Round Up #33

Aphorisms/Shorts
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"[Nietzsche] has all the psychological penetration of the great novelists who were his contemporaries, minus the characters (his loneliness was so intense he didn't even have them for company)."  Geoff Dyer.

“There are three stages of scientific discovery: first people deny it is true; then they deny it is important; finally they credit the wrong person."  Alexander Von Humboldt

"Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution."  -- attribution is contested.  Some claim Milton Friedman.  Some a Russian proverb. 

Sure, so many good lines in Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," but here is one that is vastly under-appreciated: 

Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ Of insidious intent

"Ignorance is bliss.  But bliss is boring." Coded message in the show Gravity Falls.

"Where the study of history might seek to discover, explain and understand, possibly to facilitate judgment, our current moment demands decision first, study later (if at all)." William Davies.

"Beauty has been stolen from the people and sold back to them under the concept of luxury."  Kanye West

“To try to write love is to confront the muck of language; that region of hysteria where language is both too much and too little…” Roland Barthes

Links and Research
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Great piece on Nietzsche's views of education and how his critiques hold up today.

Now that is an interesting town.

Besançon is the historical capital of watchmaking in France. This has led it to become a center for innovative companies in the fields of microtechnology, micromechanics, and biomedical engineering. . . 

The greenest city in France,[5] it enjoys a quality of life recognized in Europe. Thanks to its rich historical and cultural heritage and its unique architecture, Besançon has been labeled a "Town of Art and History" since 1986 and its fortifications due to Vauban has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2008.

Cool blog: The Impractical Cogitator. 

Fun.

And, yes. 

I dig craftsmanship with hand tools.  I'll even tolerate the douchie patrons of the work, if it means that powerful play goes on. 

Samo Burja: not only a better collapse theorist than me, but a better on the other hand optimist, and even scholar of China during the Warring States period. 

It makes perfect sense that "desultory" is used less and less in the language over time.   

Ian Welsh gives some nuggets from an absolute "wow" book.  Here's a humdinger: 

We have been propagandized to view testosterone as related to violence.

Nope.

Oh, it can be. But what testosterone appears to actually be related to is status seeking. If violence and bullying is what a society rewards with status, then yup, testosterone is about violence.

But if hugging and caring for people will get you more status, suddenly high-T individuals are the biggest huggers and carers around. . . And here’s the thing, in hunter-gatherer bands (note the word bands), the high status individuals are caring, wise and slow to anger. The high status caring men also spread their genes around plenty.

In researching how vinegar could disinfect compared to bleach, I came across this gem of an article.  What left me quite bemused was the how defensive the article was, written by someone who had clearly been assaulted and damaged by internet culture.  It makes me chuckle when I think about it.  

Reflecting on Having Written Aphorisms

The great aphorist Nicolás Gómez Dávila -- who liked to go by Don Colacho -- once wrote the following about his work

The reader will not find aphorisms in these pages.
My brief sentences are the dots of color in a pointillist painting.

That is an interesting way to look at aphorism, and I think it holds true for what I have gathered, organized by subject, and shared over these last few weeks.  By working through what I have written, I noticed themes developing.  And for better or worse, the pointilist painting made from these quotes is a good snap shot of my philosophy spanning what (I sure hope) was the darkest time in my life.  

Looking back over my work I see some patterns that reoccur.  One is my fascination with beauty and in particular how it is in tension with what is interesting, so much so in our times that they are often enemies.  Another is looking at the truest part of zeitgeist (in non-election years): people whining about spoilers.  The spoilers thing was and is about living the era of content overload as well as narcissism.  Quotes about these points, along with grappling with the wasteland that is American culture in general, show up in more than one section as I believe different spins support different themes.  

