Homo Sapiens, the mammal that psychologically clothes itself with team colors, like every other fan at a soccer game. A coordinated style, moral attire that palate of team colors is instantly recognized by everyone in the room. What I mean – approved comportment, a manner of getting things done, of movement, of being, is a pastiche of abstracted goodness. Fans of “our” team wear a mask of self-deception which permits us to regard ourselves as decent, “good” people.

But wait. I am certain that humans exceed all other mammals in capacity for cunning, clever, mendacity. That’s our trump card played over and over throughout the arc of history. Sophocles (429 BC) with his Oedipus Rex told our story straight, a story of tragedy and dare it be said, beauty. Oedipus searches for a killer, unaware the killer is none other than himself. At some level did he know?

Forget about your team jersey! But sans those colors who could bear sight of him/herself for very long?

(I suppose madness is the failure to acquit oneself in proper attire, that essential illusion of civility which defines a team ready for play. That is, – to arrive stark naked, crass, indecent on the field of play. A backhanded reference to our political process as it now stands…)

The human being
is a diverse, hypocritical, artificial,
and opaque animal,
uncanny to other animals
more because of his cunning and cleverness
than his strength;

the human being
invented good conscience
so that he could enjoy his soul as something simple, for once;
and the whole of morality
is a brave and lengthy falsification
that makes it possible to look at the soul
with anything like pleasure.

Perhaps this point of view
involves
a much broader conception of “art”
than people are used to.

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Norman, aphorism 291

Seems this tune is right for further meditation: Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. Rest in peace my friend!