Words are empty. Like ether they escape and are gone. One finds their memory resonating in the occasional hearts and minds of men; inscribed in the soft tissues; on the leaves of time.
Never wait till it’s too late. Never wait till the time is right, for that is too late. Prepare the soil long beforehand. Smile, pay compliments. Everything you do will lead to a moment. Do not wait for that moment. Treat it as if it has already arrived. Not as a point, but a process.
That which moves me is that which moves the world, in all of it’s hearts and minds.
If you cannot instantiate a generality, you have no imagination. The task of philosophers is to produce generalities from particulars. The task of teachers are to produce particulars from generalities.
Perspective requires distance between two points. You must allow time to fill this distance. Time is necessary for experience. But not all time yields experience.
When we are young we are naive. Some people stay young.
If you are going with the flow, you are not swimming against the stream.
There is no unity. There are only modes. Modes of being, existing, thinking, feeling, perceiving. Do not seek to unify, but diversify. Employ these modes. Is there a network?
There was a desperation in her laugh.
Sedulous stare.
Hyperbolic discounting – the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, where the tendency increases the closer to the present both payoffs are.[10]
Illusion of control – the tendency to overestimate one’s degree of influence over other external events.[11]
Loss aversion – “the disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it”.[14] (see also Sunk cost effects and Endowment effect).
Mere exposure effect – the tendency to express undue liking for things merely because of familiarity with them.[15]
Neglect of probability – the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.[17]
Search the origin of your thoughts and you will discover they are not original to you.
But if you consider this in human terms, and you imagine a person defined by a desperation to be liked, what do you see? You see a person without integrity, without a center. In more pathological cases, you see a narcissist — a person who can’t tolerate the tarnishing of his or her self-image that not being liked represents, and who therefore either withdraws from human contact or goes to extreme, integrity-sacrificing lengths to be likable.
If you dedicate your existence to being likable, however, and if you adopt whatever cool persona is necessary to make it happen, it suggests that you’ve despaired of being loved for who you really are. And if you succeed in manipulating other people into liking you, it will be hard not to feel, at some level, contempt for those people, because they’ve fallen for your shtick. You may find yourself becoming depressed, or alcoholic, or, if you’re Donald Trump, running for president (and then quitting).
Jonathan Franzen
It’s the fool who plays it cool by making the world a little colder
Improve your condition by improving the condition of others.
Sometimes I try to cry just to see if I care
I should’ve used more tact when posting that. My apologies. What I take issue with is the glorification of appearances. I have no issues with any form of self expression so long it’s authentic and not the result of some implanted societal neurosis. To each his own. The idealist in me wishes society placed more emphasis on the inner life rather than on the outer. The physical fades. A sound mind and character are more enduring and reliable. I get it, our society values appearances. But, save the asthetic value, appearances don’t improve society. They make it more carnal and superficial. If you need to look good by societies standards to have self worth or feel good about yourself, go for it. But i don’t think that’s a lasting fix. If you’re doing it for yourself, go for it. If it’s for others, good luck pleasing the fickle masses. But again, I get it: we’re sexual creatures motivated by desire and passion, rather than reason and good will. I recognize we’re social creatures. I recognize that we navigate our world by sight. But I believe sight is a poor, misleading guide. Most people look alive on the outside but they are virtually dead on the inside. We use our sight to discern between friends and foes, to identify the familiar and unfamiliar. It allows us to pass judgement on things without really engaging and experiencing with them. It’s a cheap and empty way to make value judgements about the world. That’s my take. I’m just as guilty as the next. I don’t think I’m right, or wrong, that’s just my current sentiment.
I know i cant escape my cultural conditioning. I know I’m inclined to like what I’ve been raised to believe is valuable and beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I needn’t worry about what society makes of my wife so long as I love her.
Eating disorder/Obesity vs cosmetic surgery: underlying issue?
What if obesity was beautiful? Till it was unhealthy? To each his own? Until what? We’re footing the health care bill with our taxes?
What causes the eye to shine and sparkle when it looks on a dull and dreary world?
Success is about sacrificing something you have for something you don’t have.
Life is the continual realization of choices.
I don’t believe in failures. I believe in quitters. If you never quit, you will never fail.
Success is the continual realization of a worthy ideal. No ideal? No success.
Working out increases will-power.
Disgust is a powerful motivator.
