[b]tiny nietzsche
as long as the parallel universe has cereal, I’m good[/b]
For you though it might be something else.
might fuck around and evolve
Like there’s any other way.
retrograde is in retrograde
Finally.
this abyss is hitting different
Let’s explain why.
me: please wear a mask
horse: I am a horse
Yo, Ed!
we should get together sometime and disappoint each other
In other words, not just here.
[b]Nassim Nicholas Taleb
If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more.[/b]
Now that’s the spirit.
When you beat up someone physically, you get excercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.
Now that’s the spirit?
The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind’s flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality — without exploiting them for fun and profit.
Starting now, okay?
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal.
Also, you can learn to exploit this “for fun and profit.”
My best definition of a nerd: someone who asks you to explain an aphorism.
Wow. That’s not even in my own top ten.
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
Note one.
[b]so sad today
full of emptiness but it’s fine[/b]
Or at least normal.
in a committed relationship with insomnia
I know: you too.
where’s my award for getting out of bed
And then another for staying out.
depression is a liar but it’s a good one
Lots of practice let’s say.
finger me with a black latex glove in a global pandemic
You got it.
i may not sleep at night but at least i have unexplained headaches
Naturally.
[b]Iris Murdoch
…to be understood is not a human right. Even to understand oneself is not a human right.[/b]
Okay, what’s the Bible say?
Of course men play roles, but women play roles too, blanker ones. They have, in the play of life, fewer good lines.
Let’s count them.
He was a sociologist; he had got into an intellectual muddle early on in life and never managed to get out.
Well, they don’t call them the “soft sciences” for nothing.
Hegel says that Truth is a great word and the thing is greater still. With Dave we never seemed to get past the word.
You tell me.
As we live our precarious lives on the brink of the void, constantly coming closer to a state of nonbeing, we are all too often aware of our fragility.
Yo, God!
A death is the most terrible of facts.
I can think of exceptions.
[b]Robert Musil
Layer by layer art strips life bare.[/b]
Mine? Not even close. But point taken.
Philosophers are people who do violence, but have no army at their disposal, and so subjugate the world by locking it into a system.
Intellectually for example.
Mathematics is the source of a wicked intellect that, while making man the lord of the earth, also makes him the slave of the machine.
My guess: If you let it.
We do not have too much intellect and too little soul, but too little intellect in matters of the soul.
For starters, let’s find mine.
He who is allowed to do as he likes will soon run his head into a brick wall out of sheer frustration.
I’ll take my chances, he insisted.
A politician who climbs high over the bodies of the slain is described as vile or great according to the degree of his success.
Yes, but only in the real world.
[b]Philosophy Tweets
“One eye sees, the other feels.” Paul Klee[/b]
Or, for some, the other way around.
“A line is a dot that went for a walk.” Paul Klee
And not just around the block.
“What the eye doesn’t see and the mind doesn’t know, doesn’t exist.” D.H. Lawrence
And not just philosophically.
“I do not believe that a world without evil, preferable in order to ours, is possible; otherwise it would have been preferred. It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good…” Gottfried Leibniz
On the other hand, there’s not much that isn’t believed by at least one of us.
“Philosophy consists mostly of kicking up a lot of dust and then complaining that you can’t see anything.” Gottfried Leibniz
Or, here, shit.
“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” Dogen
Where it actually is?
[b]Robert Fripp
I recommend my students not to be professional unless they really have to be. I tell them, ‘If you love music, sell Hoovers or be a plumber. Do something useful with your life.’[/b]
Let’s imagine their reactions.
…a professional musician in a symphony orchestra is playing Beethoven. But this particular orchestra have played this particular chestnut so many times, they can play it in their sleep. Does the genius remain present in the music or not?
Let’s decide if this is a trick question.
My life as a professional musician is a joyless exercise in futility.
Let’s decide if this is a trick answer.
What we hear is the quality of our listening.
Or here the quality of our understanding.
According to USA today, the average length of an attention span of a man in America is 23 minutes.
This time, you Google it.
In terms of an identity, an identity reflects an individuality, by definition. And, if there is a quality present, it is recognizable and it can be named. If you can’t name it, it means you don’t recognize it.
As a philosopher, he’d make a great musician.
[b]Philip Glass
Traditions are imploding and exploding everywhere - everything is coming together, for better or worse, and we can no longer pretend were all living in different worlds because were on different continents. [/b]
Among other things, no fucking way.
But the difference between the little pieces and the big pieces - I’m not actually sure which are the little pieces. With some of the big pieces, it’s a lot of musical running around, whereas the little pieces, you can say everything you want to say.
Next up: big posts, little posts.
I’d say it’s just part of the world that we live in; it’s part of the music world.
You know, like everything else.
