ATTN Roger: I need a vaccine, right now!

[Kai]

Genre savvy, anyone?


Pent, I know what you mean. It's so easy to just sit down with these people and let them infect you. Just let them cough all over you, and then you'll have chronic brain emphasema too, and no one will ask you questions anymore because you have the stupid virus like everyone else. Even if you're hacking away, it's alluring, because everything is taken care of. All your thoughts are preprovided, with the only charge being submission. And who revolt against submission when everyone is hacking up brain cells every five minutes?

On the other hand, theres something so pleasing about being mentally well. I don't just mean the avoiding the obvious viruses of Creationism and Reality Television. No, I mean more subtle infections like, "I'll be good enough if only I'm like the Beautiful People^TM" or "If I do what everyone else is doing people will like me". These are worse, pent, because they breed in dark unconscious corners of the brain, and they don't show up until you reach the moment of an important decision, and start coughing snot all over the place. The worst ones aren't so apparent, the ones that are incubating quietly, a mental HIV, the most insidious sort of brain infection. If you can avoid these, then you are like the seeing man among the blind, and like the blind, they don't know which direction you are running and therefore can't catch you.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

All I know is that I am stuck in a horrible city in a horrible country on a horrible planet full of horrible monkeys and chowderheads, and I am not particularly pleased by the notion.  Monkeys are fucked up little creatures, who will not believe that fire will burn them, no matter how often they are shown.

Ideology means more than reality, and that hideous freak Rudyard Kipling warned us about that:

http://www.olimu.com/readings/GodsOfTheCopybookHeadings.htm

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place;
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its ice field, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four—
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

He jabbered and jabbered about shit like that, and nobody ever listened...at least not the people with Important Eyebrows.  And as a result, we are in the mess we are in today.  You can STILL find people that believe that Saddam Hussein was about to land troops on the New Jersey coast, if we hadn't invaded him first, and you STILL have people clamoring for MORE "protection" from the government...rather like sheep begging the lions to make them safer.

Yeah, they're stupid.  They deserve everything they get, and I can only pray that I'll live long enough to see them get it in the shorts*.








*  Except Dimo, of course, who doesn't have any to get it in.

[Kai]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

[Kai]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

I think you are making up definitions for those words.

Do I have to start talking in gibberish?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

I think you are making up definitions for those words.

Do I have to start talking in gibberish?

Um, I kind of agree with him, Kai.

I mean, think about it...if the Christians were right, and the world ended back in 2000, would they have been happy about it?  Of course they would have.

[Kai]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

I think you are making up definitions for those words.

Do I have to start talking in gibberish?

Um, I kind of agree with him, Kai.

I mean, think about it...if the Christians were right, and the world ended back in 2000, would they have been happy about it?  Of course they would have.

While agree with that, I don't think it has anything to do with the definitions of optimism/pessimism in this context. Rober, if you want the world to end it's because you think it sucks; that so called optimism (that the world will end soon) is shallowly overlaying a crippling pessimism about the world.

I don't mean to be rude either. I'm just tired of waiting for the world to go down in flames, because a) it won't and b) it stops me from actually doing anything to make my life and the world a better place to live in, even if the nature of civilization is cyclical, and even if that bettering would only last a while. If we are all just sucky monkeys, why are you hanging out with us, or any humans? Why do you call me to talk, if I'm just another shitty monkey? What is all this crippling pessimism for?

It's like a stale old joke, or something.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

I think you are making up definitions for those words.

Do I have to start talking in gibberish?

Um, I kind of agree with him, Kai.

I mean, think about it...if the Christians were right, and the world ended back in 2000, would they have been happy about it?  Of course they would have.

While agree with that, I don't think it has anything to do with the definitions of optimism/pessimism in this context. Rober, if you want the world to end it's because you think it sucks; that so called optimism (that the world will end soon) is shallowly overlaying a crippling pessimism about the world.

