a thread for mundane ironists

[iambiguous]

Laurie Anderson

Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.

Pass the marshmallows.

Art is about paying attention.

To what, he dared to ask.

Don't be afraid of anyone. Imagine your life if you're not afraid of anyone.

Not including me of course. Be very afraid.

History is an angel being blown backwards into the future.

You know, between the commercials.

I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

Or not of course.

It's good to take a longer view and think, what would I really like to do if I had no limitations whatsoever?

Besides getting rid of the pinheads, of course.

[iambiguous]

Doth

Isolating yourself in a cabin in the woods while the townspeople fear you is self care.

Or in my virtual cabin here.

In honor of Star Wars day I will also be a constant disappointment to my father.

Really. The pinheads actually created it! McMovies as only Hollywood could create them.

They don’t care about women or babies, they care about the business model of people being born into debt.

Indeed, we've got more than just a few of them right here.

Girls only want one thing & it’s to get railed in a Victorian dress in a greenhouse during a thunderstorm.

Next up: the girls become women.

I am fully prepared to die trying to pet a wolf.

Especially these kind: https://youtu.be/C7c7u-qpORI

As your goth therapist I need you to remember that you don’t live in the hell, hell lives in you.

Right, like it can't be both.

[iambiguous]

Steven Pinker

The Golden Rule has been rediscovered many times: by the authors of Leviticus and the Mahabharata; by Hillel, Jesus, and Confucius; by the Stoic philosophers of the Roman Empire; by social contract theorists such as Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke; and by moral philosophers such as Kant in his categorical imperative.

Of course: those who own the gold, rule.

The key is to assume that your readers are as intelligent and sophisticated as you are, but that they happen not to know something you know.

In other words, as though the pinheads here didn't even exist.

Kant was surely right that our minds "cleave the air" with concepts of substance, space, time, and causality.

On the other hand...
Cleave: "to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly"
Cleave: "to divide...to separate...to split"

Each of the pathways to nuclear terrorism, when examined carefully, turns out to have gantlets of improbabilities.

Cue Ukraine?

...man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.

Mostly about women.

In the foreign country, we call the past, crucifixion was a common punishment. It was invented by the Persians, carried back to Europe by Alexander the Great, and widely used in Mediterranean empires.

How about we crucify someone here.

[iambiguous]

Jan Mieszkowski

Karl Marx and Søren Kierkegaard share a birthday today. Marx has the snazzier gravestone, but it will cost you £8.50 to see it.

That's $10.50 for us Yanks.

"From a certain point on, there is no turning back. This is the point that needs to be reached." Franz Kafka

And then again and and again and again until you grow a pair.

Rousseau: Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.
Marx: Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
Camus: Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity what it gains in intensity.

Yo, Mr. Pinhead! Pick one.

Philosophy: I want to know the answers
Literature: I want to know the questions
Economics: There are no questions
Politics: There are no answers

Clearly out of order, right?

Literary Criticism
101: the author said A but meant B
201: the "author" said A but meant B
301: "the" "author" "said" "A" "but" "meant" "B"

Clearly in the correct order, right?

Science: This
History: This then that
Literature: This means that
Philosophy: This therefore that
Economics: I’ll give you this for that
Politics: I'll keep this and take that
Psychoanalysis: Mother

Indeed. And no one really knows why.

[iambiguous]

Yuval Noah Harari

Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark. In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group. Would ancient Sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human species?

Nope, probably not.

Imagined orders are not evil conspiracies or useless mirages. Rather, they are the only way large numbers of humans can cooperate effectively.

Cue the objectivists in other words.

When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that's fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that's a religion, and we are admonished not to call it "fake news" in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful or incur their wrath.

Yep, sounds about right.

Whereas in 2010 obesity and related illnesses killed about 3 million people, terrorists killed a total of 7,697 people across the globe.

Next up: tobacco.