I’d say the differences are more interesting than the similarities at this point. Certainly no one would ever mistake my music for Steve Reich’s.
Let alone Steve Roach.
The generation of composers that are just preceded me, people like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and, well, John Cage for that matter, Morton Feldman … That was a kind of experimental music that was very isolated. It had no real public.
Does anyone here not understand why?
I, as a young guy getting out of music school, I didn’t like the prospect of spending my life writing music for about 200 people.
I might have been one of them.
[b]Philosophy Tweets
“I think you should be serious about what you do because this is it. This is the only life you’ve got.” Philip Seymour Hoffman[/b]
And, no doubt, it was the only life that he had.
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
And if that was actually true?
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
He begged to differ. And then some.
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” Oscar Wilde
So go then!
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” Oscar Wilde
Yo, Mr. Objectivist!
“To hold a pen is to be at war.” Voltaire
Or, here, a keyboard.
[b]John Cage
There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.[/b]
And the children of a lesser God?
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
Why make a distinction at all?
The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.
Or here: The act of reading is in fact an act of posting.
I know: shudder to think.
When you start working, everybody is in your studio—the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas—all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.
Let’s make that true here too.
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.
I dare you to prove this.
If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.
No, he really meant it.
[b]Terry Eagleton
If we were not called upon to work in order to survive, we might simply lie around all day doing nothing.[/b]
Actually, some love the work that they are paid to do.
Theology, however implausible many of its truth claims, is one of the most ambitious theoretical arenas left in an increasingly specialized world.
Ambitious and [for some] ludicrous: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=195793
Capitalism cannot survive without a working class, while the working class can flourish a lot more freely without capitalism.
In theory let’s say.
You can tell that the capitalist system is in trouble when people start talking about capitalism.
Remember back when it was always referred to only as the “free enterprise system”?
Literary texts do not exist on bookshelves: they are processes of signification materialized only in the practice of reading. For literature to happen, the reader is quite as vital as the author.
So, is this semiotics more or less than deconstruction?
Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm.
Starting with Bob Dylan, right?
[b]Philosophy Tweets
“A perfect acquaintance with all the circumstances affecting the occurrence of an event would change expectation into certainty.” George Boole[/b]
Like that is actually possible.
“Necessary illusions enable us to live.” Ingmar Bergman
A whole ton of them.
“Materialism ends up denying the existence of any irreducible subjective qualitative states of sentience or awareness." John R. Searle
Let’s pretend to understand this.
“The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation.” Benjamin Disraeli
Did we do that too?
“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.” Leonardo da Vinci
First up: dasein.
“Patricia: Do you know William Faulkner?
Michel: No. Who’s he? Have you slept with him?”
Jean-Luc Godard
Probably not.
[b]Delia Owens
Female fireflies draw in strange males with dishonest signals and eat them; mantis females devour their own mates. Female insects, Kya thought, know how to deal with their lovers.[/b]
Unlike, say, the females of our own species?
What d’ya mean, where the crawdads sing? Ma used to say that. Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: Go as far as you can — way out yonder where the crawdads sing.
Tate said, Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.
Unlike, say, the critters of our own species?
How much do you trade to defeat loneliness?
Be your own best friend, he thought, and you’ll never need to.
Sand keeps secrets better than mud.
How can we test this?
There in the first row of seats in the court room, sitting with Tate, were Jumpin’ and Mabel. Folks had made a stir when they walked in with Tate and sat downstairs in the “white area.” But when the bailiff reported this to Judge Sims, still in his chambers, the judge told him to announce that anybody of any color or creed could sit anywhere they wanted in his courtroom, and if somebody didn’t like it, they were free to leave. In fact, he’d make sure they did.
You know, in a novel.
You all listen now, this is a real lesson in life. Yes, we got stuck, but what’d we girls do? We made it fun, we laughed. That’s what sisters and girlfriends are all about. Sticking together even in the mud, ’specially in mud.
Next up: the rest of us.
[b]Karl Kraus
Penalties serve to deter those who are not inclined to commit any crimes.[/b]
So don’t let them fool you.
Psychology is a bus that accompanies an airplane.
Or not for some.
A good writer does not receive anywhere near the number of poison-pen letters that is commonly assumed. Among a hundred jackasses there are not ten who will admit to being jackasses, and at most one who will put it in writing.
Next up: poison pen posts.
My request that my writing be read twice has aroused great indignation. Unjustly so. After all, I do not ask that they be read once.
And that’s certainly true of my writing here.
I trim my opponents to fit my arrows.
This sounds like it actually means something.
I have often been asked to be fair and view a matter from all sides. I did so, hoping that something might improve if I viewed all sides of it. But the result was the same. So I went back to viewing things only from one side, which saves me a lot of work and disappointment. For it is comforting to regard something as bad and to be able to use one’s prejudice as an excuse.
