Author: Philo

human

Snack food for Psychopaths

History repeats itself.

We do not listen, nor do we learn. Instead we mash a poisonous blend of sugary, ultra-processed products and empty entertainment down ourselves, and proudly do so, to feel nothing. And when we are duped again by an ever-growing proliferation of profiteers and politicians, who are poison themselves, we act surprised as if we have been doing the work it takes to understand. We demand pity for our stupidity and die never knowing we have lived.

History is spoon fed by fools and salesmen, and written by criminals. Half-truths abound; fraud reigns and lies are snack food for psychopaths. They are believed because we are apathetic, and we believe because to do so gives us the only sustenance we purport to know: money and the feeling of power, those sugary products devoid of nutrition. The walking dead leading the blind, mouths open in entitlement and expectation.

All the while wisemen watch from afar, doing nothing and shaking their heads in disbelief.

Some Aspirations and Ideas

When everything else falls away look for where it is you are standing. There is always a somewhere and a something.

Can you move? Then do so. Is there a difference? Then make it. If it is true that life is an empty glass. Fill it or not.

Don’t listen to fools. Dismiss them, even if the world bows before their tripe. Rise above and be alone if that is what it takes.

To search for beauty begins with knowing what you search for. First, there is the fleeting and insubstantial, and then there is the Truthful. The one a woman who grows old and the other a smiling goddess.

An empty heart will sometimes stand still and wait. And sometimes it will search for something to love. It is not fickle; we are dismissive.

When you have nothing to say or to write. Listen. If it is silent, enjoy it.

The War Machine

Concepts that are ultimately meaningful are always at odds with powers that would control them.

Those powers will want only profitable, easy to digest ideas that dull the senses and limit the intellect. Such powers are not interested in ideas that are intellectual or actually socially progressive. The ideas that lead to exploration and question the goodness of profitable, easy to digest ideas demand more than empty rhetoric from smiling faces.

Courtesy, privacy, responsibility, and justice do not pay. Division, data, unaccountability, and easy answers often do pay at least in the short term and for the few. But it is in the small battles that we fight against the war machine and those who support it, that the war is wone.

The war machine is subtle. With ease comes comfort. With comfort comes apathy. And with apathy comes defeat. Those that value worthwhile ideas and meaningful activities and are willing to fight, will fight lonely battles in the night, if only for themselves, for ideas that are greater than all of us.

But in the darkness of greed, intrusion, control, injustice and apathy they are the pinpricks of light in an otherwise dark tunnel.

Work

Work. Work the mind and the body and peace and tranquility will follow. Work with purpose and control what you do for work. Work for others, not because you must, not because they pay you to work, but because you desire the peace and tranquility that only work can give.

In our deluded society we barter meaningless things for the illusion that we work. We must, it is true, work to be independent, but it is not payment that makes us independent. It is our realization that independence is a worthy cause to work for.

If the argument is that “we must…”, that “our society demands…” then it is a lie. It is deception on both parts: ourselves and others. Do not believe that we must meet the expectations of others, and lower the expectations you have of yourself. Remember:

You are not owed anything. You are guaranteed nothing.

E-diculous

I have ridden bicycles for years and the relatively recent introduction of E-bikes is disappointing but not surprising. The idea of making something easy is not a good thing. Here’s my list of reasons why.

1.”You can’t bullshit your way up a hill” But with an E-bike you can.

2. Bicycling has a beauty that is inherent. E-bikes make that beauty ugly and mishapened.

3. E [asy]-bikes appeal to the lazy.

4. E-bikes, like religion, give people a false sense of accomplishment.

5. E-bikes make a simple act more complex for no good reason.

6. E-bikes (like AI) will be and are being misused. E-bikes will be used for not so useful or helpful reasons.

7. E-bikes are overly dangerous because they are most often purchased by people who do not ride regularly, have not trained themselves in any way, and are not willing to put the work into learning how to actually ride a bicycle.

8. E-bikes clog up the few non-motorized areas left with motorized vehicles.

9. E-bikes motivate people to do less.

10. They are morally questionable for environmental and progressive reasons.

11. They are a consumer-driven, profit motivated product and not much else.

The Mountain

A man cannot move a mountain but he can climb it. It is magnificent and man is small. It has time and man is always closer to death than to life. It does not feel and man is driven by emotion. And to the mountain man is nothing. But to man the mountain is a challenge.

As time ticks on man often forgets about mountains and challenges but the mountain has no cares. It sits serenely in its place. And while most men get lost in petty and insignificant worries, marriage and children, the mountain never loses sight of the sky above it.

And when we are lowered into our grave and covered with dirt, never having come back to the mountain, it looks as the mourners walk away and soon smile again. The mountain does not mourn for it is a mountain. And mountains are made of rock and dirt and so it does not smile.

The Stoic

When everything else falls away look for where it is you are standing. There is always a somewhere and a something.

Can you move? Then do so. Is there a difference? Then make it. It is true: life is an empty glass; fill it or not.

Don’t listen to fools. Dismiss them even if the world bows before their tripe. Rise above and be alone if that is what it takes.

Looking for beauty is a search that has two parts. First there is fleeting beauty. Then there is the beauty of truth. The one a woman who grows old and the other a god that smiles.

An empty heart will sometimes stand still and wait. And sometimes it will search for search for something to love. It is not fickle; we are dismissive.

When you have nothing to say or to write about, listen. If what you hear is silence, enjoy it.

To Do Good

“The limits of the possible in moral things are less narrow than we think; it is our weaknesses, our vices, our prejudices, that contract them.”           -Rousseau, The Social Contract

We can be as good as we’d like if we are willing. It takes work in the form of discipline and understanding, but mostly a willingness to do good, to be good in the virtuous sense of the word.

The willingness to be good is often cut off by the belief that doing and being good is to be a pansy. It is claimed that such people live in an unreal world of polyannas and posies. But it isn’t this way. Good demands that we stand up and defend it; that we are willing to fight for it.

Good demands that we sometimes do what is difficult and uncomfortable. Good requires us to put aside our own comforts and give over security. Don’t be misled into thinking that good is all sunshine and roses. For those things come from manure and darkness.

Government

“Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of…private interests on public affairs; and the abuse of the laws by the government is less evil than the corruption of the legislator, which is the infallible result of the pursuit of private interests.”           -Rousseau, The Social Contract

If there are those who come complaining of government evils, dismiss them as ignorant if not stupid. The government is what we make of it. If we make nothing of it, then a void is lay open to be filled by the most vile and despicable of corporate shills who will lay waste to all that is good for the price of a few trinkets and the illusion of power.

Those that blame governments are not willing to blame themselves for the problems that they create. Instead, they look to others and other things. But if beauty is in the eye of the beholder then so is evil.