Obligations
Heaven is
An
Empty
In-basket…
Hell
Is
As
Well.
Human Life
An
Electro-chemical
Conspiracy
Of
Hope.
Prescription
Being
Lucid
About
Our
Nature
And
Fate
Won’t
Hurt
You:
In fact
It
Could be
The
Seedbed
For
Modern
Virtue.
Political Philosophy Exam Question
Who is worse off:
He
Who
Has
No use
For
His
Freedom,
Or
He,
Unfree,
Who’d
Have many
A use
For
His?
Halcyon Days
Most
Are
Sustained
By
Memories
Of
Times
Lived
Under
The
Influence
Of
Innocence.
The Western Way
Democratic
Oligarchs
Usually
Realize
How
Little
It
Takes
To
Tranquilize
The
Rest
Of
Us.
Small Consolations
Others
Can’t
Live
In
Line
With
Their
Beliefs:
What
A
Relief!
Past Images
Someday,
Long after you’re gone,
Some
Stranger’s
Existence
Will
Pause
An
Instant,
As
They
Gaze into
A picture
Of your face.
Courage to know
Somehow
No fact,
Subatomic
Or
Cosmic,
Geo-
Or
Biologic,
Has quite
The impact
Of the
Chrono-
Or
Necrologic.
Proposed Yardstick
‘Greedspeed’:
How
Fast
We
Move
From
Having enough
To
Needing more.
One Digital Consequence
Quality mongerers:
A
Proud (and arrogant)
Minority
When
Masses
Mattered
Not,
Are now
Cowered and lost
Now
That
Masses
Matter
A lot.
Curriculum
Forget
The
Constant
Conquering, pillaging and converting…
The
Only
Human history
Worthy
Of being
Taught
Is that of thought.
Candide’s Question
Deep
Down,
Don’t
The
Affluent
Wonder
Whether
Their
Worth
Is
All
They’re
Worth?
Curiosity
Need to know
From whence
We came.
Need to know
Of what we’re made.
Need to know
How to live
(Serenely)
With the
Answers.
Spanish Cultural Itinerary
Having
Rubbernecked
Before
Flesh and kings
(And other
Elect)
Mounted
On
Crosses and horses,
The tourists
Were bussed
To
The
Bull ring.
Nova
He went
Relatively rapidly
From no-one
To
Number one
And
Back.
Bohr and Bombs
While
Science
Uncertains
Our
Nature,
Our
Technology
Asserts
It
With
A
Vengeance.
Basic Political Economy
Satisfied
Customers
Rarely
Care
Whether
Their
Rulers
Are
Ruthless.
Global Problem Panacea Action Programme (GPPAP): Mission Statement
To
Stimulate
Other
(Socially- and environmentally-friendly)
Sources
Of
Status,
Pleasure
And
Immortality.
Room-Mates
The longer
One lives
With one’s
Convictions
The harder
It is
To
Evict them.
To Stage Parents
Average
Offspring
Are
No
Misfortune:
Mediocrity
Is
Itself
No
Mean
Accomplishment.
Picassos
What
More
Pathetic
Sight
Than
A
Painter’s
Genetic
Legacy
Warring
Over
His
Memetic
One?
Beasts
No cruelty
Exceeds
That
Endured
By beings
Incapable
Of it.
‘Good Evening’
If
It
Lived
Up
To
Its
Name,
The
News
Would
Remain
Silent.
Neo-Scholasticism
Maybe
It’s
Time
To
Return
Our
Best
Minds
To
Theological
Niceties
And
Give
Nature
A
Break.
Post-Prime Paths
Some
Stay
Young,
Though
Aged and greyed…
Others
Just
Succumb
And
Become
Ruins.
Prerequisites
Wisdom
Calls
For
Proportionally
More
Balls
Than
Brains.
Spoilsport
Who
Would have
The gall
To question
The meaning
Of it all
In
A hall
Filled
With
Mothers
At play
With
Their
Children?
Theisms
No
Other
Belief
Bothers
Believers
More
Than
Non-belief.
Mediocrity’s Logic
No man is perfect,
Ergo
We’re
All
(Equally)
Imperfect.
Knock, knock
It’s
Harder
To
Philosophize
With
The
Taxman
Than
With
The
Grim Reaper
At
The
Door.