In modern affluent societies it is customary to take a shower and change your clothes every day. Medieval peasants went without washing for months on end, and hardly ever changed their clothes. The very thought of living like that, filthy and reeking to the bone, is abhorrent to us. Yet medieval peasants seem not to have minded. They were used to the feel and smell of a long-unlaundered shirt. It’s not that they wanted a change of clothes but couldn’t get it – they had what they wanted. So, at least as far as clothing goes, they were content. That’s not so surprising, when you think of it. After all, our chimpanzee cousins seldom wash and never change their clothes. Nor are we disgusted by the fact that our pet dogs and cats don’t shower or change their coats daily. We pat, hug and kiss them all the same. Small children in affluent societies often dislike showering, and it takes them years of education and parental discipline to adopt this supposedly attractive custom. It is all a matter of expectations.

See, I told you.

As the twenty-first century unfolds, nationalism is fast losing ground. More and more people believe that all of humankind is the legitimate source of political authority, rather than the members of a particular nationality, and that safeguarding human rights and protecting the interests of the entire human species should be the guiding light of politics.

[iambiguous]

God

How can anyone looking at the state of the human species in 2022 honestly believe in evolution?

Next up: Idiocracy.

If you think atheism encourages immorality, you should see what happens when My son lets you off the hook for all your sins.

I know, I know: not you.

For I so hated My one and only son that I sent him to the world, that whosoever believes in him shall inevitably become an asshole.

Or, as we call them here, pinheads.

Don't make any plans beyond next week: https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/the-unive ... d-20220504

Stay tuned.

There are two kinds of people in the world and one will get them both killed.

On the other hand, it's about time.

To read the Bible is to know I'm extremely pro-death.

Both before and after the flood that wiped out everyone who didn't build an ark.

[iambiguous]

Emile M. Cioran

History proves nothing because it contains everything.

You might actually want to think about it.

At this very moment, I am suffering—as we say in French, j’ai mal. This event, crucial for me, is nonexistent, even inconceivable for anyone else, for everyone else. Except for God, if that word can have a meaning.

Let's call this the human condition. Even if [for now] only eventually.

This very second has vanished forever, lost in the anonymous mass of the irrevocable. It will never return. I suffer from this and I do not. Everything is unique - and insignificant.

Cue Milan Kundera [and Nietzsche] of course.

Man is a robot with defects.

With no warranty to boot.

He who has never envied the vegetable has missed the human drama.

Hmm, do fruits count?

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.

Not to worry: this will never be understood.

[iambiguous]

tiny nietzsche

the bleakness is the point

For starters.

shout out to the estranged.

Thanks.

hung up on existence

Next up: strung out on it.

it was the best of times, it was also totally lame

The new normal.

may the fuck be with you

Or, sure, you can just borrow mine.

the theme for every met gala is "let them eat cake"

Eat the rich!

[iambiguous]

John Malkovich

Scary monsters are like Hula Hoops. They come in and out of fashion.

Well, not counting the scary monsters here of course. Being one of them myself.

Some people die before their time so that others can live. It's a cornerstone of civilization.

You know, whatever that means.

I mean, anything that money can be made off will never be a problem to make, no matter what it is.

Ah, another cornerstone of civilization.

I can have incredible self-discipline. But see, I think it's obviously a form of stupidity.

What to make of that, right?

When you think of how history is revealed, we know certain things to be facts at certain periods of time, which turn out not to be so factual as time marches on.

What to make of that, right?

I was a very good baseball and football player, but my father always told me I was much more interested in how I looked playing baseball or football than in actually playing. There's great truth in that.

Here? The insufferable pedant of course.

[iambiguous]

tiny nietzsche

I was wrong, but not about that

And that could be anything.

I broke up with myself and now I sleep alone, I drive slowly past my house, and every time I look in the mirror, I wonder what I'm doing

That could never happen to "I".
If "you" know what "I" mean.

men will literally listen to metal rather than go to therapy

Yes, even this: https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/10/18 ... f-the-80s/

hello entropy my old friend

If only all the way to the grave.

I micro-dosed nihilism last night so today would go easy

Not counting here of course.

I misplaced my birth certificate and for a minute there I didn't think I exist

Next up: they misplaced his death certificate.

[iambiguous]

Sara Nović

As a side effect of modern warfare, we had the peculiar privilege of watching the destruction of our country on television.

Nope, the Balkins this time.

It was as if it never occurred to anyone that blocking the incoming roads was the same as blocking the escape routes.

They do go both ways.

