EmaLee Arroyo : Shakur and Schopenhauer

Within the specificity of the cultural machine at work in the geographical location of the continental United States of America a “straight shooter”, Arthur Schopenhauer, has been taken up by many who have become dissatisfied and angry with the status quo of existence in the belly of one of the many disgusting beasts sometimes referred to as the New York Stock Exchange and the bazaar conservative politics that strip the meaning of language (although not shared) in order to (commun)icate a clear message: keep on keeping on (aka pick yourself up by the boot straps and strive for more, MORE, MORE).

 “ There is no paradise of any kind but neither is there any hell other than the life we live, and this authentic feeling can suddenly shatter even the most stubborn denial”. (phew) (Living Disaster: Schopenhauer for the 21^st Century).  In this quote Wolfgang Shirmacher illuminates Schopenhauer’s call for living in the 21^st Century. “ We have only to fear that we have not lived”. Influenced by Schopenhauer rapper and poet TuPac Shakur would develop “Thug Life” as a practice that is rooted in the notion that life is suffering and a “we cannot” analysis. 

In The Event Of My Demise

In the event of my Demise when my heart can beat no more I Hope I Die For A Principle or A Belief that I had Lived 4 I will die Before My Time Because I feel the shadow's Depth so much I wanted 2 accomplish before I reached my Death I have come 2 grips with the possibility and wiped the last tear from My eyes I Loved All who were Positive In the event of my Demise.

Shakur following Schopenhaur’s philosophy as well as many other thinkers including Buddha would use music to express “Even for death, the most effective threat to each individual, a turn is underway: A life fully lived, through the bad, through the good days, greets death as its genuine life ending.” Shakur was heavily ridiculed for his “violent” and blunt lyrics and seen as a threat to society for calling out systems of domination and the exploitation of multiple communities around the world but more specifically communities in the United States.

Tupak Shakur is an example of a “brave who accepted Schopenhauer’s truth”. A call to living philosophy, a call for compassion and not appropriating a “silver lining” to suffering. In the wake of technological advancements and highly abstract political systems as Schirmacher states, “ Unrepentant realism will always be called for and we will never be free of unavoidable suffering.”