Metaphysical Exile

Since I mentioned a film, I think it would be cool to make a post with a list of some of my favorite ones. Although some of them contain themes revolving around "philosophical pessimism," as I discuss in the videos 'Pessimistic Films, Part 1' and 'Part 2,' others have nothing to do with that. The list is not necessarily in any particular order of preference. I'm certainly forgetting several, but that's okay. Here it goes:

- Network (1976)
- The Big Lebowski (1998)
- The Thing (1982)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- Chinatown (1974)
- The Sunset Limited (2011)
- Moon (2009)
- Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 (1979, 1986, 1992)
- Scarface (1983)
- Hellraiser (1987)
- The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
- Seven (1995)
- Aniara (2018)
- The Godfather (1972)
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
- Predator, Predator 2 (1987, 1990)
- No Country for Old Men (2007)
- Capernaum (2018)
- The Fly (1986)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
- Martyrs (2008)
- The Name of the Rose (1986)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Under the Skin (2013)
- The Empty Man (2020)
- Midnight in Paris (2011)
- The Ninth Gate (1999)
- Gladiator (2000)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Sexy Beast (2000)
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- The Hateful Eight (2015)
- Room 1408 (2007)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Starship Troopers (1997)
- Heat (1995)

8 hours ago (edited) | [YT] | 23

Metaphysical Exile

Regarding my take on the World Cup (and the piece on UFOs): just because the main theme of my writing and recordings is philosophical pessimism that doesn't mean that’s all I talk about. Having a specific type of philosophy as a guiding principle doesn't stop me from being ironic or cracking jokes, it doesn't stop me from laughing while chatting with friends and family, nor does it stop me from laughing to myself while writing about whatever pops into my head.

I know that in an environment like YouTube or Spotify, it can seem like I’m obligated to sell a specific flavor of snack. I know many people view YouTube channels as being either McDonald's, KFC, or Pizza Hut. But the Metaphysical Exile isn't that. I talk about what I want to talk about. Usually, I want to talk about how it would have been better never to have been born, because existence is a vale of tears. But sometimes, I feel like talking about my life, or I feel like discussing how ridiculous I find the belief in UFOs, or I feel like sharing outlandish football theories (which I clearly state are jokes).

Fortunately for me, Portuguese-speaking readers and listeners have so far been far better at grasping the tone of what I write and say. Most English speakers get it too, yes, but there are also more English speakers who don't get it compared to those who consume my work in Portuguese. Likely it's because my English writing/speaking isn't as good (not that my Portuguese writing is something amazing to begin with). That’s likely the case.

1 week ago | [YT] | 58

Metaphysical Exile

Hello, everyone. I set up a Ko-fi and a Patreon for anyone who wants to contribute with my work via tips or via a monthly subscription. Your contributions will certainly help with the consistency in which I write and record my essays for the blog, Youtube, and Spotify. Thank you very much in advance.

Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/fernandoolszewski

Patreon: patreon.com/fernandoolszewski?utm_medium=unknown&u…

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 51

Metaphysical Exile

If the entire world demanded that I show reverence to a bunch of people who have Ramen noodles for brains, or else never have anyone read my writings again, I would end up with no readers at all. It would be an easy choice. I have no desire to be read by people who have an aversion to culture and whose motivation in life is to have as little compassion as possible.

Read the text on the blog: www.metaphysicalexile.com/2026/06/democritus-by-mo…

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 53

Metaphysical Exile

Regarding my absence and a message about Instagram:

In the second half of last year, mainly between September and December, I wasn't able to write new texts nor record my readings of them, which this channel has been all about. The main reason for this absence was the following: I was participating in selection processes to enter a doctoral program. I didn't want to repeat the mistake I made the year before last of missing deadlines, so I applied to several universities, but still fewer than I should have.

