Americans Are Addicted To Outrage
posted by Winston Smith at
8:06 AM
Sunday, October 08, 2017
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14 Comments:
"...listen to right and do not foster violence; for violence is bad for a poor man. Even the prosperous cannot easily bear its burden, but is weighed down under it when he has fallen into delusion. The better path is to go by on the other side towards Justice; for Justice beats Outrage when she comes at length to the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learn this...lay up these things within your heart and listen now to right, ceasing altogether to think of violence."
...
"Badness can be got easily and in shoals; the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows; long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard."
...
"But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge, work...that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard."
...
"whatever be your lot, work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other men's property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you."
...
"So do: and avoid the talk of men. For Talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even Talk is in some ways divine."
I gotta say, I've basically ignored the outrage cycle for the last six months or so (hence my relatively infrequent posts here and rather quiet communications in general) and I have accomplished an unprecedented amount of work both professionally and personally.
Just, say, reducing our attic storage from 30 boxes to 8 well-labeled, indexed boxes is a huge relief. Digitizing all of our paper documents into a file system which preserves their integrity and arranging off-site backups for them is another huge relief.
I never wanted to permit myself this sort of single-minded focus on my personal affairs, thinking it best not to be an idiot (in the classic sense of the word), and not wanting to believe or operate on the belief that there's nothing I can do at a social level which will have a meaningful impact, but man...
I'm thinking it might be that the best response we can have to our current situation (i.e. trump vs. illiberal leftists) is to optimize the hell out of our lives so that we're as ready as possible for any actual disaster which may well occur.
Yeah, I've had similar thoughts.
Believe me, I want to check out.
Thing is, I'm inclined to think that I'm strategically positioned...someone who will speak out about the madness on the left with some chance of influencing one bit of a university to not go crazy...which then has some chance of influencing the rest of the university not to go crazy.
It's hard for me to look away from the train wreck...I'll admit that...as if it weren't obvious. But I also think it's unwise for me to retreat from the fray right now.
But good on you for doing it. I've come to think of it all as being just like a slightly more boring version of entertainment fads. There's hardly any serious thought in it all. It's just f*cking stupid.
Yeah, your professional life is more interwoven with the matter than mine, and that does count for something.
But maybe you could like, I dunno, write articles that can be published in some manner that gives you a greater return on your efforts. If you fail to influence the right folks, at least you could gain professionally from the publications.
I don't know how accomplishable that actually would be, but those are the kinds of life optimizations I've been finding extremely valuable: work in a way that diversifies results, so that a failure here or there doesn't crater the whole endeavor.
Yeah, this blog is just for blowing off steam...but I do too much of it.
I'm kinda not interested in putting a lot of work into it...and there aren't really any professional venues for stuff like this.
I'm not dismissing the idea out of hand. I'm just skeptical.
Man, there's gotta be something out there. You can write circles around most other published political articles in your sleep. There's gotta be some sensible way to publish your work in a more valuable manner.
I've always found you to be the best source of political thought I have, so I certainly don't mean to argue against more posts on this blog, but...
You should write for The Atlantic or somethin.
I don't know crap about getting such a gig going, but I'll be damned if I know anyone's work I'd rather see broadcasted more strongly.
dawww....
Please listen to The Mystic
Do you guys know how bad I am at publishing shit?
I'm like...really, really bad at it. I have like a gift for producing subtly unpublishable material...except when I produce overtly unpublishable material...
Fix it
Hmm...never thought of that...
Also, editors.
I heartily second anonymous above. I found this in May and it is now my first site to check in the day.
Well, damn...ok...I'll totally give this some thought.
So it takes some literally anonymous posts on the Interwebs (no offense to our obviously astute anonymous companions) to push you to take me seriously, eh?
I see how it is.
I wish I could upvote this comment, but since I can’t, I shall nest a reply documenting the wish.
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