If my plans have any control over the matter, which is a big if, I will be winding down my aphorism habit. In the future, if a short saying comes to me, I'll write it down in a journal and try to find a place to work it to a longer piece further down the line.  After all, it is frustrating that aphorisms have been an art form I have spent this much time with [1]. They subtly push the reader away by forcing them to do all the work in building the context.  An aphorism is a punchline without a set up -- or a set up that is . . .  all of the world, and everything is just too much.  The aphorism demands to be read deeply.  And this is almost inexcusable in a world of content glut -- even if you think your ideas are important, there is an endless supply of content about very least similar ideas that is much easier to consume. 

When I think of the times my mind was changed in big, important ways it is always some long form work.  Also, I don't think incidentally, these works were often read late at night.  It is like how infomercials work [2].  An endless supply of more is more persuasive than even the highest quality piece.

A great, long winded work can have an aphorism in it, that is true, but that is a punchline delivered with the correct set up, or perhaps as a nice piece put at the top of a section.  Like how another Don Colacho quote is coming right up. 

II) 

Writing is the only way to distance oneself from the century in which it was one’s lot to be born.

Don Colacho again.

I have noticed in the aphorists of the modern era a certain love of older books, meaning ones before the invention of the printing press.  This makes sense because those older books reflect a sense of scarcity of text.  Paper was once rare and expensive, to say nothing of the labor costs involved in having someone copy a book by hand.  Thus, one thing you wanted in a book was something you could read over and over, and so aphorisms did well in this environment.  Going even further back, oral traditions relied on a set of sayings, and often the leaders of the community judged cases before them based weighing the implications of different sayings.

To love what is old is to be exposed to the art of aphorism.  It is easy enough to see how that would rub off on a person.  I don't really think the causation runs the other way in most cases other than my own -- and it is an insult if it did.  I wrote aphorisms in the past because my attention span was so poorly developed.  I think the greats of the art form are classicists.

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I leave you with a list of better aphorists than I.

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Marcus Aurelius

Steve Solomon 

Nietzche

Nassim Taleb (read The Bed of Procrustes, then prefer other early work.  Ignore his social media behavior.)

Don Colacho, oh, ¡por supuesto!

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[1]   But it is an art.  It has stitched my time together in a meaningful way, and has given something for people who loved me to enjoy after I am gone.  Something of where I was is preserved in those sayings, especially when they are put together in pointillism.  

[2] To think that because of the growth of streaming and cord cutting the number of people who know what an infomercial is will only shrink during my lifetime. . . How odd to feel nostalgic for the infomercial.

Aphorisms, Filtered and Organized #4

I have gathered my best aphorisms I have written over the years-- and some by others.  Fitting them into themes has revealed some patterns in my thought that I wouldn't have seen if they weren't put together.  Realize that nearly all of these sayings were written at different times.

The first theme this week is "Meaning Via Agape," where I talk the way we socially construct meaning, especially if we are to live our best lives.  Next I talk about "Finance and Frugality," which are the vital tools necessary to free oneself from the darker forces mentioned in previous installments. Lastly, I finish with "Art and Literature."  Very pleasant pass-times indeed.

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Meaning Via Agape
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I had to live through the deconstruction of simple, unhurried, sacred beauty and all I got were these lousy interesting times.

"It's the thought that counts" is an expression that was almost certainly created within the context of a family, and it only seems to work in that context.  The fact that so many people today spend so little time or attention in the domestic sphere makes the saying seem to ring totally false.

Learning how to set up boundaries with those you help is altruism's better part.

It is not enough to leave t.v. (and anti-social media).  You must have t.v. (and anti-social media) leave you.

”Now that we can do anything, we must do less.” Ruben Anderson

An important difference between a cult and a religion is that a religion works to make other generations both possible and successful in the wider world.

There is enough beauty and wonder to go around.  There cannot be enough results.

Reason operates on the Faith that it has all the information.  (Faith often reasons that it doesn't).

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Finance and Frugality.
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One of my biggest financial tips: don’t pay the seem-like-a-normal-person tax.

