Jean Paul Sartre in his famous play No Exit writes, “Others Are Hell.” Who would disagree? I do care what others think of me. Still I have no way of knowing what they think. Therefore I “dance around” trying my best so speak and behave in sync with minds that are opaque to me… …
Once there was a time when I believed in “free will.” I truly thought that the course of my life was the sum total of decisions, freely made. Furthermore, self recrimination, or self-congratulation was due because I was the actor, the subject who had decided those courses of action. I was the helmsman-of-my-life, accountable…
These lines compel reflection. Songs about love beyond counting have been written. Just within my short span of life, poets and lyricists find a bottomless well of material, as they peer into the surreal experience of love between two human beings. And, this is not limited to male-female love, never has been… Nietzsche comments…
The weekend has been full. It’s only Sunday morning and I wonder what this day will bring? What adventure(s) will be in store? We are all Sisyphus are we not? A friend reminded me of the enduring truth of this myth. Each of us is subject to fate, the inexorable consequence of cause and…
Perhaps you’ve had the misfortune of acquaintance with someone who conducted himself as if he was discomforted by “a stick up his ass,” a moral prig? I wonder whether churches serve as a magnet for such who desire to judge others? Like attracts like. A unctuous, self-abasing demeanor can be a screen hiding self-loathing… …
It is Friday. I’ve got almost nothing to write. What does it mean “to be” here, to exist, to be located in Starbucks at 7:15 AM on a Friday morning? What links my being, to my physical position in space and time, here-now? The room is quite full, humming with voices and movement. I…
Many, myself included ask ourselves WTF has happened to us Americans. What happened? What happened to the Republican Party, when they had opportunity to convict this shape-shifting con man, impeaching him and banning him from holding future office? They feared him, feared their actions would anger their own voters. That is what the prosecutor,…
I heard one of the common people say, “he knew me right away.” Then I asked myself: What is it that the common people take for knowledge? What do they want when they want “knowledge”? Nothing more than this: Something strange is to be reduced to something familiar. And we philosophers –have we really…
I believe it was a Reuters or maybe a Guardian report of the battle for a Ukrainian town outside of Bakhmut. A soldier who survived the assault described the kill zones that awaited the advance of his unit. The Ukrainians prevailed but at a terrible cost. I simply felt numb upon finishing the piece. …
Certainly this war photograph provokes a feeling of revulsion. Only the clothes are left. The photo reminds of many things. War brutalizes every participant. Almost every actor involuntarily participates. War dissolves morality. What is morality? What does morality cover up? Now consider the way ”moral man”is dressed up,how he is veiledbehind moral formulasand concepts…
