It is late November, a winter chill has arrived. The “wintery mix,” a covering of fine ice crystals and rain is a reminder that the tilt of the earth’s axis away from the sun means winter is sure. That is the truth. What is meant by winter can be counted upon, preparation ought to…
This passage personally resonates with me. In my working years as owner of a company, I knew day to day the discipline of assigning a value, in terms of what someone else would be willing to pay. Exchange value: dollars for service, the quid pro quo. Is this a fair assessment of what we’ve…
A feature of our time is media punditry. From MSNBC, to Fox, to Newsmax and unnumbered internet channels of influencers and opinion makers, to name just a few: Joe Rogan, Bill Maher, and Selena Gomez… The overarching horizon of communication companies is profit/loss capitalism. Competition is the rule and thus the appetite for content…
There is… a counterforce which continually reminds us that there is no exclusively moral-making morality, and that a morality which asserts itself to the exclusion of all other morality destroys too much sound strength and is too dearly bought by mankind. The non-conventional and deviating people, who are so often productive and inventive, must…
Nietzsche is interested in the ideal of the ancient Greeks, “all things in moderation.” The Greeks were as human as any 21st century homo sapien. Ideals serve as coordinates that we attempt to follow, albeit the inadequacy of our character, or skill, or resources. In contradistinction to the Greeks we Americans make no attempt…
BEAUTY CORRESPONDING TO THE AGE. —Ifour sculptors, painters, and musicianswish to catch the significance of the age,they should represent beauty as bloated, gigantic, and nervous: just as the Greeks,under the influence of their morality of moderation,saw and represented beauty in the Apollo di Belvedere. We should, indeed, call him ugly!But the pedantic “classicists” have…
Day by day November 5th recedes. Today is the 12th. Psychologically it seems as if an entire age has transpired. I mean that we ‘liberal minded’ are worn out by news of sycophants appointed to head cabinet departments, for which they need only demonstrate unconditioned, servile loyalty to the President. The next four years…
A restless night is followed by a grey, cloud-covered sky. The air is somewhat cooler, to remind us that typically this is fall. The weather has been markedly warmer than usual, another indicator of global warming. The signs are coming more often, such as the wild fires in New England. My nightmare that disrupted…
Reading Nietzsche ranks with the most difficult of duties within memory. I categorize my inclination, my taste for his fevered commentary, the excavation of language in the only way possible, with language, – as a duty. I am reminded of being taken as a sick child to the family doctor by my parents. Then…
Just suppose for a moment… If you could imagine the ultimate game, one which you and I are outside observers,… As nonparticipants, god-like spectators removed, we notice something: the unending suffering, nuanced, background discomfort all the way to extreme agony of the players. Additionally notice how the self-aware creatures assume their suffering is a…
