Category: Human Predicament
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Reason’s Limits
It is quite unreasonable to suppose that the appeal to sweet reason is the best way forward in all of life's situations. The reasonable appreciate that the hard fist of unreason applied to the visage of evil intransigence is sometimes the most cogent of 'arguments.' It is unreasonable to be reasonable in all things.
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It Is What It Is
An index of our wretchedness is that we fall back on tautologies for solace.
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Inversions
The bad weans us from this world and is therefore in that measure good; the good ties us to it and is in that measure bad.
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The Need for Outside Help
A human life is too short for the acquisition by oneself of the wisdom needed to live it well — or to end it well. And the same goes for the appropriation of the hard-won wisdom of one's predecessors: the brevity of life militates against the needed appropriation as much as against the needed acquisition. …
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Mockery
I just heard Dennis Prager say that he never mocks his ideological opponents. If I had his ear, I would put to him the question, "Do think there are no conceivable circumstances in which mockery of an ideological opponent is morally justified?" If he answered in the affirmative, then I would press him on how…
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The Lonesome Death of an Old Australian Woman
Here (HT: Karl White) A ninety year old woman died in her home in Auburn. She had decomposed through the floor before she was found six months later. The diaries found in her belongings shed light on this lonely and brilliant mind. Watch the documentary above, and read further excerpts from her diaries below. Related…
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The Wise Live by Probabilities, not by Possibilities
The worldly wise live by the probable and not by the possible. It is possible that you will reform the person you want to marry. But it is not probable. Don't imagine that you can change a person in any significant way. What you see now in your partner is what you will get from…
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The Role of Envy in Human Affairs
The older I get, the more two things impress me. One is the suggestibility of human beings, their tendency to imbibe and repeat ideas and attitudes from their social environment with nary an attempt at critical examination. The other is the major role envy plays in human affairs. Today my topic is envy. Envy and…
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The Worldly Too Know that Life is Short
And so they compose 'bucket lists' of things to do before they 'kick the bucket.' It's as if, on the sinking Titanic, one were to try to make the most of the ship and its features and amenities instead of considering how one might survive the coming calamity. "There are a lot of things I…
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Of Hurt and Humor
Don't tell a hurtful joke and expect the victim to appreciate the humor while abstracting from the hurtfulness.
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You are Sliding down a Mountain . . .
You are sliding down a mountain towards certain death. Your only hope is to grab the rope that is thrown to you. Will you refuse to do so because the rope might break? Will you first inquire into the reliability of the rope or the credibility of the assurances of the one who would be…
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Judging People
People can and ought to be judged by the company they keep, the company they keep away from, and those who attack them. Addendum (6/23): S. N. counters thusly: For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking,…
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Homo Homini Lupus: The Red Army Rape of German Women, Spring 1945
The best antidote to the leftist-progressivist fantasy that man is basically good is the study of history, including the history of leftist-progressivist atrocities. Here is an excerpt from Antony Beevor's book on the fall of Berlin. "They raped every German female from eight to 80." Related articles Death Limits Our Immorality: Death as the Muse…
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Haiku
Mind and sense Matter and meat Together in man Mystery complete.
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On Duty: Commentary on an Aphorism by Henri-Frederic Amiel
"Duty has the virtue of making us feel the reality of a positive world while at the same time detaching us from it." (From Journal Intime) This is a penetrating observation, and a perfect specimen of the aphorist's art. It is terse, true, but not trite. The tip of an iceberg of thought, it invites…