We spend our lives in abject supplication to our neurotransmitters, performing both menial and Herculean tasks in the hopes they might grace us with their blessings. We exercise, we adventure, we tell stories, play games, listen to music, gaze at nature and art; we chase wealth, status, or just simple comfort; we touch, and we pursue the affections of others. We do all of these things for the fleeting rewards doled upon us.

Meanwhile, hard-core drug users simply storm the castle and attack our biochemical overlords for those rewards with sharp objects.

If nothing else, you have to appreciate their clarity of purpose—even if they themselves aren’t always conscious of it.

RIP Stefán Karl Stefánsson, you’ll live on in our memes..

Half-ass meme inspired by this whole-ass write-up on Quillette.

If you think a man juggling chainsaws would be relieved when they start running out of gas, you haven’t really asked yourself why a man juggles chainsaws in the first place.

If only this were a required attribute to be considered an “adult” of our species.

If someone from the past asked me what kind of culture we had in 2017, I’d explain how we sell fake books that people use to decorate their homes.

Nietzsche said that there are two types of people: those who want believe, and those who want to know.

More recently, it’s been suggested that the distinction between the two may be related to intelligence. Now I know how condescending that sounds, but think about how the mind works: stitching together a constant stream of information coming from the senses and presenting it to us in a form that becomes our individual “reality”.

Where the brain cannot stich together information from the senses, it relies on memory, or knowledge. It fills in the gaps as best it can to create the illusion of something solid, so we can make decisions that will keep us alive.

The less knowledge you have, the bigger the gaps, and the greater the need to fill them with something, anything, to maintain a coherent story. And filling those gaps with knowledge is a lot harder, and sometimes much less pleasant, than filling them with what you want to believe.

So I don’t know if I agree with the idea that Intelligence is the deciding factor, as much as a sort of general mental strength –more akin to character and willpower– to resist the temptation to rely on wishful thinking, rather than critical thinking. 

Because frankly, wishful thinking isn’t it really thinking at all.

So you’re unhappy with how the past year played out. The people elected a tacky, crass demagogue whose grade-school language winks at racism in his speeches and incites bigotry and xenophobia. And emboldened by his example, the volume of other ugly voices has been dialed up to eleven on our cultural speakers.

It’s like half the country is embracing the worst stereotypes the rest of the Western world holds about Americans, and embroidering them on Chinese-made red ball caps.

So what are you going to do about it, cuck?

Here’s an idea: in a culture that glorifies the crudest aspects of our nature, choosing to carry yourself with dignity and class is an act of rebellion.

I know, you want to fire back, to give as good as you’ve gotten. You could completely wreck that guy if this were a face-to-face conversation –you know he wouldn’t be running his mouth much less calling you inane shit like “cuck”. It would be a lot easier to just start dropping f-bombs along with your facts, to show that you’re not fucking around.

But all you accomplish with that is to allow the bar to lower faster. Sure, I know that bar is getting heavy with fewer and fewer hands holding it up these days. But that’s where the strength of your own dignity becomes essential. If people start defecating on the sidewalk, do you join them, or do you repudiate their actions?

As the saying goes: Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.

We may very well be at the tail end of that chain, ready to start the cycle over. In that case, it’s essential to keep a stiff upper lip, even when your nose is twitching angrily from the smell of shit on the sidewalk.

What good is the study of philosophy if any conclusions or ideas that come of it never reach the minds of the masses?

Sure, things trickle-down and diffuse through the memescape or zeitgeist or other $2 word to describes the cloud of culture that loosely connects all human thought.

But what is truly the point of seeking insight if only a handful of people will ever benefit from it directly?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to just spend one’s time learning how to build a better mousetrap? It’s not like the people running the planet are guided by the kind of philosophical thought that holds up to actual scrutiny by people who think critically and dispassionately.

Maybe that’s why a PhD in philosophy seems to accessorize with a green, coffee stained apron, rather than an executive business suit.

Just a random thought on wrestling with as I drive halfway across the country.