Truth and other lounging discoveries

[Agde]

Whether it is true or not, I personally believe that philosophy got its start with people lounging and chit-chatting at the beach. There is something about watching the waves arrive from the horizon for hours on end, interrupted only by renewing suntan lotion just before being covered with flying sand as kids race by to plunge into the surf, that sharpens perception of the human condition. Today was such a day for a group of us who came up with theory about the three main categories of naturists (see below).

Got to wondering what summer thoughts or revelations others may have had?

[Agde]

Whether it is true or not, I personally believe that philosophy got its start with people lounging and chit-chatting at the beach. There is something about watching the waves arrive from the horizon for hours on end, interrupted only by renewing suntan lotion just before being covered with flying sand as kids race by to plunge into the surf, that sharpens perception of the human condition. Today was such a day for a group of us who came up with theory about the three main categories of naturists (see below).

Got to wondering what summer thoughts or revelations others may have had?

[Agde]

We were chit-chatting among friends at the beach and decided that, just as there are three kinds of feminists (pro-women, anti-men, and pro-equality), there seem to be three kinds of naturists -- pro-always-nude, anti-clothes, and analyze-the-situation naturists.

Our pro-always-nude friends long to be able to live or retire somewhere warm enough to empty their closets for good and live the lifestyle fulltime. Those who are anti-clothes tend to think there is a dangerous lingering medieval psycho-social trauma concerning sins of the flesh and/or some ongoing capitalist plot by the fashion industry to make sure everyone always wear clothes. The analytic friends tend to wake up nude every morning and then decorate, protect or stay nude during different parts of the day according to what makes sense, not caring and hardly noticing whether they or others are in nude or clothed mode.

The always-nude friends tend to be evangelists and are most at home in nudist resorts or among those who are proud to be labelled "naturists". The anti-clothes friends tend to be activists, loving to challenge public limits, host clothes-free parties, and agitate for clothes-free beaches, but finding "resort nudists" rather old-fashioned, insular and too accepting of the nudist/textile apartheid. The analytic friends tend to be live-and-let -live people, finding clothing pointless at the beach but happy to share a beach with textiles, rarely dressing up at home but having a closet carefully stocked for events like the office or dance outings, attracting friends who are cool with the nude-or-not living but being "naturist" only in contrast to people with quaint old-fashioned notions that equate nudity with immodesty.

Having grown up in the first community and gone through a phase in America being part of the second, I now feel most comfortable in the third. It results in a kind of a different naturist model that isn't so much nudist, clothes-free or clothing-optional -- just clothing irrelevant.

[newton]

Agde:

That is an interesting analysis and, in my opinion, has some general truth. I do not know many people in your second category, but I am relatively comfortable in either category one or two.

It will be interesting to see how others feel.

Newton

[MJ_KC]

I wear clothes when I have to and when I want to.

I am more of an "I don't care all that much one way or the other" when I am at home. To me it is about the freedom to do whatever I want when at home.

This might place me in the third category or it might be a fourth.

[Rabid_Clam]

Nude chatting watching the waves come in is great, and so is watching the fire in a fire place! Something soothing about all that. Great scenery is good but not as soothing as a fire or the ocean.

[Agde]

A corollary thought we all agreed is that, since "truth" is often relative or uncomfortably complex, caricature can provide a useful reference point for discussion!

Perhaps fireplace gazing is indeed another prime source of philosophic insight! I remember one discussion around a fireplace during university that pitted Thoreau against Marcuse -- the conclusion being that, while separation or isolation a la Thoreau makes it easier to act freely and benefit from others' tolerance (like naturists at the far end of a beach or behind a tall backyard fence), the reduction of suppression of minority modes of behavior (in other words, more real tolerance in close proximity, like naturists and textiles sharing a beach or a neighborhood) is a precondition for the creation of a humane society.

Clearly, in my experience, fireplace gazing leads to much heavier philosophic musings! I was actually just wondering out loud what fun or interesting trends other naturist people-watchers are noticing these days?