Human Tally
Our
Greatest
Biological
Achievement:
To
Have numbered
Ninety
Billion,
And counting…
Records
Old photos
Are
Images
Of
What
We’ve
Become.
Strivings
At least
Failure
Doesn’t
Leave
You
With
An
Empty
Feeling.
How to stop time
Avoid
Beginnings.
Foodstuff
Humans
Were a lot more
Materialistic
(Philosophically)
When
They
Prayed
Not
To
Be
Preyed upon.
Lost Opportunities
Too bad
We
Usually
Feel
Too rotten
To
Benefit
From
Our
Sick-bed
Perspective.
Vandal Taxonomy
Some
Smash
What we’ve made
For its
Magnificence,
Some
For its
Mediocrity,
And
The rest
For the
Joy
Of
Destroying.
That whore: reason!
The
Most
Odious
Human
Beliefs and behaviours
Known
Are
Also
Escorted
By a logic
Of
Their
Own.
Pulverization
Every
Single
Thing
Ends –
Consoling
The sad,
Saddening
The glad.
Diogenes and co.
We
Ostracize
The
Wise
As
‘Cynics’
For
Mixing
Insight
With
Irony.
Cutting Edges
The
Only
Remedy
To
Contemporary
Frenzy
That
Lasts
Is
The
Past.
Conversationalist
One
Whose
Passion
Is
To
Discover
With
The
Other.
Sour Grapes
The
Loser
Had
The
Temerity
To
Tell
The victor
That
Even
Posterity’s
Days
Were
Numbered.
Human Condition
The
Best
Analgesic
To being
Bare, forked and
Muddled
Is
To
Be
Cuddled.
Traces
When
You’re
Down and out,
Don’t
Worry:
Read
A
Biography
Or two . . .
It
Turns
Out
You’re
Just
Another story.
Bach, Beethoven and Brahms
Given
Their historical failure
In
Preventing
Abysmal
Behaviour,
Perhaps
Beckett and co.
Should be
Tried
The
Next
Go.
Just desserts
Getting
What
One
Deserves
Is
Unfortunately
(And fortunately)
A
Matter
Of
Fortune.
Instigators
The
Naive,
Who
Believe
In
The
Goodness
Of
Man,
Often
Bring
It
About.
Peace of Mind
Better for sure
To be sure,
Right
Or
Wrong.
Than in
Doubt.
In Flanders Fields
Soldiers
Soon
Learn
They
Share
More
With
Their
Foe
Than
With
The folks
Back
Home.
The Future
Predictability
Shrinks
The
Time
We
Have
Left.
Tactics
Perhaps
The
Gods
Would
Respond
More
Positively
If
Our
Prayers
Weren’t
So
Obviously
Self-serving?
GDP
A
Truly
Developed
Country
Would
Know
It
Need
No
Longer
Grow.
Whatever works…
What’s
So
Wrong
After all
With
Wallowing
In
Nostalgia
While
Being
Swallowed
By
Time?!
Economic Tigers
Late
Modernizing
Nations
Seem
To be
Spared
The
Despair
(And brilliance)
Of
Tormented
Selves.
Inner Realism
Taking time
To react
To the fact
Of the slime
And other
Natural
Properties
Of my
Liver.
Look of Innocents
Many of us
Owe
Our life’s
Advance
To the
Glances
Of
Creatures
Unaware
Of our
Shared
Fate.
Consistency
If a misanthrope
Has a child,
Can it be an object
Of love?
Vulnerability
No
Wisdom
Has
The
Might
To
Withstand
The
Right
Smiling
Eyes.
Preventive Intervention
Fearing
Seeing
Something
She didn’t have
Or couldn’t be,
She unplugged
Her
TV.
Paradox
Given
How
Little
Of
Life
We
Recall,
It’s
A
Wonder
We
Care
For
It
At
All.
Creative Minds
From dust
To us
To dust.
No matter:
Both dead
And living
Are bred
In the heads
Of the
Latter.
Liberation Aftermath
Ideas
That
Once
Landed
One
In jail
Now
Fail
To
Elicit
Any
Response.
Sports Fan
Whether
Anything’s
Progressing,
Regressing
Or just gressing
Is
All the same,
Given
The prospect
Of
Sunday’s
Game.
