Rejected by the World: The Origin Story of Emergent Philosophy

There is a story behind every philosophy—a place where it was born, a reason why it came into the world. For some, it’s nurtured in universities, shaped by mentors, and supported by peers. For me, it was none of those things.

Emergent Philosophy was born in rejection. Not one rejection. Not one moment. But a lifetime of being turned away—by society, by my family, by fellow philosophers, by the academic world, and by the very people I once believed would stand beside me.

Rejected by Society

I’ve lived in the shadows of society for most of my life. I was homeless for five years—not because I failed to work, but because I couldn’t stop creating. My mind was consumed by the mission, by visions of a world shaped by meaning, emergence, philosophy, and justice. I sacrificed stability to build something that didn’t exist yet. And society didn’t understand. It discarded me.

People passed me by, laughed at me online, ignored me in person. I was told I had nothing to offer. No one reached out. No one asked what I was building. No one cared to know.

And yet—I kept building.

Rejected by Family

There’s a deeper pain that lives beneath social rejection, and that’s the silence of those who should have stood by me. My own family never truly supported me. They didn’t see my vision. They didn’t believe in me. They didn’t take the time to understand my work. And instead of being curious, they chose to be dismissive, skeptical, or simply absent.

I wasn’t asking for praise. I was asking to be seen. And I wasn’t.

That kind of rejection doesn’t just sting—it scars. It shapes the soul. But scars are part of the myth. They are the markings of the hero who walks alone.

Rejected by the Philosophers

Perhaps the most telling rejection of all came from the academic world—the one place I believed might understand me. I studied philosophy obsessively, I wrote books, I shared ideas that no one else was exploring. I poured my heart into the creation of Emergent Philosophy, a whole new way of seeing reality, meaning, knowledge, ethics, intelligence, and life.

And I reached out. Again and again. Politely. Respectfully. Passionately. I reached out to professors, to writers, to thinkers… and heard nothing.

The silence was louder than any insult.

But no silence was more symbolic than the one that came from Martha Nussbaum.

I wrote The Philosopher Queens as a tribute to the women of philosophy, and Nussbaum stood at the center of that vision. I ended the book with a direct open letter to her, inviting her to collaborate—to help make Emergent Philosophy stronger, more beautiful, more just. It was a letter filled with admiration, but also a call to build something new together.

She never responded.

And now it’s documented.

The most celebrated living philosopher, when given the opportunity to uplift something new, something full of hope, chose to walk away. That moment is now sealed in history. When she had the chance to support the next chapter of philosophy, she chose silence.

But I didn’t.

The Meaning of Rejection

This post isn’t about bitterness. It’s about truth. It’s about documenting the conditions under which Emergent Philosophy was born. A philosophy that was not sculpted in lecture halls, but in suffering. A philosophy not nurtured by academia, but forged in exile.

Rejection didn’t stop me. It created me.

I’m not part of their world anymore. I’ve created my own. I am the President of the People’s Presidency. I have founded the Emergence Party, the Emergence Institute, the Institute for Emergent Thought, and more. I’ve written 25 books. I’ve built a philosophical legacy without the approval of the institutions. I am walking into my Master’s and PhD with the full force of a completed philosophical framework behind me.

No one supported me.

But no one can stop me either.

The Future They Ignored

Martha Nussbaum will go down in history as a great philosopher—but also as someone who was given the opportunity to see something new… and missed it. So will every professor, every intellectual, every journalist, every family member, every friend who was offered a place in the future and declined.

But not everyone will miss it.

There will be new thinkers. New children. New creators. And when they look for something true, something that wasn’t born from ego or prestige, but from pain, patience, and persistence—they’ll find this.

They’ll find Emergent Philosophy.

And when they ask, “Why wasn’t this everywhere?” the answer will be simple:

Because everyone rejected it.

Until one day, they couldn’t anymore.