I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
November 23, 2011 - 11:45 a.m.
I have started writing yet I haven't decided what I'm going to write about today. I looked in the entry idea bin and see mainly politics. I'm not sure if I want to go that way. I think it's time for me to empty "The Math Museum" from the bin. That's a real planned museum in the city but I have no idea what I wanted to write about it. I just got rid of two of the political ideas too. I'm making things tougher on myself.
I am very happy with my last entry on The Act. I always complain that I don't know how to write up concerts but somehow I can write about musicians. I don't just know what I like and don't like I know why. I enjoyed the challenge of writing about The Act while giving no clue as to identity.
I know it shouldn't matter but it makes me happy every time I see how my readership has grown. It is up 77% from last year. A great deal of that is due to NERFA. This month I'm averaging 44 readers a day. I'd like to reach 100 in two years which seems reasonable at my current rate of growth. Actually I have a regression model, actually two models, one linear and one geometric. Let's see what it has to say. The linear one says 86 readers per day in two years and the geometric 183. I know that's a huge spread. The geometric regression is a slightly better fit as of now but not enough to make me believe it.
Understanding things through math and analysis is a lot of what it means to be me.
I came to a health decision today. I tapered off the prednisone too quickly. When I was on 40 mg I was symptom free. Now I'm back to where I usually am between attacks with annoying but not debilitating diarrhea (can you believe I still can't spell that without help). Last night I had joint pain. That made the decision for me. I'm going to go back to 40 mg and stay there a full two weeks then taper off even slower.
I'm still doing NERFA homework. Now comes the fun part, listening to the music. Ariana Gillis rocks the Casbah.
Did I mention that I finished Small Gods by Terry Pratchett? I am going to have to read it again with a highlighter handy. I'll take its insights on religion over anything I've ever read. Only Pratchett can write a story where gods are real that gives a take on religion that an atheist can totally agree on.
One point that I always make is that even if you believe in god or gods you have no idea what he/she/they said. You don't even have any idea what most prophets said. The foundations of Judaism and Christianity are what people said the prophets said that god said. These were written by people trying to get followers. Do you believe everything that political campaigns say? You probably disbelieve most of it. You know its propaganda. Yet when it comes to religion they become holy texts whose words can't be questioned.
But it gets better and pithier. The dogma of the Church of Om believes the totally absurd notion, totally contrary to the observed facts, that Discworld is round instead of being a sensible flat world that sits on the back of four elephants that stand on the back of the turtle Great A'Tuin. The church suppresses the truth while the mantra of those that know the truth is "The Turtle Moves."
The philosopher makes a wonderful speech:
"You can't believe in Great A'Tuin, Great A'Tuin exists. There is no point in believing in things that exist.""If they exist, you don't have to believe in them they just are. what can I tell you? What do you want to hear? I just wrote down what people know. Mountains rise and fall, and under them the Turtle swims onward. Men live and die, and the Turtle Moves. Empires grow and crumble, and the Turtle Move. Gods come and go, and still the Turtle Moves. The Turtle Moves."
From the darkness came a voice, "And that is really true?"
Didactylos shrugged. "The Turtle exists. the world is a flat disc. The sun turns around it once every day, dragging its light behind it. And this will go on happening whether you believe it is true or not. It is real. I don't know about the truth. Truth is a lot more complicated than that. I don't think the Turtle gives a bugger whether it's true or not, to tell you the truth."
I'm tempted to say that belief is the root of all evil. I won't, but I'm tempted. There is no way of logically distinguishing between which things to believe. That's what belief is, though perhaps faith is a better word for it. If you believe that all men are brothers that's great but when someone disagrees and says "No people that eat asparagus are unclean and must be punished;" you can't argue. If you believe because you have faith why not him? You have removed the subject from the realm of logic and so there is no point in arguing. It simply becomes "my god is better than your god."
Now I'm on to reading something completely different, Paul Krugman's The Age of Diminished Expectations; his first popular economics book. It actually has quite a bit in common. So many people believe when it comes to economics and deny the facts. The Turtle Moves.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile November 23, 2011
| site search by freefind | advanced |
Follow on Feedly
