"I am not alone". Of all realizations, what could be more threatening? What could be more comforting?

Logic is a feature of the substrate.

"Potential energy" is a rather humble term to designate something as jarring as the opposition of the universe to itself.

A man leans way out over the edge, held by the people behind him. The thing is just barely out of reach. He strains for it. Behind him, on the faces of the people, concern and malice.

"The center of the sun" is a rigid designator. (It has also been rigidly designated at the title of a really good song: http://ping.fm/xuxUl )

Philosophy is definitely an off-label use of the human brain.

The utilitarian ethic is a frail and backwards ethic. It seeks to describe human actions as subject to human reason, when in fact it is not reason that compels us to live and survive; that drives us towards pleasure and away from pain. These values are imposed upon us. Reason has always been the slave of blind passion. Only in chains does reason find for itself a new motivation beyond the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain. Thus science, thus art, thus culture. It is a mistake to say we prefer knowledge, truth, and beauty, because these things are useful. On the contrary, they are useful because we prefer them.

To create art, first you have to see what isn't there. Then you have to show it to someone else.

Postmodernism is the field of discourse which deals with the question, "what is postmodernism?"

On about how psychiatrists are today's secular priests. The scientologists are right about that much.

The problem with this life thing is, nobody knows what to want.

Every social institution is built around a kernel of necessary bullshit. None of us believes is, but in order for the thing to hold together it is crucial that we all SAY we believe it.

The fundamentalist is one who mistakes the game, and accidentally believes the bullshit.

Who among us has not made this mistake at one time or another?

We say we have an "intuitive" grasp of the things we know but cannot explain.

Man is a network.

The aesthetic enjoyment of tragedy. We know that it's just a story, and at the same time we recognize that it's very real. Our recognition off--and feeling of detachment from--the emotional content is what makes the thing enjoyable. We understand it could happen to us, we know how it would feel, and we see ourselves as contemplating it all from a safe distance. This ironic, distanced view of life's drama characterizes the best of our human experience, I think.

It's just that I don't believe in revelation. Or rather, I believe in the experience of revelation, but I think the contents of revelation need to be mediated through reason in order to become a part of social reality. Reason is the tool for conveying private truths publicly.

Of course you can never see your own future, because once you've seen it, it's no longer your future. You could see the future of things over which you have no causal influence, of course. But why would you want to do that?

ボロマケしながら「余裕だぜ！」と叫ぶ自分ｗ

In order to laugh at oneself, one must do something interesting. One must cease to identify with oneself, if only for a moment. How remarkable that we are able to do something as absurd, and as important, as suspending identification with our own self.

apeloads

To do:

1. Get a cat
2. Name it "Katya"
3. Feel pleased with self.

Maybe volition is just compulsion that you know about.

t0kt0k sent you a playlist: "Noam Chomsky @ Boston College [Feb 2009]"

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t0kt0k has shared a video playlist with you on YouTube. Hi. I thought you guys might like to know about this. -- t0kt0k Noam Chomsky @ Boston College [Feb 2009] Noam Chomsky speaking at Boston College on US foreign policy, the role of the media, and other topics.
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