(no subject)
Well, I spent the day reading. Which is the best thing one can do.
What else would one do? After a person achieves material comfort, he or she is best served enriching the mind. It's the only perpetual novelty outside of God. God is not on my table..
What's the alternative? To spend one's time struggling to stay afloat to support the missus and children?
Why would anyone have children? My parents worked hard and sacrificed to raise a successful person. And now, for the sake of argument, let's say they did it. Now, what is that grown child supposed to do? Sacrifice and work hard to raise another successful child? So that he/she can raise a successful child?
The fact is, people cant stand their own minds. People havent got minds. People are emotional wrecks. They desperately search for someone to "complete" them. They want another body in the room at all times. That's all. Suddenly they feel better if another set of lungs is around.
And kids! That is even further attempt to escape. People dont want to be left to think. First of all, they can't think, and second, they're too emotionally basketcased to be able to deal with their emotions, which is why they get married. So by having kids, they manage to escape all by becoming hopelessly distracted and UNself-focused
You know? If you are married with kids, you need a house, two cars for two incomes, to pay for daycare, to buy groceries for a slew of people, all the bills, mow the lawn, keep your insurance, blah blah blah. You havent got a second to think about yourself. You struggle to maintain the thing, and then when you wake up, you're 60. And you havent thought for so long that you dont need to think anymore. You're content to wake up at 5:00, go through a silly routine, and go to sleep at 7:00.
Reading. That's what Toqueville said. He commented how Americans continually want more, always seeking to expand and get more money, etc. He framed it as, "Rather than perusing intellectual aims, after achieving material comfort, Americans seek to.." you know, augment their assets.
That was the olden way. Of decent people. What I refer to as decent people. By the way, if Toqueville was married, he can go to hell; scrap this whole example. I can't say if he was
The point is, the decent people of yore, according to my own standard, achieved comfort and then turned to the mind. The only perpetual novelty outside of God: learning. The fools turn to bodily distraction! Occupying (busying) the body, not giving the mind a chance to think, killing off the mind till at last one is old, one's life is over, and one doesnt know where it went, except to raise people who will turn around to raise people.
Okay, this could be continued indefinitely, but I will close it down. The posts today have been a bit acerbic, but that's okay. I give myself permission to be acerbic on occasion. Or always, if I want. So long as one is polite in person. Polite in person, poisonous in private; it's the only way to go
What else would one do? After a person achieves material comfort, he or she is best served enriching the mind. It's the only perpetual novelty outside of God. God is not on my table..
What's the alternative? To spend one's time struggling to stay afloat to support the missus and children?
Why would anyone have children? My parents worked hard and sacrificed to raise a successful person. And now, for the sake of argument, let's say they did it. Now, what is that grown child supposed to do? Sacrifice and work hard to raise another successful child? So that he/she can raise a successful child?
The fact is, people cant stand their own minds. People havent got minds. People are emotional wrecks. They desperately search for someone to "complete" them. They want another body in the room at all times. That's all. Suddenly they feel better if another set of lungs is around.
And kids! That is even further attempt to escape. People dont want to be left to think. First of all, they can't think, and second, they're too emotionally basketcased to be able to deal with their emotions, which is why they get married. So by having kids, they manage to escape all by becoming hopelessly distracted and UNself-focused
You know? If you are married with kids, you need a house, two cars for two incomes, to pay for daycare, to buy groceries for a slew of people, all the bills, mow the lawn, keep your insurance, blah blah blah. You havent got a second to think about yourself. You struggle to maintain the thing, and then when you wake up, you're 60. And you havent thought for so long that you dont need to think anymore. You're content to wake up at 5:00, go through a silly routine, and go to sleep at 7:00.
Reading. That's what Toqueville said. He commented how Americans continually want more, always seeking to expand and get more money, etc. He framed it as, "Rather than perusing intellectual aims, after achieving material comfort, Americans seek to.." you know, augment their assets.
That was the olden way. Of decent people. What I refer to as decent people. By the way, if Toqueville was married, he can go to hell; scrap this whole example. I can't say if he was
The point is, the decent people of yore, according to my own standard, achieved comfort and then turned to the mind. The only perpetual novelty outside of God: learning. The fools turn to bodily distraction! Occupying (busying) the body, not giving the mind a chance to think, killing off the mind till at last one is old, one's life is over, and one doesnt know where it went, except to raise people who will turn around to raise people.
Okay, this could be continued indefinitely, but I will close it down. The posts today have been a bit acerbic, but that's okay. I give myself permission to be acerbic on occasion. Or always, if I want. So long as one is polite in person. Polite in person, poisonous in private; it's the only way to go