I was so tired of his being even-keeled in the face of all that was upsetting and ugly and illogical.

Got a few of them here of course.

Baseball calmed me down; every play and mistake had corresponding consequences, each scenario governed by a set of regulations I could memorize.

Sports in a nutshell.

So superficial. Everyone in this fucking country gets their shit paycheck, wastes it all on clothes from Western Europe, then complains about how they don’t have any money. Idiots.

Idiots everywhere these days.

Communism is fascism, in all practical applications, he was saying now. Can you think of a Communist country sans dictator?

Not real Communism of course.

[iambiguous]

so sad today

have you met my fear of rejection

Actually, I'm here to explain it.

i like to greet the new day with the suspicion that something is fundamentally wrong with me

On the other hand, as with all the rest of us, you never asked to be born.

here’s to not staying strong

Next up: actually getting weaker.

sorry but the password must contain a sense of belonging and solitude

That's why you can change them.

just checking in to see if i exist

Tried that once myself.

yes it’s what i wanted and no it’s not enough

Not much that may or may not be.

[iambiguous]

Emily St. John Mandel

No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.

Starting here say.

The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?

A start let's say.

I've been thinking lately about immortality. What it means to be remembered, what I want to be remembered for, certain questions concerning memory and fame. I love watching old movies. I watch the faces of long-dead actors on the screen, and I think about how they'll never truly die. I know that's a cliché but it happens to be true. Not just the famous ones who everyone knows, the Clark Gables, the Ava Gardners, but the bit players, the maid carrying the tray, the butler, the cowboys in the bar, the third girl from the left in the nightclub. They're all immortal to me. First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered.

Tell that to the Grim Reaper.

The thing with the new world, the tuba had said once, is it’s just horrifically short on elegance.

Not unlike the new ILP.

There is exquisite lightness in waking each morning with the knowledge that the worst has already happened.

If only one calamity at a time.

One of our signature flaws as a species: we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.

Tell that to the pinheads beaming here.

[iambiguous]

sad socrates

Jesus sold out. I didn’t.

Not only that but to the lowest bidder.

Being empty inside makes it easier to move.

If only nowhere fast?

It’s ok when God kills

Especially her God.

May the scorched earth be with…wait am I late?

Not by my watch.

People will like your ideas because they don’t have any.

He begged [and begged and begged] to differ.

The saddest part is I believe what I say.

And here we have more than our share of those who believe what they say: https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=197924

[iambiguous]

Alain de Benoist

Adam and Eve, placed in the garden of Eden, find themselves forbidden to eat of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). Catholic theologians believe this “knowledge” forbidden by Elohim-Yahweh is neither omniscience nor moral discernment, but the ability to decide what is good or evil. Jewish theology is more subtle. The “tree” of the knowledge is interpreted as the representation of a world where good and evil “are in a combined state,” where there is no absolute Good and Evil. In other words, the “tree” is a foreshadowing of the real world we live in, a world where nothing is absolutely clear cut, where moral imperatives are tied to human values, and where everything of any greatness and importance always takes place beyond good and evil. Furthermore, in the Hebrew tradition “to eat” means “to assimilate.” To eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is therefore to personally enter this real world where human initiative “combines” good and evil. Adam’s transgression, from which all the others are derived, is clearly “that of autonomy,” accordingly, as emphasized by Eisenberg and Abecassis, this would be “the desire to conduct his own history alone in according to his own desire and his own word or law.

Hopefully, this finally clears that up.

Decadence in modern mass multicultural societies begins at a moment when there is not longer any discernible meaning within society. Meaning is destroyed by raising individualism above all other values because rampant individualism encourages the anarchical proliferation of egotism at the expense of the values that were once part of the national heritage, values that give form to the concept of nationhood and the nation state, to a state which is more than just a political entity, and which corresponds to a particular people who are conscious of sharing a common heritage for the survival of which they are prepared to make personal sacrifices.

See, I told you.

“One can have a society without God,” writes Régis Debray, “but there cannot be a society without religion.” He adds, “Those nations on the way to disbelief are on the path to abdication.” One can also cite Georges Bataille, according to whom, “religion, whose essence is the search for lost intimacy, boils down to a clearly conscious effort to become entirely self-conscious."

