The Love of Truth

“The love of truth is terrible and mighty,” wrote Nietzsche - and the outline of his life, like that of the lives of several other modern philosophers, suggests the wisdom of that maxim. To consecrate oneself to truth - and to examine oneself and others - appears if anything harder and less potentially rewarding than it seems to have been for Socrates more than two thousand years ago.

Perhaps that is why in scientific and pragmatic societies like our own, which reinforce skepticism about the value of cultivating an inward contemplativeness, “philosophy,” as Nietzsche complained, “remains the learned monologue of the lonely stroller, the accidental lot of the individual, the secret skeleton in the closet, or the harmless chatter between senile academics and children.”

-- James Miller, “Examined Lives”

"Henry and June"

Watching "Henry and June", I am struck by the scene in which Anais and Henry are talking about their writing, looking over each other's manuscripts, so passionate and engaged. I wish I had that in my life, people with whom one can share one's affair with art, with literature, this shared passion, like a shared religion to which we are devoted disciples, our way of dealing with the hell of this world and finding a satisfying sense of meaningfulness for our lives. A deep friendship.

"The nudity and sex didn't do anything for you, right?"

Well, that would be nice too. Of course. I just wanted to point out something new. A new angle into these dark woods of my loneliness. Of course, without the sex, I probably could not engage anyone on any subject or in any way at all. I would need to feel whole in my dealings with anyone, and I don't think I can feel whole if I cannot even find someone who is willing to have sex with me. Being unable to enjoy sex, I feel too ridiculous to be able to engage with anybody on anything else. I feel like a cripple trying to be an athlete with other real athletes. It's worse than sad; it's funny.

"But you seem to be able to engage with others on these blogs."

Ah, yes, that's the thing. I can. Communicating with somebody only through e-mail depersonalizes one enough that I can engage with others and overlook my deficiencies. I do not feel my crippleness as bad. We are just exchanging words, and I guess my words are good enough for just about anybody else's words.

That was one of the great things about coming to cyberspace and settling in the blogosphere: I was able to deal with others! We could have some serious conversations, too - about art, about love, life, everything! It was wonderful.

But we come back to the old story. Real life and e-life have merged completely, and it is no longer just about trading words for words. We are no longer just usernames and avatars. We are whole people. We are ourselves again. And I am back to being a cripple.

PIcs

Elvis Presley backstage, 1956.

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Ron Chernow's "Alexander Hamilton"

Rereading Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton”, and feeling a refreshened interest in America’s revolutionary era. A lot of quotes are likely to fall from this. No thanks needed! :)

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Few figures in American history have aroused such visceral love or loathing as Alexander Hamilton. To this day, he seems trapped in a crude historical cartoon that pits “Jeffersonian democracy” against “Hamiltonian aristocracy.” For Jefferson and his followers, wedded to their vision of an agrarian Eden, Hamilton was the American Mephistopheles, the proponent of such devilish contrivances as banks, factories, and stock exchanges. They demonized him as a slavish pawn of the British Crown, a closet Monarchist, a Machiavellian intriguer, a would-be Caesar, Noah Webster contended that Hamilton’s “ambition, pride, and overbearing temper” had destined him “to be the evil genius of this country.” Hamilton’s powerful vision of American nationalism, with states subordinate to a strong central government and led by a vigorous executive branch, aroused fears of a reversion to royal British ways. His seeming solicitude for the rich caused critics to portray him as a snobbish tool of plutocrats who was contemptuous of the masses. For another group of naysayers, Hamilton’s unswerving faith in a professional military converted him into a potential despot. “From the first to the last words he wrote,” concluded historian Henry Adams, “I read always the same Napoleonic kind of adventurism.” Even some Hamilton admirers have been unsettled by a faint tincture of something foreign in this West Indian transplant; Woodrow Wilson grudgingly praised Hamilton as “a very great man, but not a great American.”

[...]

If Jefferson provided the essential poetry of American political discourse, Hamilton established the prose of American statecraft.

-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton” (2004)

Grover Norquist

If anyone thought that the Republicans might become more cooperative after being humiliated in the elections, they must accept by now that the Republicans will continue their scorched earth politics, including such nihilistic delights as holding up the good faith and credit of the United States for partisan blackmail. Such is American politics these days.

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We got lots of things Obama claims to be for, and we will make — we, the Republicans in the House and Senate — will make him actually make those spending restraints, in order to get the continuing resolution out [for] a week, two weeks, a month. Obama will be on a very short leash, fiscally speaking, over the next four years. He’s not gonna have any fun at all. He may decide to go blow up small countries he can’t pronounce because it won’t be any fun to be here, because he won’t be able to spend the kind of cash he was hoping to.

-- Grover Norquist

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Blowing up small countries they cannot pronouce? So, they are hoping to make Obama more Republican in every way? Heh.

These Republicans are maximalist players, the Party of God, carrying out holy war in the service of our great plutocrats. Such is their idea of patriotism. They would blow up the country if they thought it could benefit their corporate overlords.

flea treatments

The cats have been scratching themselves quite a bit lately. I've noticed it for a few weeks. I am reluctant to ask Pop to make the sixty-dollar purchase for the flea treatments. The cats are not terribly bad in their scratching, but it is obviously noticeable. I am thinking about holding out until the spring, and asking for the medicine before the summer and the air-conditioner bills hit.