Genocides
In
A
Crunch,
It’s
Easy
To
Hate
And
Crush
Others,
Particularly
If
They
Claim
Their
Superiority
(And we suspect it.)
Help Wanted
Any clown
Can tell
Up
From
Down.
Sadly,
There aren’t
Too many
Clowns
Around.
Artists All
No
Exercise
Of
Creative imagination
Is
More
Popular and widespread
Than
Falling
In
Love.
Remedy for (Misanthropic) Reflux
A
Hot
Bath
To
The
Sounds
Of
Bach.
Erogenous Zones
Is
Being
Devoid
Of
Them
Better
Than
Having
Them
Avoided?
Milestones
Think
Of
All
The
Ages
You’ve been
That
Once
Seemed
So
Old.
Modern History: A Short History
New know-how,
Old instincts,
More or less
Restrained
By
Liberal
Ideals.
¡Patria o muerte!
National
Liberators
Are
Better
At
Liberating
Countries
Than
People.
Correction
In the land of the blind
The one-eyed
Are drowned,
Not crowned.
Peace and Love
What
We
All
Deeply
Long
For
Is
To
Our
Credit.
Our
Tragedy
Is
Our
Strategy.
Shifts
Remember
Way back
When,
When
We
Worshipped
The
Past,
Then
The
Future,
Before
Settling
On
The
Present?
Balls
Aging sedentarily,
He warily
Felt for
Unusual bumps
On his
Testicles.
Finding none,
He zipped up
And zapped over
To
Wimbledon.
Core Challenge
Seek
To
Understand
What
One
Can,
And
Stand up
To
What
One
Can’t.
Perspectives
The
Wise
Are
Beside
Rather
Than
Above
It
All.
Bloody Interruptions
His
Killer
Rudely
Intruded
Into
His
Philosophical
Musings
On
The
Meaning
Of
Life.
In the last analysis
Living
(and dying)
In
The
Dark
Is
The
Worst
Part
Of
It.
Drinks
Love
Is
Life’s
Wine
Not
Its
Water.
Let-Downs
Revolutionary
Leaders
And
Their
Followers
Are
Doomed
To
Mutual
Disappointment.
No ifs, buts or whys
Simply put,
The stars
Simply are.
To be avoided
Hitting
Upon
How best
To live
In
Your
Final
Hours.
Social Animals
Hermits,
Though
Alone,
Are
Prone
To
Take
Comfort
In
Knowing
They’re
Not
The
Only
Loners.
Chain
And
To think
That
Your
Dad’s dad
Probably
Worried
About
The world
He’d bequeath
His
Kid’s kid!
Civil-War Veterans
I killed
All
His
Relatives:
He’d murdered two of mine…
Now I’m told
He’s growing old
And
Dying
Of the
Same
Disease
As
Me.
Temperamental Differences
Some
Care
About
Not being
Caught
Unawares,
While
Others
Don’t
Mind
The
Surprise
When
They
Capsize.
Wanderlust
How
Strange
That
We
Dream
Of
Strange
Lands,
While
Strangers
There
Dream
Of
Ours.
Just Wondering
Has yesterday’s
Pregnancy
(My wife’s)
Met the
Criteria
For a
Panacea
(My life’s)?
Protective Carapaces
How
Quickly
We
Reach
The
Age
When
Changing
Ourselves
Is
Not only
Too hard
But
Too late.
Co-optation
The
Best answer
To
The
Unanswerable
Is
To
Inhabit
The
Question.
Midstream
Many
Draw
The benefits
But
Hardly
Any
The
Conclusions
Of
Science.
Directions
The
Modern
Is
A
Cul-de-sac:
One
Can
Only
Get out
By
Going
Back.
Taboos
Fortunately,
For order and progess,
Certain
Fundamental
Matters
Only obsess
An (un)privileged
Few.
Motivation
He
Wrote
To
Understand
But
Published
To
Persuade
Others
He’d
Understood.
Interests
Somehow
We
Favour
Free
Elections
And
Markets
When
They
Favour
Us.
The Inevitable and the Improbable
Worry not
Of the rot
That is
Your body’s
Lot…
Marvel instead
At your luck
That your
Mother and father
Opted to copulate
On that special
Date!
Levelling
Given
Our
Lot,
We
All
Merit
Compassion,
Whether
Suffering
Or
Not.