The revolution will be upcycled . . . and then modular.  Or it won't be much of revolution, now will it?

Inside of consumerism, "sufficient luxury" is an oxymoron.  Outside of consumerism, you can live a meaningful life.

I never get V.I.P. treatment.  But a solid majority of the time I get minimally acceptable treatment.  Globally speaking, this makes me extremely fortunate.

Possible rule to blunt consumerism: after you have secured food, shelter, heating/cooling, only buy things that you will do at least three hours of work with.

Identity is deeper to people than happiness.  Consumerism exploits this by sandblasting our organic, healthy identities, so we are left struggling to try to fashion them on our own.   We try to buy them, which is good for profits in the short-run, but is a source of system-threatening internal contradictions in the long run.

My advocacy of frugality is based on personal freedom and the quality of life, not signaling.  The help to the environment is a bonus.

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Art and Literature
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If “show me, don’t tell me” was always correct writing advice, then Shakespeare would never have had asides. And Hamlet would have never said “to be, or not to be;" he just would have done. . . or not.

The literati: by pretending to have read everything, they ended up not reading anything. And now they don't even pretend to read.

As Hume lifted Kant from his dogmatic slumbers, Captain Beefheart lifted me from my slumbers of normality. And so far, the results have been lasting.

"History is an art, like the other sciences" Veronica Wedgood.

If living around beautiful old works is so edifying, if walkable towns so important, if there is a certain ineffable dolce vita to all things Italian, why did they invent fascism?

If the spoilers alone were enough to ruin something you were going to watch, then it wasn't worth watching.

In these debauched times, the ability to read an unassigned book is potent signal of the tenderness, openness, and meta-cognition that is necessary (but not sufficient) to understand anything important.

To put a positive spin on the last quote, the test wouldn't work so well if our times weren't so debauched.

If you can see through G.K. Chesterton's work to know where he is engaging in sophistry and where he is being brilliant, then you are well on your way to fruitful explorations of the world.

Aphorisms, Filtered and Organized #3

I have gathered my best aphorisms I have written over the years-- and some by others.  Fitting them into themes has revealed some patterns in my thought that I wouldn't have seen if they weren't put together.  Realize that nearly all of these sayings were written at different times.

The topics this week are "Culture," "These Damn Kids," and "Living Meaningfully." I know I stated last week that this would get to some solutions, but I must admit that the first two sections continue with our problems first.  Such is the price of choosing to read the writings of a pessimist.

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Culture
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The American Ideal is someone who looks extremely fit, but who works constantly at a job where they sit (a seat of power, as it were).

At what point do you start adapting to a new reality, instead of just fashionably whining?  I'm asking for a country I know of.

". . . in narcissism believing something is preferable to doing something because the former is about you and the latter is about everyone else." from The Last Psychiatrist

I'm sick of hating narcissists.  When you do that in America, you almost run out of people.

People care so little about the truth, that any time anyone but those of the most demonstrably heroic bents says they are pursuing it, you should immediately start looking for what their real motivation is.

It would seem most successful entrepreneurs are people who don't think the rules apply to them and then in fact that assumption turns out to be right long enough to build enough capital to either eventually comply with or change the rules.

I've never met someone who appreciated, or even kept, a participation trophy.  Kids don't ask for them.  Kids aren't in charge of the situation. They're not for the kids.  They're for the parents, you idiots.

The Trump victory was white people's OJ verdict.

Americans are trained to show their taste by complaining, especially about what they lack.  If you say something is good enough to an standard American, prepare for an intense argument.

Privilege is too often confused for competence, even when you adjust for the fact that competence over the long run can lead to privileges.

. . .even IF I grant (for arguments sake) that competence is necessary for privilege in modern society, it is not sufficient.

I hate to break it to you, but you can't syllogism your way to a better society.  Especially if you're not willing to start with some ethical premises against narcissism or being self-centered.

The short run is the only run Americans care about anymore.

