Philosophy Now Forum

David James Duncan from The River Why

Thus did my siblings and I learn one of the hard lessons of life: the best way to strip the allure and dreaminess from a lifelong dream is, very often, simply to have it come true.

No, really.

Punctuationally speaking, wonder is a period at the end of a statement we've long taken for granted, suddenly looking up and seeing the sinuous curve of a tall black hat on its head, and realizing it was a question mark all along.

No, really: ?

But churches always have been the leading cause of the need for churches.

And around and around they go.

I'd taken a big fat crisis off my shoulders and loaded it all on Jesus, which seemed unfair in a way, but was exactly what the Bible recommended.

Now that sure brings back memories.

The only way I know to pluck from the hearts of enemies their desire to destroy us is to remove from their lives the sense that, for their own physical and spiritual survival, they must.

How's that going for you?

Life is short. It's God's fault. Sorry.

Of course, it might not be your God.

Cynicism...

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde

Everyone starts with this one. Or ought to.

“By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing.
And he vows his passion is,
Infinite, undying.
Lady make note of this --
One of you is lying.”
Dorothy Parker

Of course, now we know they both are.

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” George Carlin

Well, me for sure.

“Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes'.” Stephen Colbert

Hey, fuck you, Stephen.

“If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.” Terry Pratchett

Now you're talking!

“As my father always used to tell me, 'You see, son, there's always someone in the world worse off than you.' And I always used to think, 'So?” Bill Bryson

Either that or, "good!"

The Onion

Liquor Commercial Featuring Dance Party On Pirate Ship Also Includes Important Message About Responsibility

wink, wink.

Report: Majority Of Bodies Donated To Science Dressed Up Like Clowns, Shot Out Of Cannons For Fun

That's hardly surprising.

Cat Horrified By Brief Glimpse Of Man’s Unbarbed Penis

Start here: https://youtu.be/3UVw7cgv36A

Racism Resolved After Hero Destroys Mad Scientist’s Bigotry Ray

Yo, Satyr! Now what?

Netflix Condemns WGA Strike For Putting Future Show Cancellations Behind Schedule

Capitalism let's call it.

Perverted Little Boy Asks To Sleep With Parents

Woke!

Jerzy Kosiński

Here was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become. And that was the public library.

Actually, that never worked for me.

I have always suspected everyone who likes me of having poor judgment. I despise them for being so easily taken in.

This is trickier than you think.

There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return.

In other words -- wink, wink -- down out of the clouds.

The recent Dictionary of Occupational Titles lists over twenty thousand specialized professions in America; being a millionaire is not one of them.

You tell me: https://occupationalinfo.org/

Our language has lost its ability to convey the spontaneous.

Like it ever had it.

People prefer to avoid confronting deformity and when they do it's only for kicks.

And the equivalent of that here of course.

The behavior of an individual is determined not by his racial affiliation, but by the character of his ancestry and his cultural environment. If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.

Franz Boas..

Something for the Kennedy loon

The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are foredoomed to eternal inferiority.

Franz Boas

Oh the irony

"i was never in dispute of the statement 'by a freewill the arm is raised', only of the claim that if the world were rolled backward to that point in time and everything was the same, I'd not raise my arm just as i had. Thus Spinoza informs us that nothing compels nature from without to act, and so it is in a sense free... but what happens cannot happen other than it has. it is only becuz we do not get away with saying 'the universe did it' when tryna avoid responsibility, that we even have a use for the word at all.  - Gustave Vonhamsonshmidt

Eugene Thacker

One who has ceased being irritated by others, but who remains a misanthrope.

Uh, up in the clouds?

How are things going?
Oh, I can’t complain…
The greatest complaint of all.

He complained?

Are you a pessimist?
On my better days…

Now you're speaking my language.

Everything does work out in the end, one way or another.

In other words, eveything ends one way or another.

Happiness is the feeling you have just before something goes wrong.

Or: Exhilaration is the feeling you have just before something goes terribly wrong.

An oft-mentioned example in this regard is the Medieval practice of catapulting corpses. The primal scene in this regard is the 14th century Italian trading post at Caffa, on the northern border of the Black Sea. Ongoing skirmishes between Italian merchants and Muslim locals led, in one instance, to the catapulting of plague-ridden corpses by the latter, over the fortress walls of the former.