I don't mean to be rude either. I'm just tired of waiting for the world to go down in flames, because a) it won't and b) it stops me from actually doing anything to make my life and the world a better place to live in, even if the nature of civilization is cyclical, and even if that bettering would only last a while. If we are all just sucky monkeys, why are you hanging out with us, or any humans? Why do you call me to talk, if I'm just another shitty monkey? What is all this crippling pessimism for?

It's like a stale old joke, or something.

It's who I am.

TGRR,
Stale old joke.

[Kai]

Except, Roger, I'm finding that crippling pessimism sucks as much as naive, shallow optimism.

And as much as I agree that monkeys can suck, I can't agree with your whole statement, because its the same, to me, as saying the universe is full of light and love and prettiness.

I am constantly amazed at how often my bitter pessimism turns out to be idiotically optimistic.

I noticed this with regards to doomsayers. The people shrieking about the end of the world as we know it aren't pessimists; they're optimists of the highest degree. And every single time, they're disappointed to learn that the world isn't done with us yet.

I think you are making up definitions for those words.

Do I have to start talking in gibberish?

Um, I kind of agree with him, Kai.

I mean, think about it...if the Christians were right, and the world ended back in 2000, would they have been happy about it?  Of course they would have.

While agree with that, I don't think it has anything to do with the definitions of optimism/pessimism in this context. Rober, if you want the world to end it's because you think it sucks; that so called optimism (that the world will end soon) is shallowly overlaying a crippling pessimism about the world.

I don't mean to be rude either. I'm just tired of waiting for the world to go down in flames, because a) it won't and b) it stops me from actually doing anything to make my life and the world a better place to live in, even if the nature of civilization is cyclical, and even if that bettering would only last a while. If we are all just sucky monkeys, why are you hanging out with us, or any humans? Why do you call me to talk, if I'm just another shitty monkey? What is all this crippling pessimism for?

It's like a stale old joke, or something.

It's who I am.

TGRR,
Stale old joke.

No, it's not, and no, you aren't.

[LMNO]

I mean more subtle infections like, "I'll be good enough if only I'm like the Beautiful People^TM" or "If I do what everyone else is doing people will like me". These are worse, pent, because they breed in dark unconscious corners of the brain, and they don't show up until you reach the moment of an important decision, and start coughing snot all over the place. The worst ones aren't so apparent, the ones that are incubating quietly, a mental HIV, the most insidious sort of brain infection. If you can avoid these, then you are like the seeing man among the blind, and like the blind, they don't know which direction you are running and therefore can't catch you.

This.

And if it's any consolation, Kai... Even though every day I'm realizing a bit more of the Horrible Truth™ about the diseased monkeys that I have to share the planet with, I find myself continually drawn to the idea that things will generally turn out all right for me and mine, somehow.

If that's my blindness, well, at least it helps me get out of bed in the morning.

[Kai]

I mean more subtle infections like, "I'll be good enough if only I'm like the Beautiful People^TM" or "If I do what everyone else is doing people will like me". These are worse, pent, because they breed in dark unconscious corners of the brain, and they don't show up until you reach the moment of an important decision, and start coughing snot all over the place. The worst ones aren't so apparent, the ones that are incubating quietly, a mental HIV, the most insidious sort of brain infection. If you can avoid these, then you are like the seeing man among the blind, and like the blind, they don't know which direction you are running and therefore can't catch you.

This.

And if it's any consolation, Kai... Even though every day I'm realizing a bit more of the Horrible Truth™ about the diseased monkeys that I have to share the planet with, I find myself continually drawn to the idea that things will generally turn out all right for me and mine, somehow.

If that's my blindness, well, at least it helps me get out of bed in the morning.

The Japanese have a word for that: iki gai. Literally, "what gets you out of bed in the morning".


Purpose is a good thing to have.

[LMNO]

If that's phonetic, it's my wife that wakes up next to an "icky guy"...

[Kai]

If that's phonetic, it's my wife that wakes up next to an "icky guy"...

No, that would be "hu-ise dise iki gai".

[LMNO]

If that's phonetic, it's my wife that wakes up next to an "icky guy"...

No, that would be "hu-ise dise iki gai".