Elites
Though
Open
To
All new comers,
The
Intellectual
Minority
Remains
The
Most
Resented.
Chain of Being
One
Big
Difference
Between
A
Fungus
And
Us
(Apparently)
Is
That
We
Have
A
Name
For
It.
Seneca et al. versus Buddha et al.
Why
Do
We
Have
To dig
So
Deep
For
Words
Of
Wisdom
And
Infinitely
Deeper
For
Those
Who
Live
By
Them?
The Hard Part
Disbelieving is
A
Picnic
Compared to
Weaving
Disbelief
Into
Being.
Visible Hand
Many
A
Forceful
Person
Manipulates
Impersonal
Market
Forces.
Ponzi Scheme Clients
Guilty victims.
Killers
Only
Disease
Has
Destroyed
More
Of
Us
Than
Metaphor
And
Euphemism.
Enemies
In time,
Envy
Was
Elbowed aside
By pride,
As his friend’s
Fame
Bolstered
His
Own
Name.
Monotheisms
The
Genesis
Of
Much
Comfort
And
Hell
Here
On
Earth.
Collective Performances
When
Claiming
Credit
For
Ancestors’
Successes,
Do
Likewise
For
Their
Nastier excesses
(Even if
They’re
One and the same).
Art-World Dialectics
Burghers
Invariably
Blemish
The
(Consenting)
Bohemians
They
Relish.
Succession
Generations
Are
Nature’s
Way
Of
Updating
Nostalgia.
Roots
Rights
Inherited
Or
Granted
Are
Rights
Poorly
Planted.
History Exam Question
Which
Period
Of history
Was
The biggest
Waste
Of
Time?
Explain.
Geography
All men
Are
Islands,
But we
Like to
Huddle
So closely
We mostly
Feel
Continental.
Immortality
If we
Were
Ever
To live
Forever
We’d still
Be
Addicted
To pleasure
And
Esteem
(i.e., dopamine).
‘Lazy natives!’
Curse
Those
Who
First
Forced
Others
To
Work
Beyond
Their
Desires
And
Needs.
Killing Fields
For
Some reason
Our
Dionysian
Brutality
Appals
Us
Less
Than the
Apollonian
Variety.
‘They treat us like animals!’
Words
That
Disgrace
Both
Perpetrators
And
Victims.
The Scientist’s Course
From
Ignorance
To
Inspiration
To
Indifference.
Clashing Theisms
There’s
Only
One
Fairytale
That’s
True
You heathen!
The one
I
Believe in!
Ballot Boxes
Elections
Simply
Add
Suffrage
To
The other
Sources
Of
Power.
Useful Abuse
Having cursed
The sky
For its kind
Of non-sense,
And man
For his kind,
He felt
A lot worse,
With nothing left
To curse.
Necessary Neologism
Not significant
Nor
Insignificant,
We’re
Simply
Asignificant:
Matter that doesn’t matter.
Firmament
How
Wonderful
To
Gaze
At the stars
Without
Wondering.
Aphasic Astonishment
Proof
That
The
Truth
Has
Sunk
In.
Fachidiot
Billions
Of
Neurons
Discovering
Mind-boggling
Truths
Without
Wondering.
Folk Wisdom
Proverbial
Support
That’s
At hand
Whatever
Your
Plan.
Liberation
Cages can
Be opened
And gates
Swung wide…
But most
Prefer
To stay
Inside.
Comforts
The sole reward
For peering
Into
The
Pit
Is
The dignity
Of
Not
Having
Turned
Your back
On
It.
Natural Perspectives
Funny
How
Tsunamis
Don’t
Distinguish
Between
The organic
And
The inorganic.
Eden
He a man,
She a woman,
Otherwise
They had little
In common.
Check-Up
Nothing
Like
A
Good
Colonoscope
To
Regain
Perspective.
Planning
The
Best
Time
To
Expire
Is
Just
This
Side
Of the
Line
Separating
Expectation
From
Disillusion.
‘It’ just the way it is…’
Have
More
Profound
Words
Ever
Been
Uttered
Around
A
Fresh
Grave?
Nightly News
Tuned into
The new,
Counted blessings,
Rated
The latest
Attempts at
Making history,
Then,
Duly informed,
Brushed his teeth
And went to his pillows…
One day older.
