Philosophy Now Forum

Stupidity...

“Ignorance is the choice not to know what you don’t want to know, assuming that the absence of knowing causes the absence of the existence of that which you don’t want to know. Therefore, the belief in the ability of ignorance to achieve its goal is likely the greatest ignorance of all.” Craig D. Lounsbrough

Ignore this please.

“It’s my sense that at some level a number of the people who are perpetuating the insanity in our culture today will eventually figure it out. But I’m quite skeptical in believing that they will be able to figure out how to undo the damage that they’ve done by the time they figured out that they did it.” Craig D. Lounsbrough

Their insanity of course.

“Here's a definition of Wokeism: There are people just sitting there, who are deliberately waiting for the thrill of being offended.” John Cleese

Our definition of course.

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” Anonymous

Here for example.

“The young were at least smooth-skinned and straight; the old were flabby and wrinkled. At least, he thought, they should pony up some piece of timeless wisdom to make up for their wretchedness: yet most shambled from breakfast to bedtime in the same dumb state that had taken them through adolescence. A fair number had grown up quite simply dimwits, and stubbornly remained so even in their dotage. He wanted to venerate them, for with their lined faces and dignified bearing they reminded him of august men of state. But then they spoke.” Lydia Millet

But then they posted...

“I am saddened by those who ride the merry-go-round of circular arguments, repeatedly passing me by again and again not because they have a superior argument, but because I didn’t get on.” Craig D. Lounsbrough

Saddened...or tickled pink?

Stieg Larsson

Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.

You're a pinhead. It's no secret.

She went around with the attitude that she would rather be beaten to death than take any shit.

Me? How much shit?

I’ve had many enemies over the years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never engage in a fight you’re sure to lose. On the other hand, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. Bide your time and strike back when you’re in a position of strength—even if you no longer need to strike back.

Fucking revenge let's call it.

Keep in mind that I'm crazy, won't you?

As I recall, that's exactly what he did keep in mind.

Don’t ever fight with Lisbeth Salander. Her attitude towards the rest of the world is that if someone threatens her with a gun, she’ll get a bigger gun.

Or borrow henry quirk's bazooka.

Armageddon was yesterday, today we have a serious problem.

A bunch of them in fact.

"When the world stopped making sense, so did I!" --Gary Childress

borrow henry quirk's bazooka

I don't lend weapons.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:01 am

borrow henry quirk's bazooka

I don't lend weapons.

I promise you can have it back after I blow myself up.

"If people will only listen to absurd things, then say absurd things if you want them to listen!" -- Gary Childress (greatest foolosopher of all time!)

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:43 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:01 am

borrow henry quirk's bazooka

I don't lend weapons.

I promise you can have it back after I blow myself up.

If you wanna off yourself, there are easier ways than by bazooka.

Pills, a razor, a rope, Drano, car exhaust...hell, there's always suicide by cop.

Fyodor Dostoevsky from Crime and Punishment

What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind---then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it's all as it should be.

Didn't I tell you?

Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.

It would have to be that way.

It's because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.

Unless you count posting here.

Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn?

Unless you count posting here.

The people who have nothing to lock up are the happy ones, aren't they?

Trust me: not all of them.

Thus a man will sometimes suffer half an hour of mortal fear with a robber, but once the knife is finally at his throat, even fear vanishes.

Make sense of that please.

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 6:02 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:43 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 3:01 am

I don't lend weapons.

I promise you can have it back after I blow myself up.

If you wanna off yourself, there are easier ways than by bazooka.

Pills, a razor, a rope, Drano, car exhaust...hell, there's always suicide by cop.

Thank you for the advice, Henry! I knew you were a good guy at heart all along. And here I thought you didn't care about anyone but your own. I was wrong.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 6:31 pm

henry quirk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 6:02 pm
If you wanna off yourself, there are easier ways than by bazooka.

Albeit less spectacular. Wow.

Mario Puzo from The Godfather

There are things that have to be done and you do them and you never talk about them. You don't try to justify them. They can't be justified. You just do them. Then you forget it.

Next up: the things that have to be done here.

Michael could never remember his father ever having uttered a word about death, as if the Don respected death too much to philosophize about it.

Besides, that's what the button men are for.

You can't hide the thunderbolt. When it hits you, everybody can see it. Christ, man, don't be ashamed of it, some men pray for the thunderbolt. You're a very lucky fellow.

You know, in "the business".

The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed..

When in Rome....

But let me say this. I am a superstitious man, a ridiculous failing but I must confess it here. And so if some unlucky accident should befall my youngest son, if some police officer should accidentally shoot him, if he should hang himself while in his jail cell, if new witnesses appear to testify to his guilt, my superstition will make me feel that it was the result of the ill will still borne me by some people here. Let me go further. If my son is struck by a bolt of lightning I will blame some of the people here. If his plane show fall into the sea or his ship sink beneath the waves of the ocean, if he should catch a mortal fever, if his automobile should be struck by a train, such is my superstition that I would blame the ill will felt by people here. Gentlemen, that ill will, that bad luck, I could never forgive. But aside from that let me swear by the souls of my grandchildren that I will never break the peace we have made. After all, are we or are we not better men than those pezzonovanti who have killed countless millions of men in our lifetimes?

Their "thing" it's called.

I have no such powers. If I did I would be more merciful than God, believe me.

God in, say, Morrocco...or Libya?
But point taken.

Friedrich Nietzsche from Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

Especially now that we can fly.
Though, sure, point taken.

Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.

But just the real truths of course.

One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.

What the hell, let's say that counts here too.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

This coming from him?

Become who you are!

Like these...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_r ... traditions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... ideologies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ... philosophy

...guys?

And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally.

Unless, of course, he's wrong.

George Eliot from Middlemarch

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

Not many that doesn't include.

It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.

Me? Interrupt anything you'd like.

And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.

Not to mention the other way around.

People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.

On the other hand...

We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably and perhaps been staring at us in private while we have been making up our world entirely without it.

Nope, can't think of anything myself.

Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves.

In other words, some things never change.

Suicide...

“A book is a suicide postponed.” Emil Cioran

Pick one:
1] writing it
2] reading it
3] banning it
4] burning it

“I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.” Hermann Hesse

Grace?

“The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.” David Foster Wallace

You tell me.

“They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice. That Suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in this world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.” Arthur Schopenhauer

So, what's the final verdict here?

“The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die." Juliette Lewis

It does gets tricky.

“I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't.” Susanna Kaysen

Some, sure. But I don't know about many.