I managed to reach the final stage in only two of the processes I participated, and I was actually accepted into only one, precisely the one I believed I had the least chance of getting into when I started — which was great news, not gonna lie. This wasn't the only reason for my absence; there were others, also important, but which by themselves wouldn't have prevented me from writing. In any case, I'm starting 2026 preparing for the first year of my PhD in philosophy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), having previously done my master's work at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).

Finally, something many of you probably already know: I also have Instagram accounts for both Exilado Metafísico in Portuguese and Metaphysical Exile in English, which I abandoned at the end of last year. Recently, I decided to restart them. I'm including there the artwork that I use or intend to use in my texts and videos, followed by quotes (currently only in Portuguese) I like from various authors that I believe relate to the theme of philosophical pessimism.

Although the quotes are only in Portuguese, and the English account only reposts the stuff I posted on my Portuguese account, I also use the Instagram stories on my English account to update about new things here on YouTube, but also Spotify and the written blog. So, if have Instagram and want to check it out, just search for Metaphysical Exile (metaexile) or Exilado Metafísico (exiladometafisico) there and you'll find it.

Cheers.

5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 69

Metaphysical Exile

Friends, I just realized I stupidly hadn't post my talk with the great Lawrence Anton here. By now most, if not all of you, have watched it. But that doesn't excuse me not sharing it here, so here it is!

1 year ago | [YT] | 66

Metaphysical Exile

When I started the Metaphysical channel -- and Spotify --, the idea was to post my reading of the essays I write on my blog "Metaphysical Exile" and also record videos in free format, like a podcast, separating the two formats into distinct playlists. If you notice, there are currently two playlists: the Essays playlist, where I read the essays from the blog, and the Shorts playlist. The initial idea was that, in addition to the Essays playlist, there would be a "Free Format" playlist or something similar, where I would not be reading my texts, but talking loosely about different topics, but still with the same philosophical perspective. It ended up not happening, but I'm thinking about revisiting the idea. However, I don't know if it would be better now to create a new channel or just create a different playlist right here. I'm leaning towards creating a new channel, but I'd like to know your opinion.

1 year ago | [YT] | 36

Metaphysical Exile

I thought about giving up this English version of the exilado metafísico youtube channel and spotify, given that fewer and fewer people listen to my essays, and just remain translating the Portuguese written essays into English for the English version of the blog, which even fewer people read. But then I reminded myself why I sort of started to write and record my readings to post them on youtube and spotify in the first place: to leave something behind. Knowing that practically nobody will read the blog, recording them was a safer bet that at least one person would listen in the present while I'm alive, and maybe a couple more in the future when I'm long gone. A foolish endeavor, I know, but f*** it. Wanting to be read or heard because one feels like one has something to say is motivation enough. To the half a dozen of you who still check my stuff out, thank you. I mean it. For now, though, I might just translate fewer essays into English, the ones I feel are more important. It is what it is. Again, thank you.

1 year ago | [YT] | 78

Metaphysical Exile

In the English version of the video, the user matthewmurdock4875 summarized very well the point I tried to make in the essay ‘The God of Carnage’. To paraphrase his comment: the universe is essentially a parent sacrificing each of its children; even the luckiest of us are sacrificed, just more slowly than the others, so they feel less uncomfortable. That is why I sought to relate the thinking of Bataille, who is not a pessimistic or existence-rejecting philosopher, to that of Schopenhauer, who is a pessimist and existence-rejecting philosopher.

For Bataille, sacrifices — including human sacrifices — represent an important form of expenditure of the “accursed share”, that part of any economy that must be spent in irretrievable ways, since, according to him, there is always a surplus of energy that needs to be spent in some way that goes beyond what he calls the “restricted economy.” This part would be wasted anyway: for Bataille, violence and war represent profane ways of sacrificing lives, yes, but they continue to be forms of sacrifice of the accursed share.