Definitely maybe, right?

Yahweh accepts that man has a history, but he strives to neutralize it by giving it a purpose, which is precisely the return to the pre-historical state of paradisiacal “innocence.”

Not necessarily your Yahweh of course.

As man has managed to turn himself into a player of the world, the sole thing that can now prevent him from using all his possibilities of playing, is to make him believe that he did not invent the rules of the game.

Let's exchange games.
And rules.

Universalism is a corruption of objectivity. Whereas objectivity is achieved from particular things, universalism claims to define particularity from an abstract notion posed arbitrarily.

Way, way, way up in the clouds.

[iambiguous]

Philosophy Tweets

"I am I plus my circumstances." Jose Ortega y Gasset

Among other things, cue dasein.

“The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.” Arthur Schopenhauer

Ah, the pinheads!

"The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity." Arthur Schopenhauer

Next up [of course]: the philosopher.

"Indeed, the whole of our society may be likened to a black comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid." Arthur Schopenhauer

Actually, that's not quite pessimistic enough for some of us.

"If you want to reach a large audience appeal to idiots." Arthur Schopenhauer

Got a few of them here, he groused.

I like people who shake other people up and make them feel uncomfortable." Jim Morrison

He'd love me then.

[Ichthus77]

It’s not delivery, it’s Adorno.

I’ll have what he’s having, as long as it’s not global oppression.

[iambiguous]

Joe Abercrombie

If a man seeks to change the world, he should first understand it.

Or fail to understand it the least.

When life is a cell, there is nothing more liberating than captivity.

You tell me.

Amazing the rubbish idiots will believe if you shout it loudly enough.

Even after they promise to leave us.

Conscience and the cock-rot are hardly equivalent, snapped Lorsen.
Indeed, said Cosca, significantly. The cock-rot is rarely fatal.

Never killed anyone here, he suspected. Though, sure, it might have.

To the starving man, bread is beautiful. To the homeless man, a roof is beautiful. To the drunkard, wine is beautiful. Only those who want for nothing else need find beauty in a lump of rock

My guess: you'll make of this what you will.

Call it art, you can get away with anything.

Or, here, call it philosophy.

[iambiguous]

Philosophy Tweets

"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free." Arthur Schopenhauer

You know, being optimistic.

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." Arthur Schopenhauer

I know, I know: what if that was true here!

"After your death you will be what you were before your birth." Arthur Schopenhauer

Uh, nothing at all?

“It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.” Victor Hugo

Their lies of course.

"Necessary illusions enable us to live." Ingmar Bergman

God on down.

“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.” Victor Hugo

So, what's that make The New ILP then?

[iambiguous]

Thomas Ligotti

Whatever else we may be as creatures that go to and fro on the earth and walk up and down upon it, we are meat. A cannibalistic tribe that once flourished had a word to describe what they ate. That word translates as “the food that talks.” Most of the food that we have eaten over the course of human history has not talked. But it does make other noises, terrible sounds as it is converted from living meat to dead meat on the slaughterhouse floor. If we could hear these sounds every time we sat down to a hearty meal, would we still be the wanton gobblers of flesh that most of us are now?

Uh, cue dasein?

As a rule, anyone desirous of an audience, or even a place in society, might profit from the following motto: “If you can’t say something positive about humanity, then say something equivocal.”

Indeed, I'm not iambiguous here for nothing.

And we will persist in chasing the impossible until we are no more.

Let's exchange lists.

...this heartbreaking sadness I suffer every minute of the day (and night), this killing sadness that feels as if it will never leave me no matter where I go or what I do or whom I may ever know.

You'll be there or you won't.

In a world without a destination, we cannot even break ground on our Tower of Babel, and no amount of rush and hurry on our part will change that.

Of course, that won't stop you, right?

...reason is merely the mouthpiece of emotion.

Bullshit sure. Unless of course it's not.

[Ichthus77]

Who?

We love you even though you’re as passive aggressive as a woman.

¡Speak for yourself!

[iambiguous]

Philosophy Tweets

"I remember those days with Bergman with great nostalgia. We were aware that the films were going to be quite important, and the work felt meaningful." Max von Sydow

Wow! Just like in Hollywood!!

