Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

       In secular culture, especially within a lot of academic settings I have been in, nihilism is one of the most prominent philosophies and worldviews I have encountered. I have met a lot of nihilists over the years. Many common themes of their philosophy is the meaninglessness of life, the progression towards Chaos in the universe, and the idea that the universe came out of nothingness, an emptiness.       Nihilism is an easy belief system to operate within your mind. Many people are just predisposed to it. Viewing life as meaningless and that nothingness is the fate of all people and the universe is an easy belief system to subscribe to.     It's not a very creative one, though. It requires little imagination and is actually, from my perspective, kind of lazy. Almost a cop-out belief system that doesn't challenge the thinking power and creativity of human beings nearly as much as some of the more imaginative and deeper belief system...

     I have a lot of conversations with all kinds of people. Lots of philosophy. Lots of deep analyses of life. I have a couple friends that thoroughly enjoy the deep conversations about infinity or ideologies or philosophy, and then many that couldn't care less about them.      I've told people that one of the reasons I think so deeply about reality is because of its freedom. Deep thought is liberating. Deep thought leads to free thought. I think deeply and focus on infinity and eternity because of my feelings and sentiments of not feeling free in this society.           Because this society wasn't satisfying my desires to have the freedoms I wanted, I was left with no other choice but to go into my mind for liberty, and I found much liberty in my own thoughts. A great deal of liberty in my imagination and my creativity. Far more, I must say, than American society has ever offered me.        I must admit, I'm st...

I've come a long way in the past 10 years. I've held down a job. I've made friends. I've found Jesus. My brain can puzzle over infinity all it wants.  I like the term survivor. It rolls off the tongue a lot better than "victim."  Being a victim always has a powerlessness connotation to it, like your power and strength was taken from you. Survivor has a connotation of power and strength to it. An overcoming and a winning. I am a survivor of many things. It's just pure grace that I'm alive and my brain functions as well as it does.  I've been on some medications for my brain my whole life. It started young. Very young. I consider myself a survivor of psychiatry. Don't get me wrong, some people need help, but psychiatry has the highest potential for abuse of any medical field. It often is abused. It has the potential to be used against political dissidents (its really hard to make political change or influence when you are drugged, institutionaliz...

So I have an avid fascination with hierarchies and hierarchal structures. They are an essential and prevalent component of humanity and just the universe in general.  When most people think of hierarchies, they think of the basic top down, command style hierarchy, the one humanity has been using for the better part of its existence. I've talked a lot about cyclical "rock paper scissors" hierarchies and how cycling power like that would bring stability and balance to a system. That's a little more advanced than top down, 2 dimensional hierarchies. I would like to talk about a system that is a little more advanced and multidimensional. A spherical hierarchy. In a spherical hierarchy, the power structure would be made in the form of a sphere. The absolute authority would be the center of the sphere, much like the center of gravity of a planet or star. That center power would be the one in charge of the whole system and project power on up in all directions up the hierarc...

I used to get so upset when I would be reminded of what I don't have, whether that be wealth, a rewarding career, a beautiful family, you name it. I still do sometimes. It still frustrates me when I see what I want and can't have it.  Jealousy's quite brutal of an emotion. It makes you forget how good what you do have is by reminding you of what you don't have. I hated feeling unequal and disadvantaged. I always wanted to be in the same ballpark, on the same playing field, as everyone else. I've learned in life that there are many types of equality and many types of advantages. You might be equal with others in some ways, exceed others in some ways, and be worse than others in some ways. A person is multifaceted and multidimensional, and equality will happen in some of those dimensions and not happen in others.  Nobody has the Superman arrangement of traits and advantages. We don't get the "God Mode" cheat code. None of us do. We are all good at some t...

  I love bravery. Courage is one of my favorite concepts and traits by far. I try to be as brave as I can be and stand up for what is right and just even if it costs me something. I am not fearless, though. I have a lot of fears.  I'm afraid of losing people I love and losing stability. I fear being a victim of evil and hate. I have fears, yes, but I still wake up every morning and go to work. I still go hang out with friends and talk to strangers. In my mind, if you don't have courage, than all that you have is at risk of being taken from you. I would rather be brave and lose something than survive or evade by cowardice. Don't get me wrong, I've been a coward at times in my life. I've been beaten down and subdued to a point where I was too afraid to stand up for myself or others. I think we all get this way at some points. I think the pathway to courage is paved with fright and abuse. I think bravery can be conditioned into someone. I also think it can be lost. It...

One of the great tragedies and one of the most problematic happenings in our schools and our society in general is the maltreatment of the different. The people who think differently, the people who act differently, anyone who deviates from the standard of normality the culture and predominant group sets for people.      Different people have suffered in humanity for the longest time, and some of the most brilliant people have been persecuted and killed before they even have a chance of contributing amazing benefits and advances to society.     It is one of the great tragedies of our world that some of the people who can help humanity the most are violated and sometimes killed before they can even contribute their gifts. In schools, the gifted, the extremely intelligent, the brilliant, many of these people are mistreated, bullied, and even brutalized by their peers. It happens out of fear and jealousy, and the predatory tendency of humans that lead them to prey ...