Did I mention I am starting a church?
Perhaps church isn’t exactly the right word, but its the one that seems to fit best. I will be posting my more philosophical and socially-minded thoughts over there.
“There” being passionatemind.org.
So what is it exactly? Something like a athiest’s rational analysis of what humanity wants and needs out of religion, and and attempt to provide those things without all the tedious mucking about with supernatural beings.
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“A great man once told me, on a dark night, in a terrible storm - he said ‘Son, live every moment of your life like it is the very last one you’ll ever get’. Well, I’ve been in this cell for a week now, and damned if I’m not beginning to wonder about that advice.”
I’ve been enjoying this webcomic lately:
I Drew This
Despite the rather philosophical bent of recent posts, I’ve been thinking politics a lot recently, and this one sums up well a lot of my own gut reactions to what I hear in the news.
I’ve always wanted to draw my own strip, but I know I don’t have the drawing chops, nor the devotion to keep it up. I respect those who can consistently turn out good comics, and if you are curious, here are a few like to read:
I should also mention Goats, but with a caveat - I’ve only found the storyline interesting in the last few months, but there have been good comic moments throughout.
You might detect a pattern here, you might not…
What do you like?
The last post got some interesting feedback.
The question still nags me, though, I feel like I haven’t gotten yet to the meat of it. If you could change the world, would you? For fun, for ideals, out duty or out of boredom? Don’t we all have some kind of super-power, something we can use to change the world? A brain, an idea, two arms and two legs and a mouth. Or two mouths, if you were especially blessed? Given the power, a lot of us would do good, but not feel obligated to… A lot of us don’t know we can change the world as without super powers… A lot of us feel like being a caretaker/diety/paternalistic figure is a bad idea, maybe even immoral on some level… Most of us would have a fantastic party if we were superman. This just isn’t answering my question, somehow.
Click to continue reading “Megalomania and socio-economic feedback”
So I am obviously spending a bit more time in front of the computer lately, as you can see by the volume of posts. While writing, and considering things others have written, I realized (not for the first time) what an incredibly lucky person I am to have what I have in my life. I know only about three people read this blog, despite my efforts, and thats pretty frustrating sometimes, but at least two of those readers are people I am incredibly lucky to have in my life. A little too lucky, it seems. Without listing a pile of things that are similarly beyond what I feel I should be able to expect from life, lets just say things feel a bit unbalanced sometimes. It makes me feel like I owe the universe something.
Now for the record, I don’t owe the universe anything. It is not a conscious entity, and the concept of owing simply doesn’t apply. Nor is there any cosmic karmic scorecard keeping track of my good deeds. In fact the word luck here is simply a descriptive word describing my personal opinion of what I have managed to get away with in life, it is not any kind of mystic force that influences or can be influenced.
Still, I feel like I need to be doing things in the world. Good things (by my lights, since I don’t have anyone elses to use). Things that will make the world a better place for the species, and perhaps things that will make the species better for the world. Would I feel this desire/obligation if I didn’t find my situation so “lucky”? I like to think so, since this notion has come to me via more philosophical/logical routes, but who knows. I suppose if I felt hard done by, I might also feel a need to change the world.
So here’s the question. Leaving aside the why’s and wherefores, what do you feel obligated to do in this world? Anything? If not obligated, what do you think is a good thing to try and accomplish? Is there anything you would consider a worthwhile purpose?
In theory, practice is the same as theory, but in practice, it isn’t. I need to write more. Every time I pick up a book, a thousand stories well up in me, and I have to fight them down just to read the one in front of me. A lifetime of reading has precipitated an ocean of ideas that wants to slosh over the sides of my mind at the first hint of imbalance.
