The Roman Empire ended and there followed a flourishing and inventive
era of technological
growth and individual prosperity. All of the people found free will and
personal choice in every field of human endeavor. Fulfillment was
greatly enhanced by the elimination of any political constraint.
Humanity simply blossomed! No? Caveat Emptor didn't work out very well?
All of the technology invented to push forward the Empire feel into
ruin? Science stopped? Women were tortured as witches for a thousand
years? Information became illegal and lost? Global political change
wasn't safe and fun? Extremists took over?
Could it be that they simply needed someone to insult them? If
someone could only have gone around and called everyone lazy, the world
would have become The Garden of Eden? Could it be that they didn't know
that existential human conditions were simply a matter of choice? (What
Existentialist ever said that? No Existentialist ever said that? Could
it be that a moment of thought about "the way things are" reveals choice
to be limited to say the least?)
But we all know that the scum rises to the top. Aristotle said that
the story of a liar and cheat using others to enrich himself to their
demise is not a good story because it is usually what happens. Blaming
victims for poverty being their own fault is usually what happens. A
good story would be something like a poor person winning by being
honest! Now that would be interesting and different! Good enough to
put on a play about! Or someone dying for someone else! Wow! How
non-self-interest can you get! And people actually value such shit?
Haven't they read Ayn Rand? Forget Antigone, she wasn't actually
optimistic enough to see how great everything could be if she just got
over that attitude. She actually died for something as stupid as burying
her brother! Why, she could have been rich! Why not define spirituality
anyway you want, as well as Existentialism? Why not call spirituality,
i.e., the secure choice to fuck anybody you want and get away with it, a
wonderful prophylactic and escape? A smart and free choice.
Well, I guess the answer is because we don't feel it would be moral,
sort of a belief thing, no real reason. A sort of global dumbing-down,
what I called "brain dead"could happen to change such feelings. And,
you see, this all depends on what images go into our heads.
Hucklebee
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