Asymmetries
Physical delight
Is no
Match
For
Decrepitude
In
Driving
Home
The
Hegemony
Of our
Flesh
And
Bones.
Double Destiny
What’s
Worse
Than
No longer
Being?
Why,
Being
A
Corpse
Of course.
Wrongs
What’s
Irksome
About
Injustice
In
Society
Is
How
It
Diverts
Us
From
The
Cosmic variety.
What are we here for?
The
Most
Profound
Of
Presumptuous
Questions
(And vice-versa).
Observation
How
To be
Lucid
And
Not
Blue?
That,
Too,
Is
The question.
Generation Gap
The young,
Twenty meters
Along the
Conveyor belt,
Made fun
Of those
Who knelt
Fifty meters
Ahead.
Milk and Honey
Apparently,
Prosperity
Merely
Turns
Most
Poor
Into
Former poor.
Projections
If
Only
Not
Having
Lived
Well
Was
As
Terrifying
As
Dying.
Different Perspectives
From
The
Point of view
Of
The
Spanish flu
The
Great War
Was
No more
Than
A
Prelude.
Development
Going
From
Wanting
What
We
Need
To
Needing
What
We
Want.
Pet Dogs
Wolves
We’ve
Moulded
To
Embody
What
We
Most
Look
For
In
Each
Other.
Scheduling
Millenarians
Are
Too
Optimistic
About
The
Inauguration
And
Pessimistic
About
The
Duration.
Palaeontology
Homo sapiens sapiens
Should
Know
Enough
To know
Better.
Disarmament Proposal
Beat
All
Swords
Into
Pillows
(And check for stones).
Beat
All
Swords
Into
Pillows
(And check for stones).
Responses
Nothing
Stuns
Us
More
Than
Extreme
Evil
(Except
For
Extreme
Good).
Umpapa, umpapa…
For better
Or worse,
The blessing
(Or curse)
Of reflection
Abandons us
As we
Abandon
Ourselves
To
Music.
Blah, blah, blah
How
Repetitive
The
Sages
Have
Been
Through
The
Ages.
Dissonances
We
Love
Animals
With
Human
Traits
And
Impute
Animal
Traits
To
Humans
We
Hate.
‘Because it is written’
Words
That
Kill.
Histories
Personal
History
Is
Also
‘One damned thing after another’,
Except
That
It
Ends
With
One
Damned
Thing
Like
No
Other.
Our Progress
From
Subjects
Of the
Almighty’s
Wrath,
To
Objects
Subject
To the
Forces
Of
Nature.
Self-Consciousness
Wondering
Whether or not
To opt
For thought
While jumping
For joy.
Human Condition
The
Best
Analgesic
To being
Bare, forked and
Muddled
Is
To
Be
Cuddled.
Outlook
Prospects are poor:
Too many
Are
Too sure
Of
Too much.
Loved Ones
And
Yet,
Those
We
Beget
(More often than not)
Render
Our
Lot
Worthwhile.
The Barbarian
Comforted
By
Evolutionary
Explanations
For his
Conduct,
He is
Nonetheless
Distressed
By
The fact
That others’ acts
With no
Apparent
Biological
Cause
Attract
So much
Applause.
Turnarounds
What
Transition
Is
More
Abrupt
Than
That
Between
Pitying the dying
And
Envying the dead?
Populisms
Oligarchs
Ignore
The
Modest
Needs
Of
Democracy’s
Masses
At
Everyone’s
Peril.
Others’ Beliefs
Shouldn’t
We
Aspire
Higher
Than
Tolerance?
What
About
Indifference?
Posterity
The
Main
Problem
Is
That
We
Live on
In
The memory
Of mere
Mortals.
Naive Exasperations
You
Preachers,
Predators
And
Killers:
Have
You
No
Mirrors?!
Age Management
With time,
The struggle consists
Of bolstering
The present
With the help of
The future
(However daunting),
Against the
Encroachment of
The past
(However haunting).
What’s the problem?
What
Is
There
To
Understand
In
A
Hydrogen
Cloud
That
(Eventually)
Resulted
In
A
Being
Trying
To
Understand?
Political Variants
Democracy
Dumbs
Down,
Aristocracy
Dumbed
Up.
Aggression
Save
Your
Hardest
Blows
For
Those
Who’d
Awaken
The
Violence
And
Hatred
That
Lie
Dormant
In
Us
All.