I follow the rules so I know how to break them properly.
The greatest adventure of all lies within your mind.
I used to be a boy.
I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold.
Everyday I wake up, look in the mirror, and see someone new.
I don’t admire intelligence. I admire hard work
My problem: I try satisfying my equilibrium whenever I have the opportujty. Savings? I don’t appreciate the concept. Pleasure? Moreso. I waste money- and wen I say waste, I mean I spend according to my hearts desire- as if I’ll always possess it.
Am I different than most ppl? I am different than most ppl. Most ppl are pathetically shallow, unhygienic, unconscious of their condition. They sweat and swear, try laugh and are generally uncivilized and dull. Dolesome. Am I that way? Am I pathetically shallow and stale, and expired? An plump and red and really pink with petty putridness? So stupid, soo… Daft.
Is it wrong to judge pp.’s enculturation? Or conditioning? Or socialization?
Frail- genetic, not powerful
Tough ppl act like they have a stick in their ass
New clothes/ rich briggs clones, make you look fresh and well of. Refried wash jeans make u look recycled and poor
I don’t know why ppl are friends. They are so weird
Doff clothes, diff personalities. I almost prefer the same Exact facsimile.
I am Alone. What is class? Behavior? Sophistication? Dress? Taste? Reserve? The package? Most ppl are base. Don’t ever let yourself get base.
Well, god speed and many blessings to you and the panegyrical oratory of wisdom you bestow on the callow minds in attendance at this palaver. May you eschew the prevarications notoriously feigned by men, but instead sublimate truth and sow pabulum with stentorian words so that you may rouse their susurrus hearts and prod their insipid minds into embracing a panoptic understanding of life.
Flies collect 1 2 3
The wind blows conversation to my ear
Heels drag
People walk and nibble on bits
Information flows through the cavities and lips
The trees are bright
Barely alive
Spotted sunshine catches my eye
Brown leaves and Twigs
Grass green with spring
Life is but a waking dream
Ne’er closer nor farther than what it seems
The elastic will may bend and stretch
But never break what the heart will fetch
Out of the womb of passion breeds
Fanciful longings that light the haze
Celestial worlds beckon you to soar
Well past the memories you kept in store
Lightning bugs and sylvan forest
Ignite the mind with courage to explore it
Lucid streams pool into reflecting beams
Empty roads extend to aimless hopes
Winkling eyes never say goodbye
Traveling through mind
Illuminating sight
We carry these around
Ethereal dreams
Despite the worldly imaginings
Never truer was our hearts desire
That lit the annuls of past on fire
Though we walk alone at night
Guided by the apollos light
A glow persists
Diffuses through air
Making our journey worth the wear
A thought incited by frictions fire
A glance that cuts loose ends run free
The rise and dance in melody
Streaking along our worldly perception
Illuminating our souls heavenly complexion
Eyes can capture what heart does not
But love is blind
Or so I thought
Could it be that dreams lay asleep
Waiting for these melodies to run and leap
From within our soul
Sparks waiting to fly
But we stare at the world
And continue asking why?
Let your eyes drift off
Your heart out to play
With new beginnings to start off your day
We walk alone
Our head held high
mouth hung loosely
Eyes open wide
Flinging our feelings far wide
Gazing at reflections of things as they are
Never recalling they seem as we are
Worldly shimmers and shinings so bright
Never a thought of who holds the light
This world is magic and we hold the key
To every warm gesture and cold misery
Our steps trace our thoughts as we traverse the land
Opening up new worlds we don’t understand
Explore these chambers with dreams filled with light
Make use of everything good that strikes you as right
High mountain passes and deep river masses
Mockingbirds that know the words
Let your heart sing in tune
There is nature still in you just waiting to bloom
Blue grass, black beach, red air, debonair
Seek those minds and thoughts that light your white flare
Cross over the shadows that hang at the edge
Move ever so lightly
Expose ever so brightly
These shadows we own
And cast as we stand
Not burning our own light
But worshipping man
Self immolation is the sacrifice of gods
Lay claim to your own light
Burn brighter than suns
Don’t think of the pain
There’s nothing to gain
But what you must lose
To wake up a dream
Coursing as the setting sun
The rising moon
Your will be done
Seek and search and always fail
Compare and cringe
No task is done
Still waiting to blaze
Your own morning sun
Pink ribbons unfurl across the blue swirl
Grey smoke
White buns
A fire burns
The horizon bleeds with long lost melodies
Vernal songs clear the night of superstitions dark canvass
That worldly blight
That stunts one feeling
One unified blaze
To ignite the future of more hopeful days
Research
Find trends in:::
Annual:
-mental/ psychiatric illness medication
-incarceration rates
-GDP productivity
-wage rates
-military spending
-inflation rates
-government spending
-bank growth
-federal treasury activity
-political campaign contributions and sources
-per capita debt
-personal debt
Hypothesis: Should begin trending 1970-80
Great men are like oysters: crude on the outside, divine on the inside. The gnarley body contains riches within. Every man needs the fleck of hardship to agitate him
Make yourself: when you force yourself to do something, you create yourself to be someone
Consumerism is consumption of the soul
What is history? Philosophy of
Education today (opinion hustler)
-what is man?
