12/7/17 @ 3:26pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: hain't Pochipsie son
Posts: 3,267
The prize, the golden ember, that I will place at the center of any philosophy I embrace is Love. This was a prize hard won in our kind's intellectual development. I am talking not of the romantic love, or the clan love, the country love... but the bold proclamation and soul binding vow to love your fellow creature at your own peril and for its own sake. For the joy of it. The rightness of it. Not because it is commanded. Not for fear of some dire consequence. But because it is the ultimate virtue, the golden axiom. All kinds of nonsense may be stripped from around it and this made king. And yea this includes the love of your enemy in this sense which has sometimes been scorned by the intellectual.
It is a choice. What axioms we choose to live by. There is no argument and in fact powerful arguments have been made against its primacy, the truth of it, the worth of it as a virtue. So this is nothing more than a reveling in the choice and a proclamation. A claim about constructs. Foundations. A focus retaining device. A revealing of priorities.
This is what I promise to sniff for when some new claim or construct is built. It is not the only quality or virtue to weigh but its lack is damning to any system that seeks my allegiance or support.
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12/7/17 @ 7:26pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: California, USA
Posts: 63
12/8/17 @ 12:29am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: hain't Pochipsie son
Posts: 3,267
And philosophy is a kn1fe that we wield ruthlessly upon our leaders. It should be no surprise that we mercilessly pull down from power those who violate our most closely held values. We don't excuse for skirting the edge of a law. We impose codes of conduct. Sometimes written after the fact for clarity. When they somehow dangle on the edge, avoiding justice, it makes the mob rage, craving Justice.
So not just for a beautiful, well examined life but to understand and regulate in the positive sense some of the primal forces underlying your society it is wise to consider deeper matters than how to make a fast buck or advance your narrow political interest. It is not up to your leaders who are not very deep thinkers but manipulators of political possibilities. It is not up to your intellectuals, not completely. For they are concerned with other trifles having to do with their own narrow interests and don't always have their eye on the ball. Sadly, it is yet another duty that falls upon your narrow shoulders that may be shirked only at some cost. If you despise the vapid nature of your ruling class well as the saying goes: every country has the rulers that it deserves.
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12/9/17 @ 11:25am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 13,827
I vow to do my part to see our first woman president in my lifetime. Is that too much to demand..expect..hope for?
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12/9/17 @ 1:08pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: hain't Pochipsie son
Posts: 3,267
I vow to do my part to see our first woman president in my lifetime. Is that too much to demand..expect..hope for?
I think that wish will be granted and soon. Clinton won the popular vote. Seems to be as close as you can get and somehow lose.
If you want a challenge, add to the vow that a woman will become president without the help of the alternative being so awful and as the clear favorite of her party. Wish that the Republicans abandon their cultural war, their war against women, and adopt the kind of values that make white nationalists, segregationists, ch1ld molesters find some other party not just shelter in but get active support from their party leaders to win elections. Make it a challenge for her to win instead of by default.
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12/9/17 @ 8:48pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 13,827
12/9/17 @ 10:16pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: California, USA
Posts: 63
I vow to do my part to see our first woman president in my lifetime. Is that too much to demand..expect..hope for?
I prefer a President that's both anti-corruption and pro-people. I'm not hung up on the identity politics. Otherwise ... yeah ... you'll get what you deserve. Quote
12/12/17 @ 10:56am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: hain't Pochipsie son
Posts: 3,267
12/13/17 @ 6:02am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: California, USA
Posts: 63
Oh great... Looks like Harley's broken outta Arkham again.
I solemnly swear to keep tranq darts on my person at all times. Quote