Socio-Democratic Challenge
Ride
Greed’s
Coat-tails
Without
Stalling
Or
Falling.
Consolation
Sighing
For what
We’ll
Miss
Once our
Dying is done:
Discoveries, inventions, gadgets,
Voyages to the sun…
Sighing
But smiling:
Man’s future wonders
We cannot
Know,
But the future
Nature
Of the wonder
Of man
We surely
Can.
Socio-Political Breakdown
The
Fissures
Appear
When
The
Law-abiding
Begin
To feel
Foolish.
Beau monde
One
Could
Bear
It
More
If
The
Fortunate
Laid
Less
Claim
To
Merit.
Rust
Nothing
Corrodes
Integrity
Like
Deference
To
Power,
Wealth
And
Celebrity
(However gained).
Art History Question
Has
Art
Been
Greater
Under
Monarchs, clerics and aristocrats,
Or
Merchants, curators and plutocrats?
Shames
Our
Biological
Needs
And
Drives
Deprive
Us
Of
Our
Pretty
Picture
Of
Ourselves.
Phases
A
Mid-life
Crisis
Is
A
Dry-run
For the
Late-life
One.
Walden
Restauration,
Copulation
And
Vacation:
Best-selling
Palliatives
For
(Quiet)
Desperation.
Impasse
What
Do
You
Do
When
You’ve
Seen the light
And
It’s
Out?
Nothing to it
Our
Fatal
Flaw
Is
The
Feeling
Of
Knowing
It all
Following
A
Minor
(Or no)
Mental
Effort.
Capitalism
A
Most
Productive
And
Destructive
Product
Of acquisitiveness
And
Invention.
Augustine, Pascal, Kierkegaard, et al.
One
Can
Share
Their
Despair
But
Not
Their
Flair
For
Celestial
Fantasy.
Prophet
You must follow and trust me!
There’s nothing to dread:
I myself am being
Led.
Lepers
The
Lucid
Are
Rightly
Ostracized:
Why
Risk
Derailment
By
The
Facts from the skies,
When
We’re up to our eyes
With
Those
Of
Our
Lives?
Bibliophily
Deceased
Companions
Are
A
Great
Antidote
To
Contemporary
Aliens.
Opportunity Costs
Too
Many
On-shore
Discussions
Keep
Too
Many
From
Proceeding
Along
The
Pier
Alone.
Celebrity
Few
Seem
Contemptuous
Of the
Adulation
Of those
They
Deem
Contemptible.
2003 Baghdad Blues
As
Yet
Another
Power
Bullies
Its way into
Mesopotamia,
One begins to resent
The time spent
Reconfirming
The lack of mystery
In history.
Reforms
We
Owe
Many
A
Marginal
Improvement
To
Extremists
Who
Revolted
For
Radical
Ones.
Location, location, location
All
Living
Are
Somewhere
Or other,
All
Dead
Are
Nowhere.
Warning
Beware
Of
Disillusion
With
Your own
Kind:
You
May
Find
Yourself
Embracing
Ancient
Greeks
Or
Golden
Retrievers.
Enemies
In time,
Envy
Was
Elbowed aside
By pride,
As his friend’s
Fame
Bolstered
His
Own
Name.
What others will say
Too
Many
Are
Confused
About
Whose
Views
They
Should
Care
About
Most.
Different Tacks
Pet
Owners
Purchase
Their
Loved ones,
While
Parents
Produce
Theirs.
Trappings
Take
Any
Distant
Ancestor,
Strip him,
Shave his head:
There
You
Are.
Meteoritic Impacts
Lunatics
Must
Envy
The
Moon
For having
Gotten away
From
Us.
Ethics Exam Question
Why
Is
Copulating
For
Money
More
Offensive
Than
Marrying
For
It?
Moderate’s Mission
Try
Holding back
A
Ransacking
Pack of
White
And
Black
With
Grey.
‘Once upon a time…’
That
Fabulous
Perennial
Narcotic.
Relief
Let’s do
All we love
To each other
And,
For a moment,
Forget
Beckett,
The bills
And
Your mother.
Palliatives
It got so dark…
He took
Pen and paper
(Tools to understand why)
But all he came up with
Was a list
Of things
To buy.
