June 2009
Scattered Thoughts
…on Darwinian fitness, on how it makes perfect sense in this place and time that I’m physically fat and slow, but sharp and agile in the abstract thought department…
…but how unsatisfying that is, which suggests that there’s more to it than just survival…
…thoughts on meaning and how, if there is no divinely-given meaning thrust upon us, meaning is entirely ours to decide…
…and feeling the weight of that: that my life is exactly what I make of it, and I can’t blame anyone else…
…and the question, always the question: “what does it mean to live well?”…
…and the swinging back and forth on my answer to “am I living well?”…
…is there a better way?…
…and the half-glimpsing of things that cause my breathing to quicken, my nostrils to flare, my eyes to widen…
…there is a better way…
…and the fog swirling back in, as the visions fade away…
Mon 15th
Every last person on this earth can be amazing just by doing stuff. No one can be amazing just sitting on their ass listening to other people’s stories.
Sun 14th
Once upon a time, the planet was tyrannized by a giant dragon. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and it was covered with thick black scales. Its red eyes glowed with hate, and from its terrible jaws flowed an incessant stream of evil-smelling yellowish-green slime. It demanded from humankind a blood-curdling tribute: to satisfy its enormous appetite, ten thousand men and women had to be delivered every evening at the onset of dark to the foot of the mountain where the dragon-tyrant lived. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival; sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed.
Tue 9th
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath—a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.
Sat 6th I was sitting on the couch, waggling my foot idly, when my slipper fell off. My foot began to get cold, but I couldn’t be bothered retrieving the slipper, as I was busy writing this post. Also, I was a little drunk, which may have affected my judgement, but also had the effect of lessening how cold my foot felt, as wine seems to have a way of warming my extremities.
I then debated whether or not to post this (because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty dumb,) but wine was affecting my judgement so I just published it anyway. MLIA. 1 Comment
Not Merely Justified, But Obligated
Following all too neatly, unfortunately, from Abraham’s enablers, in light of the recent shooting of an abortion doctor in the US, Fred Clark has this to say:
Paul Hill argued that abortion was the moral equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust – just like the National Right to Life Committee, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family and dozens of other evangelical groups said it was. If that’s true, Hill said, then he wasn’t merely justified, but obligated to take up arms against abortionists.
[405 words]
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Tue 2nd
I could happily live there. (From) 0 Comments
Tue 2nd If ‘the spiritual’ actually exists, then it must be a part of reality, and therefore operate by the rules of reality. In particular, internal logical incoherence is a pretty good sign that something cannot actually exist. Natural systems don’t tend to be so good at “just ignore that gap there.”
I’m a materialist, I guess, in that I don’t believe in a second, independent set of rules and laws for ‘the spiritual realm.’ 6 Comments
Mon 1st A definition of madness:
Madness is experienced when one can find no link between one’s own subjective reality and another’s.
Or, to refine it further:
The larger the distance perceived between one’s subjective reality and another’s, the greater the impression of madness.
Of course, because reality is consensual, ‘madness’ is often just a measure of how far one has strayed from the herd. 0 Comments
May 2009
On Rubber Sheets
Recall, if you will, the rubber sheet used to explain gravity. [238 words]
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