Response to sanguine sage
"1. What is the primary motive force in your life?
2. Circumcision: Religious practice, hygenic decision, or genital mutilation?
3. What event in your life did you anticipate the most? What are you anticipating the most now?
4. I am not above reciprocity ;) Have you ever met your perfect mate, if so, describe. Would you be an ideal mate for yourself?
5. Democracy or Liberty: Which is more important?"
1. I will avoid the obvious evasions involving quantum theory, and simply answering "me". As an artist, I strive to create beauty. In my world, the only thermometer for beauty is emotion, whether positive or negative (from intellectual ecstasy to revulsion). So the more deeply something makes you feel, the more beautiful it is to you. Most of us mark our timelines by value experiences, which I consider mostly synonymous with the above definition. I live for those times, to create them in myself and others. I try not to instill what are normally considered as negative emotions in those I care about except through art, but I have occasionally been accused of mild sociopathy, so who knows how successsful I actually am. I used to write one side of a script in my head, pick a random stranger off the street for coffee, and try to indirectly lead them to the written part of the script without leading them too much. I did not do this to fuck with them. To justify it to myself, I usually tried to bring them around to some useful or interesting conclusion that would help their lives a bit, but beneath all that, I am really just intensely fascinated by other humans. That and all the other experiments were just examinations of the way people work and react. I wanted to learn how to generate specific emotions, and apply it to my art. My life has been filled with a ridiculous amount of serendipitous events, and I adore and anticipate them at every turn. I'd like to say I have some cause that will benefit humanity, but that's not the case. I am selfish. I can only pick so many causes and I choose to work on those that directly affect me and those I care about. I create because I can't help it. And sometimes I revel in the creations of others. Sorry for the long-winded babble. I think the answer is:curiosity.
2.All of the options apply in different situations, but I would like to point out that A.just because something is a religious practice, it doesn't necessarily make sense physically or socially.B.It can be a hygenic decision, but I don't know many men who would choose to have their foreskin chopped after adulthood.As for babies, I won't waste breathe complaining. I don't feel any moral compunctions about this as long as it is done safely and humanely. I have never met a circumscised man who regretted it. C. one slip, and it is genital mutilation. I assume you were including female circumcisions here, such as the chopping off of the clit that occurs in some tribes. I think this is different. That sort of practice is more on par with the tradition of creating rape-able eunechs, which is appalling to me. Taking away someone's physical ability to experience pleasure during sex is an abominable act indeed.
3.For some reason, this seems like a tough question right now. When I was a child, I anticipated escape and the death of my father. When I was little, I thought he was a golem, so after consulting kabbalist texts and rabbis, I wrote the hebrew word for death backward on his foot as he slept, but he didn't die....oh well.I never really believed in any religion, but I thought it was worth a shot. In my 'adult' life, I anticipate the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, moments of beauty and art.
4.I have met my almost perfect mate.If he didn't have some fatal flaw, I suppose the balance would be off, since I have no delusions of perfection, and it would probably give me a complex. I don't really believe in perfection, either, since it seems to imply an irrational time factor. He is creative, witty, brilliant, beautiful in a strange way, great with semantics, music and art, can converse endlessly and well on nearly any topic. he is perverse in all the right ways, is constantly learning (of utmost importance), fabulous in bed, understands more of my exposed self than others,and is my muse. He doesn't mind that I'm a bit off my gourd sometimes, and I suspect that he is bipolar (hence some problems), but we are a wonderful match. Our views on the really important stuff are pretty close, but neither of us minds debating a side we don't believe just for fun.I've been in love with him for 9 years.
I would be a terrible mate for myself, for similar reasons to those you stated in your reply to this question. Also, even though I am a nut, the people I've been with have all deluded themselves into thinking I'm the one, and I would know this and constantly worry that I wasn't reciprocating my feelings or intents, and was just fucking with me. I think I would intimidate myself. But I would definitely sleep with me.
5.Democracy or Liberty? If I ever encounter either, I'll let you know. I don't consider a two-party system a democracy. I can elaborate on this in rant form if you like, but I'm guessing you'll have similar ideas on this one, so I'll leave it short for now. I just want people to leave me the fuck alone.