This sounds like it actually means something else.
[b]Elena Epaneshnik
Easing lockdown restrictions all over the world while the second wave of the pandemic seems to be on its way is like switching from a free trial to a full subscription.[/b]
And, no, not just in Russia.
If you replace the exclamation marks with question marks at the end of his every sentence – that will make much more sense.
His? Take a wild guess.
What’s the safe distance between drinking wine and using your debit card?
Next up: drinking tequila and using your credit card.
If someone gives you the complete works of Hegel, does that mean they hate you?
And in the original German no less.
I’ve been listening to the amazing Dave Brubeck Quartet nonstop for about two weeks now, and I’m gonna continue.
Let’s define “amazing” here.
Woke up on the wrong side of the Möbius strip.
This thing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip
[b]Heinrich Heine
Experience is a good school. But the fees are high.[/b]
At times, exorbitant.
The more I get to know people, the more I like dogs.
Let’s decide: Genes or memes?
When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on.
Or, here, the Kids.
The men of the past had convictions, while we moderns have only opinions.
And thank god for that.
Right?
I pursue the good in life because it is beautiful and attracts me; and shun the bad because it is ugly and repulsive. All our acts should originate from the spring of unselfish love, whether there be a continuation after death or not.
Right?
I bequeath all my property to my wife on the condition that she remarry immediately. Then there will be at least one man to regret my death.
He said in jest?
[b]Isadora Duncan
The butcher with his bloody apron incites bloodshed, murder. Why not? From cutting the throat of a young calf to cutting the throats of our brothers and sisters is but a step. While we ourselves are living graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal conditions on the earth? [/b]
Well, no one actually does anymore.
The whole world is absolutely brought up on lies. We are fed nothing but lies. It begins with lies and half our lives we live with lies.
You know, being optimistic.
The only dance masters I could have were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walt Whitman and Nietzsche.
A little help with this one, please.
The first essential in writing about anything is that the writer should have no experience of the matter.
A little help with this one, please.
We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.
Once again: too cynical or not cynical enough?
All my lovers have been geniuses; it’s the one thing that I insist.
Actually, only 3 or 4 of mine were.
[b]Existential Comics
George Washington vs Lenin:
Washington believed in slavery.
Lenin believed in liberation for all.
Washington believed women should serve their husband.
Lenin believe in total equality for women.
Washington believed in indigenous genocide.
Lenin believed in indigenous autonomy.[/b]
Well, parts of it.
A whole lot of people who get all their information about socialism directly from wealthy capitalists who own the media seem to think socialists are the ones who are brainwashed.
Well, part of it.
The most dangerous nihilism isn’t the belief that nothing matters, it is the belief that everything matters. It is the people who take a sports game, a promotion at work, a political campaign, and which fertilizer to use on their lawn all with the same deadly seriousness.
Ah, the American Dream.
…how do they define words? they just use more words! it’s nothing but one big run around.
See, I definitely told you this.
We live in an extreme society.
We have extreme wealth disparity.
We have extreme prison populations.
We have extreme militarized police.
We have extreme racism.
To uphold the status quo is to be an extremist.
You know, conservatively.
The reason reading Hegel has radicalized so many people is that he had this very novel idea: things can get better than they are now.
Philosophically as it were.
[b]Stefan Zweig
Truth to tell, we are all criminals if we remain silent. [/b]
So be it then.
One can run away from anything but oneself.
Next up: “I”
There is nothing more vindictive, nothing more underhanded, than a little world that would like to be a big one.
To say the least.
It is never until one realizes that one means something to others that one feels there is any point or purpose in one’s own existence.
Not me, he thought.
Why? Somehow he just lucked out.
Happy people are poor psychologists.
And godawful philosophers.
Freedom is not possible without authority - otherwise it would turn into chaos; and authority is not possible without freedom - otherwise it would turn into tyranny.
Let’s meet somewhere in the middle then, okay?
[b]Iris Murdoch
… half the world starves. What a planet. And the eating, if you’re lucky enough to do any. Stuffing pieces of dead animals into a hole in your face. Then munch, munch, munch. If there’s anybody watching, they must be dying of laughter. [/b]
Anybody here watching?
How rarely can happiness be really innocent and not triumphant, not an insult to the deprived.
Is that philosophical enough for you?
How different each death is, and yet it leads us into the self-same country, that country which we inhabit so rarely, where we see the worthlessness of what we have long pursued and will so soon return to pursuing.
Someone run this by God.
Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved.
Among other things, for all practical purposes.
Probably no adult misery can be compared with a child’s despair.
Yep, probably.
There is a gulf fixed between those who can sleep and those who cannot. It is one of the greatest divisions of the human race.
I’ll run this by, among others, Olivia Dresher.