"All of this is really impossible, in the way that it is really impossible that monkeys should by chance type out a copy of Hamlet." Hilary Putnam

Or stage a production.

"...science has put us in the position of having to live without foundations. It was shocking when Nietzsche said this, but today it is commonplace; our historical position---and no end to it is in sight---is that of having to philosophise without 'foundations'." Hilary Putnam

And, if nothing else, I'm here to remind you. And, of course, her.

"Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a God." Aristotle

Next up: the wild God.

“Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.” Jorge Luis Borges

Rebuttal please, Mr. Pinhead.

"Choice, not chance, determines your destiny." Aristotle

Right. Like it cannot possibly be a profoundly complex intertwining of both. Besides, how can a destiny be reconciled with choice?

[iambiguous]

Bart D. Ehrman

You can’t believe something just because someone else desperately wants you to.

Tell that to the pinheads.

In Matthew, Jesus declares, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” In Mark, he says,“Whoever is not against us is for us.” Did he say both things? Could he mean both things? How can both be true at once? Or is it possible that one of the Gospel writers got things switched around?



The Bible, at the end of the day, is a very human book.

He means "human all too human" of course.

Within three hundred years Jesus went from being a Jewish apocalyptic prophet to being God himself, a member of the Trinity. Early Christianity is nothing if not remarkable.

He means your own "private and personal" early Christianity of course.

Most televangelists, popular Christian preacher icons, and heads of those corporations that we call megachurches share an unreflective modern view of Jesus--that he translates easily and almost automatically into a modern idiom. The fact is, however, that Jesus was not a person of the twenty-first century who spoke the language of contemporary Christian America (or England or Germany or anywhere else). Jesus was inescapably and ineluctably a Jew living in first-century Palestine. He was not like us, and if we make him like us we transform the historical Jesus into a creature that we have invented for ourselves and for our own purposes.

On the other hand, anything for a buck.

Jesus would not recognize himself in the preaching of most of his followers today. He knew nothing of our world. He was not a capitalist. He did not believe in free enterprise. He did not support the acquisition of wealth or the good things in life. He did not believe in massive education. He had never heard of democracy. He had nothing to do with going to church on Sunday. He knew nothing of social security, food stamps, welfare, American exceptionalism, unemployment numbers, or immigration. He had no views on tax reform, health care (apart from wanting to heal leprosy), or the welfare state. So far as we know, he expressed no opinion on the ethical issues that plague us today: abortion and reproductive rights, gay marriage, euthanasia, or bombing Iraq. His world was not ours, his concerns were not ours, and--most striking of all--his beliefs were not ours.

Right, like that will stop the pinheads here from preaching their gospels.
Starting of course with her.

[iambiguous]

Philosophy Tweets

“Reality is not always probable, or likely.” Jorge Luis Borges

Mine always is. At least so far.

“The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.” Herodotus

And, no, I'm sure, not just me here.

"Life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it's meaningless." Albert Camus

Another rendition of this perhaps: https://youtu.be/Ylu0O0_rTMI

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." Albert Camus

I know that I once did.

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it." Albert Camus

Nihilism for example.

"Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily." Epicurus

We don't call him Epicurus for nothing.

[iambiguous]

Laurie Anderson

Performance art is about joy, about making something that's so full of kind of a wild joy that you really can't put into words.

Much like performance posting here.

Last night, I had that dream again. I dreamt I had to take a test, in a Dairy Queen, on another planet.

Mars as often as not.

I'm not usually where I think I am. It's kind of spooky.

Like, for example, I'm not here.

. . . I wrote a letter to Thomas Pynchon asking, Can I have your permission to try to make an adaptation of your book? And I had no idea that he would answer me, because he's pretty elusive. But he did send a letter back that said, Yes, you can do that - as long as the only instrument in the opera is a banjo. I thought, That's an interesting way of saying No.

Actually, a banjo would seem to suggest maybe. On the other hand, a bagpipe...

People are really suffering these days. There's a lot of corporate triumph and a lot of personal despair as they wonder what are they working for.

Isn't it still the America Dream?

As an artist I'd choose the thing that's beautiful more than the one that's true.

Let's debunk this.