a thread for mundane ironists

[b]Brent Weeks

The choice to give up bitterness is not easy, but it is simple: peace or poison. And don’t wait until you feel like making it. You never will.[/b]

I’ll never give mine up. So don’t tempt me.

The man who is content to live alone is either a beast or a god.

Me, I’m content to go back and forth.

You’re amazing, Kylar said.
I know.
Humble, too.

Me, I’m content to go back and forth.

I die and go to a library? Sure, it could be worse, but I’ve spent a lot of time in libraries this year. Quite enough time, really. Do I have to stay forever? Where do I go pee?

For some reason, in the libraries near me, they have restrooms for that.

Charm is less effective on people who have good reason to kick your ass.

Here, figuratively of course.

Some things are bigger than your happiness.

For example, if you let them be.

[b]so sad today

wanna come over and not exist together[/b]

First, you come over here.

everyone is basically the same annoying person

Including the guy in the mirror.

i’m not good enough for me

So, you can imagine what that makes you then.

can’t believe i still need more attention

Me, I’ll sell some of mine to you.

studies confirm i’m my own worst enemy

Like most of us need studies for that.

i had a sex dream about not texting someone

With any luck it was me.

[b]Jenny Offill

Anger looked like fireworks. Love was an indistinct blur.[/b]

Nicely put.

There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, and X years in a life. Solve for X.

In other words, leaving out the equal sign.

Of course it is difficult. You are creating a creature with a soul, my friend says.

Anyone here ever done that?

What did you do today, you’d say when you got home from work, and I’d try my best to craft an anecdote for you out of nothing.

A lie in other words. But point taken.

Her neighbor’s husband fell in love with a girl who served coffee to him every morning. She was twenty-three and wanted to be a dancer or a poet or a physical therapist. When he left his family, his wife said, “Does it matter to you how foolish you look? That all our friends find you ridiculous?” He stood in the doorway, his coat in his hand. “No,” he said. The wife watched her neighbor get fat over the next year. The Germans have a word for that. Kummerspeck. Literally, grief bacon.

Word wise, where would we be without the Germans?

What Rilke said: "Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further.”

And surely all philosophy…?

[b]Edward Teller

I hate doubt, yet I am certain that doubt is the only way to approach anything worth believing in. [/b]

Certain doubts. And then some.

Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.

He means German of course.

If anyone wants a hole in the ground, nuclear explosives can make big holes.

Remember this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare

Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

You know, in general.

I think that intellectuals who end up in hell will have to read page proofs and check indexes there.

Does this make sense?

I claim that relativity and the rest of modern physics is not complicated. It can be explained very simply. It is only unusual or, put another way, it is contrary to common sense.

Can anyone explain it all simply here?

[b]so sad today

wish everything was as easy as believing my own bullshit[/b]

More to the point, your bullshit.

i use my negative attitude in a positive way

The part others always forget. If they can even comprehend it at all.

i’m cynical because, like, look around

Bravo!!

i rejected me before you did

Anyone here doubt that?

maybe she’s born with it, maybe she constructed an emotional wall to protect herself from latent childhood fears and insecurities

A little or a lot of both I’m guessing.

i feel trapped in our species

And of course whatever that’s trapped in.

[b]Max von Sydow

The more I had to act like a saint, the more I felt like being a sinner.[/b]

In other words, not unlike the rest of us.

If Jesus came back today, and saw what was going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up.

Of course here he is only quoting Frederick.

I like to play with things a while before annihilation.

What things? We may never know.

I remember those days with Bergman with great nostalgia. We were aware that the films were going to be quite important, and the work felt meaningful.

How’s that for irony?

The offers I get are for grandfathers, uncles - and they often die very quickly in the script.

Let’s pin down why.

Playing Christ, I began to feel shut away from the world. A newspaper became one of my biggest luxuries. I noticed that some of my close friends began treating me with reverence.

Anyone playing Christ here?

[b]Stanislaw Ulam

The infinite we shall do right away. The finite may take a little longer.[/b]

You’d think it might be the other way around.

Knowing what is big and what is small is more important than being able to solve partial differential equations.

Lucky for me, he thought.

Whatever is worth saying, can be stated in fifty words or less.

And that’s only 12.

The mathematicians know a great deal about very little and the physicists very little about a great deal.

That’s either twice or half as much as philosophers know.

I am turned off when I see only formulas and symbols, and little text.

As in context.