 ". . . I suspect that this is a badly run prison world, like on Hogan's Heroes . . ." Ran Prieur

I actually think there are many business books that are well-researched and have important things to offer, however in the interest of truth they should open with this disclaimer: "the vast majority organizations will not be able to get through the incentive-traps of their own office politics to correctly do any of this, but . . . "

America: worry about everything while making sure you don't care about anything.

The way the ideas of Buddhism spread through the West was basically self-help for affluent people.

"Why bother explaining if the audience always sees it as a starting point for a win-lose debate rather than an opportunity to learn?" Jacob Lund Fisker.

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These Damn Kids
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Nihilism isn't quite the panacea you kids seem to think it is.

Kids love to see themselves.  They are such narcissists.  But, then, they should want to see themselves.  That is the illusion that makes life, along with it identity and the powerful play, even possible.

The way nature shows defiance is beautiful: it "defies expectations." The defiance also seems to give boundless energy.  But when some human-type-person who is obsessed with hierarchy shows defiance, is there anything more ugly? Is there anything more sapping of everyone's energy?

We have a generation that nearly universally self-reports mental illnesses and then turns around and uses the fact that some guy, somewhere, went off on avocado toast to insulate themselves from all criticism.

"Of course there is still hope. . . because I'm special.  I'll figure out a way for the powerful to listen to me.  . . . They'll be ashamed of themselves, just like my other servants who clean up my messes."

"Even the class in the Dead Poet's Society was in rows." My wife.


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Living Meaningfully
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A reminder: "If you want to live a memorable life, you have to be the kind of person who remembers to remember. " -- Joshua Foer

The real challenge of awareness isn't changing who you are ranting about, but to change how you live.

The dao is real.  In fact, the dao is realer than we are, and that's our real problem in explaining it.

I think it is reasonable to spend most of time thinking about what will, with over 99% certainty be what happens in your life.  If you follow the news, on the other hand, you are spending your time thinking about people and experiences that are less than 1% extremes, whether mental illness, violent tendencies, wealth, looks or luck. It's an absolute waste of time that sneaks up on you and confuses your perspective on the one life you (with over 99% certainty) are to live.

Competition is good for the brain.  Domination is terrible for the brain, let alone the soul.

In these times, I think it is more important to find what is beautiful than to think about what is important.

Many of those with an avid interest in collapse don't seem to understand that there is more to life than whatever ends up killing you.

"Live and love sincerely and vividly. Abstractions don't precede embodiment, they follow it."  Nathan Spears

I believe in giving away a lot of value. But more importantly, I believe in filtering out a lot of non-value.

We are all historians. We are all crafters of space. We are all psychologists.  We are all nutritionist.  We are all currency traders.  Doing any or all of these 100% according to the defaults around us is still a decision, often a very bad one.

(Realized after a beautiful walk. . .) I have a theory that depression, or at least melancholy, primes us for feelings of euphoria.

We can be very precise only about things that have almost no meaning.

"Anxiety is paying interest on pain, but if you catch it in time, you only have to pay the principal." Ran Prieur

"The only thing worse than having a crisis is not having a crisis." Lou Kemp from Samsdat.  Slightly tweak that to:

The only thing worse than having a crisis is never having a crisis. . .   And I just realized that is close to "If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake."  --Frank Wilczek.

“I want to fit in” inevitably means “ I want to be a stereotype.”

I’m certainly not a genius, I just lean into being a world-class eccentric.

"The function of propaganda is not to tell us what to think but to sink us deeper in what we already thoughtlessly believe"  Ran Prieur.

I love bad decisions; I could watch them all day.

What if happiness meant being the kind of person who overreacts to seeing spoilers?

Being a relatively smart person hasn't yielded too many benefits in my life, but here is one: I have the cognitive skills and the memory to keep track of when people are thoughtful and careful with language to some people and not to others.  This tells me the real story of their soul.