sidebrow

§§§§

…and being a philosophy professor is unattractive

unless you have joie de vivre, unless you

also lead a poetic life

you are a miserable miserable man

waiting for something that may never happen

not some weird bottled up thing, I just don’t talk about it,

as if you throw a stone and don’t know what you’re doing

tragedy of the moral life

setting habits in place that are almost impossible to break,

sucking a stone for lost water;

not even sacrificing it for being a philosopher,

but for being a reader of philosophy

and you have to know how much you love that

and you must have the utmost confidence

you must bring it and be an arrogant bastard

but is that enough to sacrifice the other pleasures of life?

§§§§

do the desires of the elitist have a hearing?

is it accepted? is it tolerated?

are conservatives like me tolerated?

well, you are here

but you’re different from polite society

you’ve known me for a long time

you have to put up with me…

§§§§

…whether becoming is

or whether it’s just passing away

to another world beyond it;

how is that not a problem?

you’re saying

everything is historically conditioned

except

the fact that everything is historically conditioned;

otherwise, you have to say

people will think that for a while, even a long while,

and that afterwards people will think something else

so, nothing,

unless you have a vantage point from the end of history,

because we do, groundless

doesn’t the fact that you believe something for no reason trouble you?

do you not think about your life? do you not take it seriously?

how do you both think about your life and not think about it?

how do you as a thinking person discard any notion of value, untroubled?

you just do what the culture tells you?

§§§§

no, most people aren’t relativists,

but most people would like to think of themselves that way;

that’s where the money is

people really want to be tolerant,

but that’s so obviously not true…

precisely the most cultural cultures

are the least relativist…

but I won’t give you a half-baked argument

about how tolerance has to be tolerant of intolerant.

as if I fight against relativism

because it is the strongest strategy of people who want

everyone to be a pawn in the game:

easier to manipulate

if they don’t believe in anything…

our daily experience sounds silly,

but that’s not a refutation;

it seems like a silly refutation

because a 15 year-old could think of it,

but why doesn’t it seem like a silly idea

because a 15 year-old could refute it?

so logically unsound and yet so powerful

torn

and wish they could think it

but know they can’t

and it may be that political ideas

must be philosophically half-baked

and you just have to make things work by trial and error,

but people like to argue from principles;

which way is it better to be wrong?

§§§§

Accepting what culture you’re given,

to some extent, but moving beyond it,

to say culture is binding and brainwashing

makes you sloppy and lazy and watch too much TV.

I choose things that don’t make me happy, constantly,

and part of it is my fault

but part of it is that I live where these things are really accessible,

and sometimes I wished I lived in a place that

made its first and only purpose to keep me straight and focused,

and for those reasons I have serious doubts about democracy and liberalism.

I just hate loving things

I’m supposed to love:

You’re feeling what’s happening now.

This is the world’s expression...

A soul is big enough for the high and the low

Except for the fact that we die.

§§§§

How many great books have there been?

More than none.

They’ve always been possible.

Not before they existed.

Philosophers exist into the future.

Civilized man could fade away.

If there’s nothing greater than the perfect fry that we’re after

It’s the perfect fry, perfect shape, width, etc.

And you’re telling me that’s not petty?

Why is that petty?

Why is it not? I think the onus is pretty much on you.

It’s perfect; it’s not the fry that matters, but the perfection

Then why shouldn’t we make the goal of America to produce the perfect pair of tits?

I mean the perfect killing gun.

So what about the great man? We don’t want everything to be great.

We want them to run the country, to teach us.

Then why should there be any constraints on their power?

The great man wouldn’t allow for the perfect French fry.