Life Planning
As hoped,
I actually
Did
Something
Once.
Now I hope
Remembering
Meets my
Needs
When hope
Goes
To seed.
Identities
We
Are
What
We
Want.
Philosophizing: The Two Camps
One,
The few
Who
Wonder
Why
So
Few
Do,
And, two,
The many
Who
Wonder
Why
Any
Do.
Basic Needs
Granted,
Man cannot live
By bread alone,
But many men can
By bread, butter and jam.
The Objective
Blend
Large
Measures
Of
Pleasure
And
Lucidity
In
Life.
Living logic
Not unborn.
Not defunct.
Ergo
Sum.
Post-20th Century Challenge
Try
To
Improve
The
Lot
Of
Mankind
With
No
Utopia
In
Mind.
Without Us
The
Universe
Would
Remain
Problematic
Even
If
Our
Condition
Weren’t
Tragicomic.
Litmus
The
Best
Test
Is
Wanting
To
Wake
(And get)
Up.
Path to Modesty
A
Good
Start
Is
To see us
As
Unbelievably
Smart
(And conscious)
Blue-green
Algae.
Antonyms
The
Opposite
Of
Hopeful
And
Hopeless
Is
Hopefree.
Better
At last her life
Saw some
Improvement:
There was no
Change
But lots of
Movement.
Canine Companions
Some
Find
Having
Hounds
Around
Less
Of a
Grind
Than
Human
Kind.
Recommendation
Lend
An ear
If
You hear
Of
One
Who
Changed
Nothing
When informed
His end
Was
Near.
Neo-Blasphemers
Secular
Sect
Who
Prod
God
Without
Believing
In
Him.
Species Pride
Humans
Are
At
Their
Finest
When
Passionately
Engaged
In
The
Useless.
Fence-Sitting
The
Agnostic
Gives
Equal
Weight
To
The
Wildly improbable
And
The
All-but-certain.
Step Forward
You’ve
Made
Progress
When you’re
No
Longer
Distressed
By
Human
Stu-
And
Cupidity.
Romantic’s Despair
Some
Are
Forced
And
Others
Fight
For
The
Right
To
Exercise
The
Oldest
Profession.
Tact
A
Billionaire
Should
Not
Talk
To
A
Hundredaire
About
The
Financial
Misfortunes
Of
A
Millionaire.
Heterodoxies
Alexander’s
Greatness
Lay
Not
In
His
Conquests
Or
Being
A god,
But
In
His request
For
An
Audience
With
Diogenes
The dog.
Intended and Unintended Uses
One
Takes
His
Telescope
And
Focuses
On
The
Enemy.
The
Other
Takes
His,
Points
It
To
The
Sky,
And
Wonders
Why.
Lovers
In a mesh
Of flesh and fluids,
They
Took time off
From
The troughs
Of their
Separate
Selves.
Humans
No
Animal
Is
More
Intelligent
And
None
More
Stupid.
Time of your life
…now,
Then,
Now,
Then,
You!
Now,
Then,
Now,
Then,
Now,
Then,
You
(Not!),
Now,
Then,
Now,
Then,
Now,
Then…
Stellar Conspiracy
Our
Very
Own
Star
Blinds
Us
To
The
Reality
Revealed
By darkness.
Generation
No
Single
Little
Thing
Changes
Things
More
Than
An
Offspring.
Distractions We Live By
It
All
Boils
Down
To
One
Question:
‘What’s your poison?’
Surroundings
Reality
Seems
So
Real
That
It takes
A
Major
Leap of imagination
To
Realize
How
Unreal
It
Really
Is.
Sedimentation
In
The
End
We
Tend
To
Befriend
Those
Who’ve
Settled
At
Our
Level.
Closing Time
Many
A
Wise old man
Lives
In
Mortal
Fear
Of
Encountering
Something
Overlooked.
Added Commandment
Thou
Shall
Not
Disabuse
Thy
Neighbour
(Or his wife).
Genealogy
Looking
Down
On
Her
Life
She
Sought
Comfort
In
Her
Family
Tree.
Ruts
So
Many
Regrets
Relate
Less
To
Having
Said
‘Yes!’,
Than
To
Not
Having
Said
‘Basta!’
Sooner.
New Scenarios
When we’re
Extinct
(With a little luck)
Evolution
Will take
Another
Course,
Perhaps
Pausing
At the horse…
Or the
Duck.
