Fighting the Universal Spider Too

Do dumb people know that they are dumb? Obviously not you’d have to be smart to know that. The dumb one behind me is talking about another dumb one (herself having been excluded of course). She might in a moment of excitement, exclaim “God that was dumb” or “What a stupid thing to do”. But she will only say it to herself and really doesn’t mean it. And she might say it out loud while she was on her cell phone when she fails to notice that red light and goes sailing right on through it. What’s that? What did you say? Her friend in another car is asking. Oh, nothing, she says. Never mind. Never mind. She has looked around to see if there are any cop cars near. There doen’t seem to be (but them maybe there was a camera). She sees no marked cars. She is thankful no one ran into her. And she goes back to talking on her phone. Whew, that was close, she says to herself. And lets (or at least she does) hope she does’t get a red light running ticket in the mail.

Any piece of writing that features an awareness of its own means and methods should be understood as in the first person, whether or not the main pronound is “I” – Susan Sontag – Where the Stress Falls, 2001 p32

What pushes us onward?
       It is never enough
What holds us back?
       It is always too much
How can you justify
       What you did?
       There is no excuse
How do you explain
       Any lack of progress?
What are you going
       To make of it?

If no one questions me, I know; if I would explain to a questioner, I know not – St Augustine

US drivers collectively spend 500,000 person-years waiting at stoplights. This non-productive time results in an economic lose of $87b (but only if it makes them late for work or miss their appointment – after all non-productive time is just non-productive time, isn’t it).

Part of the wealth of migrants is their desire for something more, their refusal to accept the way things are – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004 p133

We can taste more than just with our tongues, it is known that there are taste receptors in other parts of the body – lungs and stomach for example. But they may not be a conscious part of our taste sensation just as the brain that exist in our stomach does not generate a consciousness. It has only been within the past several decades that a second human organ of smell – the Jacobson organ, was discovered. The mysteries are far from over.

We are presumptuous and no less in supposing that we can ever set up ‘the Truth’ in the place of ‘anthropomorphic’ conceptions, for no other conceptions but these exist at all. Every idea that is possible at all is a mirror of the being of its author – Oswald Spangler – The Decline of the West, 1965 p190

Asians were still migrating to the Americas as late as 5,500 years ago. They are migrating there now but lets limit the discussion to prehistory.

Understanding consists in the reduction of one type of reality to another [for] true reality is never the most obvious of realities – Levi-Strauss – Triste Tropiques

We as citizens are ill equipped to deal with institutions – our experience must be hard won over a limited time. Instructional memory is cumulative and intergenerational. By the time we discover or deception it is already to late to compensate. We must each learn anew and our learning does not accumulate. That is our limitation and the strength of the institutions we create.

Never to think, that is the good life – Sophocles

We do what we do in a hypercommerical society not because we want to do that, but because we cannot bear not to do it – just as we vote not as a symbol of support but because we cannot stand the opposition. It is not that we chose one thing over another but we cannot allow ourselves to be excluded.

To the historical vision the actual data are always symbols – Oswald Spangler – The Decline of the West, 1965 p 83

Sitting in the January
         Morning sun
The days are noticeably
         Longer now
There is a longing returning
         For warmer days
The dog found a garter snake
         Today
The sun rose a little further
          North


Its bright
This is good
Light reflects with
          A glare


Dead leaves swirl
          About in the breeze
          Her name is Louise

In regard to the physical, one becomes more experienced and more mature, and one adjusts one’s ideals more flexibly to the insufficient realities – Gregor Von Rezzori –Memoirs of an Anti-Semite p111

Young couples are better than long-term partners at discerning each other’s preferences

Virgilia was a beautiful sin, and it is so easy to confess a beautiful sin! - Machado De Assis - Epitaph of a small winner, 1952 p145

Northern Europe was settled by our human ancestors by at least 800,000 years ago

The essence of divinity is to give aid to mortals – Erasmus –In Praise of Folly