The Philosophy of Dudeism - Modern Day Taoism

The Big Lebowski is a film released by the Coen Brothers in 1998. Despite being pigeon-holed into the crime-comedy genre, which is true enough if we are persistent to pigeonhole, it transcends categorisation. In my opinion, it is the best Coen Brother film that I have watched as of yet, since I haven't watched them all.

It's a bit hard to say exactly why I love this movie so much. I've probably seen it 3-4 times at this point. The first time I was left...whelmed. I was satisfied and most certainly left fascinate by it. Beyond your normal criterion of filmmaking, screenplay, direction, and acting (all of which it excels at; I have not seen more natural dialogue and acting that resembles real life in a surreal plot that is nothing like real life mundanity), it is an original statement. Quite like David Foster Wallace's perspective on David Lynch: upon DFW seeing Blue Velvet, he was blown away by its originality, its refusal to abide by the syntax of film editing and linear progression. Why is X happening, when it makes no sense whatsoever? Well, who cares? If you jive with it, stick with it. In fact, jiving is a sort of feeling, like instinct or the many countenances (why'd I use that word? I don't know, and that's why I like it) of your gut, that is more in touch with our inner feelings, or souls, or indwelling if we have to get mildly religious. And I think the essence of jiving is effectively why I love the Big Lebowski and the Dude (the protagonist of the movie, played by the spell-binding Jeff Bridges). They are in

touch with their purest selves by virtue of not caring about anything. They go with the flow. They stream along with nature, and what is nature but the purest form of...anything? The Dude just jives. What he doesn't jive with is declared to be 'not cool, man'. Once again, by learning how to live life purely by jiving, we are most honest with ourselves because. The Dude gets a new rug when his rug is micturated upon as a punishment intended for the wrong person from that very wrong person: the Big Lebowski (a very interesting ethical position as well). The Dude always drinks White Russians. The Dude loves to bowl, and indeed his life keeps rolling on like a bowling ball, or like the symbolic tumbleweed from the opening credits. When he is unethically coerced by a certain Maude Lebowski (played by the seductive Julianne Moore) into getting his fertility rates checked, he's happy with the good news. When he is led into copulation with this same woman for different purposes, he's fine with it, man. As long as he isn't involved from whatever she wishes to derive in the future from their act of love. When (spoiler alert) the beloved Donny (played by the beloved Steve Buscemi), it is certainly sad. But the current of life does not wait. Eventually, we must all move on.

That is Dudeism. Going with the flow. Clearly it has its roots in Taoism. Now, I'm not going to dive into Taoism much, so let's understand Taoism in this context, given the fact that Dudeism can be approximated to be the modern-day version of Taoism and with the famous Vinegar Tasters painting above. Confucius finds the vinegar to be bitter. Buddha finds it sour. Laozi, arguably one of the founders of Taoism, finds it sweet. Why? Because vinegar is being what it was meant to be. It is adhering to its inherent nature. It's not trying to be something else. Likewise, with Dudeism, we are adhering to nature by following it and our own intrinsic natures. What is that? I'd argue for the core and common foundations of Sartre's existentialism and Camus' absurdism: life is meaningless. That's why life is sweet when we just go along with it, when we jive with it, when we tumble along like a tumbleweed, doing whatever resonates with our distinctive personalities.

So ultimately, beyond the Big Lebowski's fantastic idiosnycrasies like Jesùs and the dream sequence, I love the move for the philosophy it espouses. Be yourself and carry on.

If there is any philosophy I had to live by, it would probably be this, dude. Not stoicism, no way. Stoicism has transformed into some strange, mechanical, caucasian-eyed wretch with tar for a heart and an unchanging face of corroded metal that tries to act like everything is fine. Stoicism in actuality is nice. But what stoicism has become today is merely a gimmick. Even Epicureanism is a bit pretentious, if you ask me. Absurdism and existentialism is cool. But dude...Dudeism is really cool too.