2. Circumcision: Religious practice, hygenic decision, or genital mutilation?
3. What event in your life did you anticipate the most? What are you anticipating the most now?
4. I am not above reciprocity ;) Have you ever met your perfect mate, if so, describe. Would you be an ideal mate for yourself?
5. Democracy or Liberty: Which is more important?"
1. I will avoid the obvious evasions involving quantum theory, and simply answering "me". As an artist, I strive to create beauty. In my world, the only thermometer for beauty is emotion, whether positive or negative (from intellectual ecstasy to revulsion). So the more deeply something makes you feel, the more beautiful it is to you. Most of us mark our timelines by value experiences, which I consider mostly synonymous with the above definition. I live for those times, to create them in myself and others. I try not to instill what are normally considered as negative emotions in those I care about except through art, but I have occasionally been accused of mild sociopathy, so who knows how successsful I actually am. I used to write one side of a script in my head, pick a random stranger off the street for coffee, and try to indirectly lead them to the written part of the script without leading them too much. I did not do this to fuck with them. To justify it to myself, I usually tried to bring them around to some useful or interesting conclusion that would help their lives a bit, but beneath all that, I am really just intensely fascinated by other humans. That and all the other experiments were just examinations of the way people work and react. I wanted to learn how to generate specific emotions, and apply it to my art. My life has been filled with a ridiculous amount of serendipitous events, and I adore and anticipate them at every turn. I'd like to say I have some cause that will benefit humanity, but that's not the case. I am selfish. I can only pick so many causes and I choose to work on those that directly affect me and those I care about. I create because I can't help it. And sometimes I revel in the creations of others. Sorry for the long-winded babble. I think the answer is:curiosity.
2.All of the options apply in different situations, but I would like to point out that A.just because something is a religious practice, it doesn't necessarily make sense physically or socially.B.It can be a hygenic decision, but I don't know many men who would choose to have their foreskin chopped after adulthood.As for babies, I won't waste breathe complaining. I don't feel any moral compunctions about this as long as it is done safely and humanely. I have never met a circumscised man who regretted it. C. one slip, and it is genital mutilation. I assume you were including female circumcisions here, such as the chopping off of the clit that occurs in some tribes. I think this is different. That sort of practice is more on par with the tradition of creating rape-able eunechs, which is appalling to me. Taking away someone's physical ability to experience pleasure during sex is an abominable act indeed.
3.For some reason, this seems like a tough question right now. When I was a child, I anticipated escape and the death of my father. When I was little, I thought he was a golem, so after consulting kabbalist texts and rabbis, I wrote the hebrew word for death backward on his foot as he slept, but he didn't die....oh well.I never really believed in any religion, but I thought it was worth a shot. In my 'adult' life, I anticipate the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, moments of beauty and art.
4.I have met my almost perfect mate.If he didn't have some fatal flaw, I suppose the balance would be off, since I have no delusions of perfection, and it would probably give me a complex. I don't really believe in perfection, either, since it seems to imply an irrational time factor. He is creative, witty, brilliant, beautiful in a strange way, great with semantics, music and art, can converse endlessly and well on nearly any topic. he is perverse in all the right ways, is constantly learning (of utmost importance), fabulous in bed, understands more of my exposed self than others,and is my muse. He doesn't mind that I'm a bit off my gourd sometimes, and I suspect that he is bipolar (hence some problems), but we are a wonderful match. Our views on the really important stuff are pretty close, but neither of us minds debating a side we don't believe just for fun.I've been in love with him for 9 years.
I would be a terrible mate for myself, for similar reasons to those you stated in your reply to this question. Also, even though I am a nut, the people I've been with have all deluded themselves into thinking I'm the one, and I would know this and constantly worry that I wasn't reciprocating my feelings or intents, and was just fucking with me. I think I would intimidate myself. But I would definitely sleep with me.
5.Democracy or Liberty? If I ever encounter either, I'll let you know. I don't consider a two-party system a democracy. I can elaborate on this in rant form if you like, but I'm guessing you'll have similar ideas on this one, so I'll leave it short for now. I just want people to leave me the fuck alone.