Stand-up Philosopher
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- Bea: Occupation?
- Mel: Stand-up Philosopher!
- Bea: Oh! A bullshit artist!
Most philosophers at ancient times (and similar phenomena such as the Israelite nev'im) were essentially a form of entertainers. I suspect "le-nabé" meant "to be crazy / to act crazy" including in today's casual sense. These philosophers were treated with the same contempt as we now treat actors, models or most recently (as of 2014) — reality T.V. show contestants, or independent (covers/parodies/remixes/etc.) artists on YouTube and other social media and Web resources (e.g.: YouTubers).
Many philosophers were joking and didn't take their philosophies seriously. They were often amateurs (= artists or workers who enjoy their work, regardless of how much or how little they were paid; a.k.a: "geeks") and polymaths, who accepted different opinions, or people who built, parodied, and expanded upon their work.
I suspect that despite what Jaynes describes in his book, most of the good nev'im and story tellers of ancient times were only hypomanic (= mildly manic) at worse, or possibly manic, who satirised fanatical or cynical zealots, often spoke in prose, drama or freeform verse, and were in effect "stand-up comedians".