Of Course You're Right, But...

There's this thing that happens in philosophical inquiry wherein one advances a position and is met with the dreaded, "Of Course You're Right, But..." response. It's as if particular individuals free their selves from the shackles of Plato's cave, creep to the entrance, glance outside, shit their selves, and then run screaming back to their states of bondage as they happily stare at the reflections upon the wall.

I do not think that there are any deep truths towards which one much delve. I do not think that there is a veil to reality which must be cast aside to reveal the Truth. Hell, I'll go so far as to state that Truth is neither deep nor veiled in the classic sense. It's not about seeming. It's about how things are.

If there is a veil it is a veil placed over one's own eyes. If there is delving to do one is always only ever digging through layers which one has posited onto the situation. Truth is the foundation, reality is the foundation, and that foundation is always only ever brazenly apparent, obvious, and accessible.

Every human being will die. That's the classic "obvious" truth. Every human being to ever be impacted, influenced, or helped will die. And "Of Course You're Right, But..." human beings still have to do something in the meantime. It's all futile, but in very tiny slices things may be meaningful.

All meaning is posited by human beings. If I care about a particular person then that caring is self-maintained, self-posited. I posit meaning onto a particular person. But that meaning only ever exists in my positing that meaning. So, there's really no meaning independent of that meaning being posited. And "Of Course You're Right, But..." human beings still posit meaning. One will recognize that one's spouse or significant other is merely a fish out of a sea and a great many other people can fulfill that role. But one still maintains the illusion of particular significance.

It's the scene from Pulp Fiction with the Gold Watch. Captain Koons explains the history of the watch. Butch posits meaning onto the watch. But that meaning only ever exists in the positing. There is nothing "meaningful" about the watch in and of itself. To gain meaning one must posit the recognition that the watch was in Butch's father's ass for five years and in Captain Koons' ass for two years after that. That only exists, though, in its being posited, in it's being maintained by beings who posit meaning.

Which does not mean that human beings have to not posit meaning. It does not mean that human beings need to never do anything. It does not mean that human beings need to kill their selves. It doesn't mean anything. And that's truth. It's not deep. It's not elusive. It's not veiled. It's obvious, intuitive, accessible. It's simply the way things are.

So I think that instead of saying "Of Course You're Right, But..." simply remove the "But". Stop trying to get meaning, value, worth, love, or any of it. Simply recognize how things are.

There is a particular thing. One maintains great affection for that particular thing. Yet the affection only exists in its being maintained. So one may certainly maintain that affection. Yet I think it sensible to recognize the relation of that affection and the thing. Recognize how things are. Recognize the fluidity of being.

It's not about meaning or value or love. It's about living one's life.

And saying "fuck you" a lot.

Christopher Hitchens hates Hillary Clinton

I like Christopher Hitchens.

Zero Punctuation: Guitar Hero World Tour

Fallout 3

FALLOUT 3 SPOILER (to the extent that I say something about how I feel about the ending)

Man, you know when you're playing your big open-ended RPG and you can do whatever you want, and like, there's this one time where you told a guy you would go kill some dudes, but then you talked to those dudes and they seemed ok, so you helped them work things out with the guy who wanted them to die? And you're all "hah, I chose how I wanted to resolve that issue and found a solution with very desirable results!"

And then you think about some of those other RPGs where your choices are pretty much limited to playing the game or not playing the game. Or those games where you get YES/NO choices, but if you answer wrong, they'll ask you again until you answer correctly. And you think, "haha, this game involves me much more than those games! I'm finally important somewhere!"

And then that big open-ended game suddenly tells you what to do, and you're like "wait, that's a terrible idea, what it is that you're telling me to do. I have a better idea, wait here" and you try to choose how to resolve the situation in a way that would yield more desirable results and the game is like "no, man. Fucking do what I told you to do" and you look around and realize that you're being date raped. It was all flowers and free dinner ten minutes ago, but now it's a cock in your ass. Maybe that's a little overstated. It's more like spending sixty bucks on a LEGO set with bricks that can be assembled in hundreds of different ways, but for some reason the last brick won't fit where you want it to go no matter what you do.

In other words, Fallout 3 is not an open-ended game. It is an open-middled game.

*Note: Only read the comments if you want spoilers.

Palin Turkey Slaughter [chat]

Happy Thanksgiving

They're Coming to Your town!

They're Coming to Your Town!


Umm. yeah. comments? anyone?

Official post-thanksgiving thing at my house this year

I'm officially opening my doors for people to show up at my house and pass time after thanksgiving this year. Doors open as soon as my parents leave. I'll print some directions in the comments, call me if you need help getting there as my house doesn't exist on google or any gps system yet.

Fun and revelry will be had by all.

I went ahead and editted a google map to give you a visual image of the directions.