American education (philosophy/ political/ cultural/ society)
Nous– mind and world relationship
“the endowment of presuppositions with authority: This is divinity, the antipathy of wonder, in which catechism reveals its ignorance ”
Great men are the culminated spirit of will of the collective consciousness of mankind. Great men die unhappy: Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Martin Luther, king, ghandi?, Churchill, hitler? Stalin? Roosevelt? Lincoln, princes/ kings? Etc
Egotism is thorn in the flesh
Does not divide his regards: singular and inseparable focused will of the universal: subjective ideal aim- infinite right to be consulted.
Means are external- adapts to its purpose- adapt to it- as objects for its own existence (morals, virtues, ethics)
Men are objective interests in themselves
Reason= freedom: elevated above all alien necessity and chance: responsible for moral enfeeblement.
Man is subject to moral imputation of good and evil- and attached to his individual freedom
Innocent imports entire consciousness of evil
Moral discontent- do not find present adapted to their aims: contrast as they are to ad ought to be—- and open revolt to actual condition of world.
Absolute aims- morals virtues aims- manifested ideals— destroyed by actuality
Fancies of individuals are not to be universal for all- and vice versa
Schiller- poet read
Universal reason as end in itself- Bo regard for particular individual
Deficiencies of individuals obvious in contrast to society
Cunnings of reason: let’s the passions do its work
In an open continuum of time there is no truth, only perspective and probability. But I ask myself what it would mean if it were true and what it would mean if it were false.
What if character included healthy lifestyle habits? Judging someone based on their weight increases stress which increases obesity.
Picture perfect? Why must we absorb ourselves with these ideals? Don’t they rob the humanity from people and reduce them to an ornamental shell? I’m arguing that cultures very idea of “attractive” is wrong, that is overlooks who a person is in favor of what they are. Placing so much emphasis on something so contingent, temporal, fleeting, and uncontrollable is bound to produce neurosis and wreck self image.
The night breathes cool air
Soft velvet
Currents
The roots wrapping around the conscious
Education is not the problem- hierarchy is the problem. Even if everyone is educated, that’s not really what matters. What matters is the specialized vocabulary and social network that is provided by the institution.
Apple and khan and yale/mit/standford courses and all that will fail. That will not elevate someone from poverty. We have forgotten the value of education. Education indoctrinates us with different values to assemble into different organizations throughout culture. They establish our rank and file within a democracy, within society.
Sitting on a log on the Cumberland river fishing for catfish with Conrad. Using cat blood and vow liver. Bugs aren’t bad. It’s a warm, refreshing night. We’re under a bridge west of downtown. A large tug boat is turning around to the left of us to pick up a few barges loaded with boxes. It’s spotlight patrols the waters before it. Cars roll over the bridge, their lights cascade across the
What does it mean to be an American?
-TV
-cars
-sports
-college degree
-music ? Concerts?
Facebook
9-5
Create a song using explosions for percussion
Everyone is making popcorn on the fourth of July.
Fireworks are a metaphor for every life experience.
Why do we like fireworks? Fully engage the senses.
The fleeting sensations that we capture and keep alive with our imagination.
A fireworks display that explodes scenes along with a radio narrative that you tune into that tells a story
What if fireworks were 2 dimensional or 1 sided so that it you sat on the wrong angle you couldn’t see them.
That should explode the constitution with fireworks. One that is suspended for 6 months, just hanging there in the sky.
William Dare 