Faux pas
Never
Force
Polite company
Into
Thought.
Pause
While
Jostling
For
Immortality,
Consider
The
Fossil.
Post-Enlightenment Stress Disorder
The more
We know
The more
We long
For
The status quo
(Ante).
Vestiges
The
Thinking
Of
Too
Many
Atheists
Is
Tainted
By
Apostasy.
Insomnia
He
Never
Lost sleep
Over
His
Ultimate
Lot,
But
Lost lots
Over
His
Neighbour’s
New
Yacht.
Update
The bad news
Is
There’s never
Been
A
God.
The other news
Is
That
It’s
Not
Dead.
Techniques
We
Cure
Disappointment
By
Becoming
Appointed
With
Something
Else.
Commercial Break
Having dredged
In vain
For my
Real me,
I came across
A
Promising
Brand . . .
So
I
Purchased
My
True self
Right
Off
The shelf!
After all
Death
Borne
In
Mind
Helps
Our
Kind
In
Living
Not
Dying
(Though some contend
A life well-lived
Has
A gentler end).
Busy Soldiers
God is with us
As we
Occupy ourselves
Occupying
Land, women and homes
Previously occupied
By others.
Alternatives
Those
Who
Know
How
To
Spend
Time
Have
Less
Of it
For
Money.
Objectives
Maybe
We
Should
Return
To striving
For
Happiness
In
The
Hereafter?
Mourning
She’s dead:
Poor me.
Blessings
Without
Celebrities
We’d
All
Be
Insignificant.
Digital Growth
Geometric
In
Quantity,
Arithmetic
In
Quality.
Anonymity
Better
To
Add
To
Wisdom
Than
Be
Added
To
The
Wise.
Changes
With age,
We
Measure
Pleasure
By
The
Absence
Of
Pain.
Second Principle of Indeterminacy
Life
Cannot
Be
Examined
And
Lived
Simultaneously.
Different Strokes
Some
Curse
The
Distractions
That
Keep
Them
From
Living their lives,
Others
Can’t
Live
Without
Them.
La tentation de la facilité
The
Greatest
Hindrance
to
Human
Flourishing.
Comparative Biology
Other
(More fortunate)
Life forms
Can’t
Formulate
The
Questions,
This
One
Can’t
Formulate
The
Answers.
Nostalgia
She missed
The blissful
Days of
Ignorance,
When there
Was still
A chance
(Though small)
Of making
Sense
Of it all.
A Different Approach
Perhaps
Becoming
Bored
By it all
Would
Facilitate
The
Transition
To
Our
Final
State?
Nuances
The pessimist
Thinks
The
Abyss
Is
Half-empty,
The optimist
Insists
It’s
Half-full.
Principles of Philanthropy
It’s
Easier
To
Shame
The
Acquisitive
Into
Sharing
Than into
Forswearing
Their
Greed.
Debate Proposition
‘An
Anti-climax
Beats
No
Climax
At
All.’
Dance Sociology
Not all
Have-nots
Have
Rhythm,
But most
Haves
Haven’t.
Aspiration
To
Find
Some
Serenity
In the
Findings
Of
Science.
Sentimental Performance
Tears flowed
When the
Audience
Was exposed
To the
Possibility
Of
Unprescribed
And
Unrewarded
Kindness
And
Decency.
The Self
An
Illusion
Generally
Worth
Fighting
For.
Apostate
Upon hearing
That God
Had kicked
The bucket,
He said
‘Fuck it!’
And
Embarked
On a life
Of leisure
And pleasure.
Erudites
Info nymphos
Who
Derive
Pride
In
Confirming
Others’
Lack of
Learning.
Hasty Judgments
Critics
Should
Be
Told
To be
Patient:
This mammal’s
Only
8,000-generations
Old.
Cabal
A true friend
Shares
One’s
Illusions
‘til
The
End.
Protective Labels
What
Would
We
Do
Without
Words
That
Neutralize
Truths
That
Terrorize?
Bohemians
Those claiming
Not
To
Conform
Have
No business
Craving
The raves
(And custom)
Of
Those
Who
Do.
Accounting
Letting
Hope
Loose
Has
A
Cost:
The
Time
It
Takes
To
Recover
From
Its
Loss.