Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is, “Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,” … but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.'”
No, a problem only arises when instead of being a supplement to your life—an occasional relaxing indulgence–passive amusements become a substitution, a way to feel better about something you personally lack. … And this is the real danger of spectatoritis run amok—it allows us to experience vicariously the virtues of others, without having to cultivate them ourselves.
Certainly, patriotism can take an explicitly amoral form: “My country, right or wrong.” But even strong traditional patriots can accept moral limits on the means we use to advance the cause of our country. They may agree, for example, that it’s wrong to threaten Canada with nuclear annihilation to obtain a more favorable trade agreement.
But the moral problem for patriotism arises at a deeper level. Suppose the question is not about blatantly immoral means but simply about whether our country should flourish at the expense of another? Suppose, for example, that at some point Saudi Arabia, now allied with China, threatened to curtail our access to its oil, thereby significantly reducing our productivity and tipping the balance of world economic power to China.
First off, I want to be clear that I support our troops. They should have the best training, the best commanders, the best weapons and the best physical/psychological support during and after their service. If we’ve committed our people to a mission, right or wrong, our people deserve our unqualified support.
It’s the administration, and the highest levels of the military, of which I am critical.
I know a lot of people who cheered patriotically when our troops invaded Iraq and Afghanistan — I stared in disbelief thinking: That’s bad. We just invaded a sovereign country. Yes, it was certainly a run-down, backwards country led by an explitive — but a sovereign country none the less.
I hope no one decides we need to be straightened out… oh, wait, the cold war. We narrowly dodged that bullet didn’t we. Oh, and now China, . . . maybe we should get our own stuff in order before we nationally act as if we know what’s best for the world?
Throughout history, irony has served useful purposes, like providing a rhetorical outlet for unspoken societal tensions. But our contemporary ironic mode is somehow deeper; it has leaked from the realm of rhetoric into life itself. This ironic ethos can lead to a vacuity and vapidity of the individual and collective psyche.
I’m not concerned with — or perhaps, “I’m not interested in spending time on” — the stylistic ironies which are common today. I see no point in assaulting things like “hipster” fashion, when every generation criticizes the fashion of the next. I seriously say: Sure, fine, whatever.
However, it does seem that there is a lot of “shallow” out there; Shallow thinking in particular. That scares the crap out of me.
If the FBI, and CNN, and NBC, and the New York Post, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and All Of Us, could get the Atlanta bombing so tragically wrong in 1996, they, and we, can do it today. In the days to come, it would behoove All Of Us to take what the FBI, and CNN, and NBC, and the New York Post, and their ilk, have to say about suspects and motives with a grain of salt.
What if someone invented a service where, instead of having to check all your important blogs, instead of having to check Twitter and Tumblr a million times a day, you could get all the updates in one place? Great idea!
Free is so prevalent in our industry not because everyone’s irresponsible, but because it works. … In other industries, this is called predatory pricing, and many forms of it are illegal because they’re so destructive to healthy businesses and the welfare of an economy. But the tech industry is far less regulated, younger, and faster-moving than most industries. We celebrate our ability to do things that are illegal or economically infeasible in other markets with productive-sounding words like “disruption”.
Here’s an interesting form of murder we’ve come up with: assassination. You know what’s interesting about assassination? Well, not only does it change those popularity polls in a big fucking hurry, but it’s also interesting to notice who it is we assassinate. D’you ever notice who it is; stop to think who it is we kill? It’s always people who’ve told us to to live together in harmony and try to love one another. Jesus, Gandhi, Lincoln, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, John Lennon. They all said “Try to live together peacefully.” BAM! Right in the fuckin’ head. Apparently, we’re not ready for that.
This entry is part 2 of 72 in the series My Journey
If you want to repeat that little jump at an angle to a moss covered wall all day until you can do it with your eyes closed… well my friend, you are not alone. I want to repeat that jump with you. But let’s do 50, just to be sure. And one more for the others who can’t join us. That’ll do us both more good than that big roof gap whilst you hold the camera.
By now, all of my friends know I practice parkour with Lehigh Valley Parkour. I’m pushing 42, with graying hair and the BMI calculator says 34.9, (which is “obesity.”) So when people first find out, they raise an eyebrow and say, “You’re a brave soul!” or “Huh? The jumping from roof-top to roof-top thing?!”. …my answer is ‘no’ to both of those.
Please do not go to TouYube and look up parkour; Total waste of your time. This is one of those Catch-22 things where the people who believe — quietly, to themselves — that they “get it”… well, those people aren’t posting spectacular videos on TouYube. So you don’t notice their point of view on the whole thing.
I am not saying, “those people over there have it wrong.” I am not saying, “parkour is the One True Path(tm)”. I am not saying, “these ideas are to be found only through parkour.”
I am saying parkour is…
…a journey composed of tiny steps so easy that failure is impossible.
…the grueling, deconstructing, work of self-improvement.
…that well-earned sense of accomplishment.
…the joie-de-vivre that I hadn’t noticed I let slip away.
Playfulness.
Freedom.
…and one more for the others who can’t join us. :*)
I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don’t respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.
For 57 words, that does a pretty good job of summing it up. “Kindness” covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
