good exercise. Digesting what is in front of you, your everyday life, is important. The cliche saying, only dead fish flow with the stream, can be used here. When you only live in the present, you will not be able to use that knowledge in the future. Going against the stream, in the sense of living for the future, will help you build a healthy resource you can fall back to when your at the stage when other people "go bad".
Transforming from A to B
The last point, and then summarizing what I said, is that fermenting something changes it from A to B, or from one thing into another. This is important for your mind. You will change your mind from the current stage into the better stage. You will have a better mind (and mindset), you will be able to use it to digest bad things and you will use it to "age". Changing your mind is good, it opens you up to become more adaptive. Changing from the current state into the better state is what fermenting your mind does: it helps you change your perspective on life, in general. You can use it as a tool. This tool is important. Very important.
The New Human: A Philosophical Animal
Aristotle said we are social animals. I say we are philosophical animals. We cannot help but think. But this idea of human will not sit right with everyone. But that is not a problem: that is what this new tool is for. By adapting to your situation you will be able to live a better and more enjoyable life. Why do I say so? The reason is that our current way of life can lead to unnecessary fears and anxiety. The reason a lot of people fall in this fear and anxiety trap is because they do not have the right tools, they do not have philosophy, their minds are not fermented. If you ferment your mind you will be able to adapt to the new situation, you will be able to use philosophy to adapt. You will become happy. This is a bold statement to make, but give it a try. Ferment your mind and become happy.