The connection I make with Schopenhauer is that, in Bataille, whether we like it or not, the expenditure of what he calls the accursed share will always be carried out: either we sacrifice it to the gods, or we sacrifice it on the battlefield or in the brutal violence of everyday life. There is expenditure of this excess energy even in nature. We humans are simply more apt to sacrifice in a more spectacular and sumptuous way, that's all. Sacrifices end up being somewhat inevitable in his view. For Schopenhauer, on the other hand, the representations of the Will devour each other, in an endless grotesque theater: the universe, in a way, sacrifices its children countless times over the eons.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 44

Metaphysical Exile

I wrote this in response to some comments on the Portuguese version of the essay, but I might as well translate it here:

The essay “Woke Jesus: a brief philosophical analysis based on Schopenhauer” is an analysis of the idea that Jesus would be “too woke” for certain Christians based on Schopenhauer's moral philosophy. In it, I do not make a political analysis, but an ethical one. So much so, that in the end of the essay I write that if Schopenhauer came back to life today he almost certainly wouldn't ally himself with the left, especially with Marxists — even though he would certainly consider the so-called “Christian conservatives” that think that Jesus is too woke as optimists and traitors to the original message of Christianity. But it is of no use to explain this. Some people are so inebriated with the political “culture war” that it is impossible for them to get away from it. They were conditioned to lash out every time they believe to have detected the scent of what they think is leftism.

There is an obvious disconnect between what these people understand to be Schopenhauer's philosophical pessimism and what it really is. They are closer to a reactionary interpretation of Nietzsche than to an objetive analysis of Schopenhauer. According to them, pessimism means betting on the worse in absolutely everything, and even to revel in the worst things. But Schopenhauer doesn't use the terms pessimism/pessimist and optimism/optimist in this way. A pessimist philosophy or religion, for Schopenhauer, is that which recognizes that we all share the same essence, therefore there isn't any difference between the suffering of another and mine. This, for Schopenhauer, should make us be compassionate towards others and want to help them, it should makes us want to decrease suffering as much as possible. This realization should also make one notice that existence is itself suffering and that it is better to deny one's own will. This denial of the will within oneself implies in even more compassion towards others, with the objetive to alleviate their suffering. However, according to the idiot who knows nothing of philosophy, this is “leftism” and “utopia.”

For Schopenhauer, optimistic philosophies and religions are the opposite of what these people believe they are: optimistic philosophies and religions affirm the will, not of others, but of oneself, since the will individuates itself in empirical existence. The will is selfish and it devours itself in the form of countless individual phenomena. In Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, not caring about the suffering of others, and only seeking one's own personal satisfaction in detriment of others is to affirm one's own will, it is to be an optimist. This posture, again, is more in line with a reactionary interpretation of Nietzschean philosophy, a philosophy that not only refuses to judge existence, but in fact affirms and worships it, reveling in it's most egotistical and grotesque aspects. For Nietzsche, Schopenhauer's moral philosophy is akin to Christian ethics, an ethics of the weak, that keeps the strong from accomplishing what is theirs by nature.

These people don't understand what they are talking about. Some even resent the obvious diagnosis I make in some of my essays, about them only claiming to be pessimists to give an air of intellectuality to their “right-wing” political positions. They say ludicrous things, such as: “pessimism can't be left-wing, because being left-wing means having faith in humanity, in existence, etc.” They learned these empty platitudes watching grifters and gurus, and they refuse to sit down and read for years on end in order to actually learn things. They don't know about Philipp Mainländer, for example. But we needn't go so far, since Mainländer was explicitly political in much of his analysis, even taking sides (the left), something that Schopenhauer never did.

We don't need to bring Mainländer, who was a pessimist and a socialist, to prove that these people haven't the slightest idea of what they're talking about. In several of my writings, I've cited passages from Schopenhauer that summarize his moral philosophy, only to be criticized and called “left-wing” in the same way. In other words, in the head of the imbecile that sees leftism everywhere, even Schopenhauer's moral philosophy is left-wing, utopic, etc, even though Schopenhauer didn't care about political and social issues. The idiot doesn't know that, so all that is left to him is to repeat mechanically, like a robot, the idiotic formula that he memorized watching his favorite grifters.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 45