This is actually a reply to one of pudge's entries, but it got long, and I think pudge reads me anyway, so here goes...
I wish to thank you for saying this, sincerely. I have never quite heard this phrased this way, and now that I have heard it echoed outside my head, I must ask you a philosophical question that perhaps is inappropriate here. (I don't have any other place to ask it, unfortunately.)
You are not important. You are not interesting. What you think does not benefit other people.If these things are true, then what possible purpose could I serve in the great chain of humanity? If I am not important, why am I here? If I am not interesting, why bother at all with me? And if what I think doesn't benefit people, then why should I bother to think? And, more importantly, what can I do so that I am important, so that I am interesting, and so that my thoughts do benefit other people (and hopefully myself as well)?
I've never been able to ask this question in quite this way because I've never seen the statement made quite this way, but I've asked it of so many people I lose count. Roughly every reply given to me boiled down roughly to either What else is there to do? or else You are important, trust me! but nothing quite stops this nagging sensation that you're right. I keep feeling that those things you said are absolutely true, and I feel that they're true most of the time.
So, I non-sarcastically ask -- what do I do about it?
Re:The answer is plain
jordan on 2003-08-28T23:50:31
And remember, with Pudge and JJohn you get salvation guaranteed or TRIPLE your money back!subgenius
gizmo_mathboy on 2003-08-29T03:20:46
But Bob Dobbs already has given me that guarantee! What more can pudge and jjohn give me that's more valuable than slack?Re:subgenius
jordan on 2003-08-29T04:43:59
The great religions all borrow from one another and so also does The Holy See of Pudge and JJohn borrow from Bobism.
More valuable than slack? Slack is priceless and therefore without value!
Palace of Wisdom
gizmo_mathboy on 2003-08-30T04:26:26
The path of excess leads to wisdom, as slack leads to salvation. The worthless value of slack is what makes it so value like the worthlessness of water makes it more valuable than gasoline.
I can't really speak for pudge, but I doubt very much that he denies that true greatness can exist in individuals or that life is meaningless.
I believe that true greatness can only come from great humility.
Humility is the one thing that the bloggers don't have. It's their damning flaw. Pudge was using strong language to make this point clear.
Re:Seriously though...
chaoticset on 2003-08-31T14:53:01
I don't think he thinks that either. What I'm more or less asking is how to try to achieve that.I can't really speak for pudge, but I doubt very much that he denies that true greatness can exist in individuals or that life is meaningless.I'm already suspecting that the answer here lies in a balance, a precarious one, between humility and hubris.
This interleaves with my recent notion that perhaps balance is what I lack in most endeavors, and not anything else, necessarily.