Thoughts are steered in different ways.

Imagine then the plight of feelings.

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy; its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientific, pseudo problems.” Rudolf Carnap[/b]

Not to mention non-scientific, pseudo solutions.

“Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible.” Maximilien de Robespierre

Our terror in particular. Unless, of course, next time, it’s theirs.

“The passions have been sufficiently interpreted; the point now is to discover new ones.” Guy Debord

Anyone here ever discover one?

“In a world that has really been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood. ” Guy Debord

Imagine then his reaction to the Trump administration.

“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation, mediated by images.” Guy Debord

Their images these days.

“The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.” Friedrich Hayek

The quintessential “general description”. Or one of them.

[b]Guy de Maupassant

A human being - what is a human being? Everything and nothing. Through the power of thought it can mirror everything it experiences. Through memory and knowledge it becomes a microcosm, carrying the world within itself. A mirror of things, a mirror of facts. Each human being becomes a little universe within the universe![/b]

Let’s take a vote on what that means. And then a vote on the consequences of what that means.

If I could, I would stop the passage of time. But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again.

And that’s probably really how it works.

In fact living is dying.

And that’s probably really what it is.

She realized for the first time that two people can never reach each others deepest feelings and instincts, that they spend their lives side by side, linked it may be, but not mingled, and that each one’s inmost being must go through life eternally alone.

And that’s before [or just a little after] my points here.

There are two races on earth. Those who need others, who are distracted, occupied and refreshed by others, who are worried, exhausted and unnerved by solitude as by the ascension of a terrible glacier or the crossing of a desert; and those, on the other hand, who are wearied, bored, embarrassed, utterly fatigued by others, while isolation calms them, and the detachment and imaginative activity of their minds bathes them in peace.

Me? The second race by a light year of course. Well, not counting a mind bathed in peace.

You’ve never lived until you’ve almost died.

Twice so far.
If you want to call that living.

[b]John von Neumann

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.[/b]

And, no, not just you.

Computers are like humans - they do everything except think.

And, no, not just you.

Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.

Not unlike with everything else.

Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.

So, 1 + 1 only approximately = 2.

You insist that there is something a machine cannot do. If you tell me precisely what it is a machine cannot do, then I can always make a machine which will do just that.

Okay, make one to discover or invent objective morality. Or, sure, God.

There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.

Imagine how that is applicable here.

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“Whoever is new to power is always harsh.” Aeschylus[/b]

Define always?

“We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.” Mencius

Just what we need, another reminder of that.

"I’ve lived to bury my desires
And see my dreams corrode with rust;
Now all that’s left are fruitless fires
That burn my empty heart to dust. "
Alexander Pushkin

Lots of that still going around, isn’t there?

“I cannot respond to the call, the request, the obligation, or even the love of another, without sacrificing the other other, the other others” Jacques Derrida

Karma?

“What is called ‘objectivity,’ scientific for instance (in which I firmly believe) imposes itself only within a context which is extremely vast, old, firmly established, or rooted in a network of conventions … and yet which still remains a context.” Jacques Derrida

You know, going back to whatever explains existence itself.

“What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.” Jacques Derrida

Or typed of course.

[b]Erwin Schrodinger

Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.[/b]

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

What we observe as material bodies and forces are nothing but shapes and variations in the structure of space.

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

Consciousness is a singular for which there is no plural.

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

The world is a construct of our sensations, perceptions, memories. It is convenient to regard it as existing objectively on its own. But it certainly does not become manifest by its mere existence.

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end.

Got that? Okay, explain it to the rest of us.

[b]Jeanne Moreau

If you want to live your life through to the end, you have to live dangerously. [/b]

Imagine how many have already taken that path to a premature grave.

Every night I go over what I did in the day, in ethical or moral terms. Have I treated people properly? Did I tell the truth?

Sounds absolutely exhausting, he thought.

I don’t feel guilt. Whatever I wish to do, I do.

You know, being her.

I need, absolutely, to be alone.

I need, absolutely, to agree with her.

To me age is a number, just a number. Who cares?

Tell that to your disintegrating body.

If you’re extremely, painfully frightened of age, it shows.

More to the point, the parts that don’t show.

[b]Philosophy Tweets

“I am convinced of the afterlife, independent of theology. If the world is rationally constructed, there must be an afterlife.” Kurt Gödel[/b]

Yo, Kurt! Give us a sign – any sign – that you yourself are still arond.
[size=50][let’s look for it][/size]

“Once freedom lights its beacon in man’s heart, the gods are powerless against him.” Jean-Paul Sartre

etc.