Yo, God!

Oscar Wilde from The Picture of Dorian Gray

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

Well, not in Florida, of course.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

Well, that's bullshit, of course.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Actually, you wouldn't think so, would you?

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

Actually, you wouldn't think so, would you?

All art is quite useless.

On the other hand, it's still "the least untrue lie".

You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.

Next up: you hate every one.

Pessimism...

“Mankind is a troupe in the fallibility of evolution and everything at his feet a prop, a false world made real enough to function without attainment or compensation of the genuine.” Jacob H. Kyle

Pick one:
1] philosophically astute
2] philosophically ridiculous

“It seemed to me that, no matter what endeavor I was involved in, I was to be something of a sham.” Peter David

Apropos of Nothing as it were.

“At what point was it morally reprehensible to bring a life into a chaotic, toxic world?” Kristy McGinnis

How about now? That certainly works for some of us.

“Silence is the pesticide of language. Let the soil of your mind decompose. Enough flowers.” Jacob H. Kyle

Or, here, weeds.

“But to what end was the world created, then?" asked Candide.
"To drive us mad," replied Martin. Voltaire

And I do my bit, right?

“But," said Candide, "is there not some pleasure to be had in criticising everything and finding fault where others see beauty?" Voltaire

Go ahead, run that by me.

Barbara Kingsolver from Demon Copperhead

You get used to it, not in the good way, to the extent of the entire world oftentimes feeling like a place where you weren’t invited. If you’ve been here, you know. If not, must be nice.

On the other hand, at least I know I'm wanted here.

It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.

Next up: recalling the future.

People buying apples and green beans usually have some degree of joy in their hearts.

Next up: people buying private jets and yachts.

The dads at home drinking beer in their underwear, the moms at the grocery with their SNAP coupons. The army recruiters in shiny gold buttons come to harvest their jackpot of hopeless futures.

Grunts let's call them.

The moral of his story was how you never know the size of hurt that’s in people’s hearts, or what they’re liable to do about it, given the chance.

For example, what they are liable to do about it here. If you get my drift.

Kids up there evidently had brains coming out their ears, to the extent of needing to meet up with other kids for brain-to-brain combat.

And then the adults down here.

Cormac McCarthy from The Passenger

He had asked her if she believed in an afterlife and she said that she did not discount such a thing. That it could be. She just doubted that it could be for her. If there was a heaven, was it not founded upon the writhing bodies of the damned? Lastly she said that God was not interested in our theology but only in our silence.

Not counting YouTube videos, of course.

The horrors of the past lose their edge, and in the doing they blind us to a world careening toward a darkness beyond the bitterest speculation.

Some pasts more than others I suspect.

Because beauty has power to call forth a grief that is beyond the reach of other tragedies. The loss of a great beauty can bring an entire nation to its knees. Nothing else can do that.

For others, however, beauty isn't even in the top ten.

The world will take your life. But above all and lastly the world does not know that you are here. You think that you understand this. But you don't. Not in your heart you don't. If you did you would be terrified.

Though for others, relieved.

The defeated have their cause and the victors have their victory.

Ah, Communists with their cause, capitalists with their victory. And now the cesspool we live in today. Some say.

...you shouldn't worry about what people think of you because they don't do it that often.

Or, for most of us, and far more likely, if at all.

"learn to despook yourself through the art of Stirner posting" - anonymous Wikipedia article editor

Lol

The Onion

Study Finds American Women Delaying Motherhood Because The Whole Thing Blows

Let's define "blows" here.

Woman On Third Level Of Purgatory Tired Of Being Passed Over For Advancement By Less Penitent Men

Yo, VT! There's no end to it!!

Starbucks Unveils $7 Wake-Up Slap

Next up: the virtual equivalent of that here.

138 Dead As Loud Sneeze Startles NRA Meeting

Well, it could happen.

Apartment Listing Cagey About Whether Unit Has Floor

It does. But it doubles the rent.

Amazed Woman Sees Face Of Jesus On Crucifix

Actually, it turned out to be the face of Jim Caviezel.