What manner of scholar am I? What is my standard of workmanship? Nietzsche suggests a certain tenor is transmitted from our ancestors way of life. Is there a “prehistory” that haunts the sweep of these blog entries? My father grew up poor, raised by a single mother, helping to support my grandmother and his…
I am amazed that anyone could subscribe to a religion or a quasi-religious movement, such as the Republican (Trump) Party as it now stands. Shiny surfaces notwithstanding, the truth of our time, this first half of the 21st century, is that of existential exhaustion. There is a market for fanaticism, many “takers,” those willing…
I was sixteen. I remember the sensation: to lay on the surf board supported by movement on moving water, paddling toward the horizon, past the break point, that point where the energy radiating under the surface, shoreward reaches a crest. At that point the wave begins to break, energy manifests as a collapsing liquid…
…modem pessimism, and a more ancient and stronger expression in the teaching of Buddha; but it is part of Christianity also, if more doubtfully and ambiguously so but not for that reason any less seductive. The whole pose of “man against the world,” of man as a “world-negating” principle, of man as the measure…
If we simply called ourselves,using an old expression,godless, or unbelievers, or perhaps immoralists,we do not, believe that this would even come close to designating us: We are all three in such an advanced stage that one — that you, my curious friends — could never comprehend how we feel at this point. Ours…
The lack of personality always takes its revenge: A weakened, thin, extinguished personality that denies itself is no longer fit for anything good –least of all for philosophy. “Selflessness” has no value either in heaven or on earth. All great problems demand great love, and of that only strong, round, secure spirits who have…
Good morning! Some snapshots of things related to us, — while we were sleeping… For a more complete rendering visit the NEW YORK TIMES. FRACTURED Screenwriters — who are unionized — have gone on strike in an attempt to use their collective leverage to avoid becoming Hollywood’s equivalent of adjunct professors. Today, only one…
Late to Starbucks today. Began my day by coming “out of retirement” to assist my son with a new client. I was reminded of the way of life, the day to day routine that was my normal for many years. Is anything ever truly behind us? I do not think so. We are marked…
When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and Lake Urmi and went into the mountains. There he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude, and for ten years did not tire of that. But at last his heart changed –and on morning he rose with the dawn, stepped before the sun, and…
What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain…