“The cry ‘Liberty, equality, fraternity or death!’ was much in vogue during the Revolution. Liberty ended by covering France with prisons, equality by multiplying titles and decorations, and fraternity by dividing us. Death alone prevailed.” Louis de Bonald

Well, nothing’s perfect.

“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” Otto von Bismarck

Not to go too far out on a limb here, but maybe learn from both?

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” Oscar Wilde

Ouch!
Right?

“Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.” Benjamin Disraeli

As well he should, some insist.

[b]Martin Rees

Nuclear weapons can be dismantled, but they cannot be uninvented. [/b]

Next up: dismantling dasein uninventing itself.

Crucial to science education is hands-on involvement: showing, not just telling; real experiments and field trips and not just “virtual reality”.

Next up: “virtual morality”.

Experiments that crash atoms together could start a chain reaction that erodes everything on Earth.

Of course: How worried should we be about this?

I hope that by 2050 the entire solar system will have been explored and mapped by flotillas of tiny robotic craft.

How about a McDonald’s on every planet?

The politics is far harder than the science.

Gee, I wonder why?

In this century, not only has science changed the world faster than ever, but in new and different ways. Targeted drugs, genetic modification, artificial intelligence, perhaps even implants into our brains - may change human beings themselves.

Next up: What philosophy has changed…ever.

[b]Guy Debord

Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. [/b]

Must be a Letterist thing.

The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.

Imagine that. Then get back to us.

…just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing.

This actually makes more sense than you think it does. Or, sure, less.

With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning.

Lifestyles we call them.

Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behavior.

Must be a dada thing.

In a world that has really been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood.

Some having perfected it more than others.

[b]Nein

A gentle reminder from Monday that, yes, it might not have killed you. But it will be back again next week. Stronger.[/b]

And more contagious.

It was the winter of our disinfectant.

Next up: the spring of our sold out disinfectant.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was, at best, not yet the very worst of the very, very, very worst of times.

Will you survive them?

We regret to inform you that, yes: there is a tomorrow.

Fortunately, it’s the day to rest.

Russian literature. It was made to be read in the winter. Quoted knowingly in the spring. Forgotten over the summer. Remembered vaguely in the fall. And deeply, darkly repressed happily ever after.

Next up: American literature best sellers.

February 29. It’s questioning your existence.

Next one: 2024. Start preparing now.

[b]John Updike

I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody’s head.[/b]

Let’s just say he died trying.

Nothing feels worse than other people’s good times.

The other end of schadenfreude. Or is there a word for this too?

Chaos is God’s body. Order is the Devil’s chains.

However futile, let’s try to make sense of this.

We are cruel enough without meaning to be.

Clearly with some exceptions.

It’s great to have an enemy. Sharpens your senses.

I’ve no doubt sharpened the senses of a few here. Not that it’s made any difference.

Each day, we wake slightly altered, and the person we were yesterday is dead. So why, one could say, be afraid of death, when death comes all the time?

Right, like it’s the same thing.

[b]Douglas Adams

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.[/b]

Let’s swap anecdotes.

Beppu (n.) The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page.

Actually, it’s a city in Japan. But we do need a word for that, right?

The light works, he said, indicating the window, the gravity works, he said, dropping a pencil on the floor. Anything else we have to take our chances with.

Hey, the world can be a really scary place.

My absolute favourite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.

Sloth Kids let’s call them.

If they don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working.

And we all know the equivalent of that here.

Darwin’s theory of evolution was a concept of such stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I’d take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.

On the other hand, does that include Buddism?

[b]Werner Twertzog

Anarchy will arrive in 20 days, I am told. Cannibalism in 50.[/b]

Yo, Joker!

The real question is how this might disrupt the global 1% as we all know.

The Hells Angels? No, he means the other 1% of course.

The idea of United States will perish, as it started, with the irreconcilable tension between equalitarian aspirations and oligarchy, racism, fanaticism, and bloodlust, as we all know.

Anyone here not know this?

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, and I come for you, in the night, when you least expect me.

Then there’s Dubya’s rendition…
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”

Read, if you want to be a filmmaker. Study literature, skip film school. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read.

And, no, not just scripts.

I have never been “shushed” by a librarian. Nor has one defeated me in a chain fight.

That makes two of us then.