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The loneliest number - a bit of a ramble

Started by Asmodean, October 20, 2020, 11:08:34 AM

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Asmodean

Quote from: Trent ReznorYou are someone else - I am still right here

Well, good folks, it's that time of the year. The Asmo returneth with His by now traditional Random Return Ramblings. Let's get right into it.

On politics and the expanding Universe

I've talked about this before, probably at length, but the fact remains; as the world gets ever smaller, and the news, sensations and stories get ever closer, it seems like people - ordinary people - are further apart than ever before. Lately, I've come to realize that I've more-or-less lost yet another... Friend, I suppose is the correct word by its common application. In any case, lost me another one of those to the growing chasms caused by, on a personal level, rather irrelevant bullshit of political and ideological persuasion.

It's kind-of like the expanding Universe model - the galaxies are "where they've always been," there is just more space between them. If you ask my pretty-much former pretty-much friend, he's still where he has "always been," and I have moved away from that place. If you ask me - you'll get the same answer, with the roles reversed. I'm pretty sure I can construct a good argument for my position having changed little, simply by virtue of not caring enough for most of the divisive issues for it to be relevant in my everyday interactions, but one has to wonder; can he construct my exact same argument and apply to himself? If so, and if at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter... Then why the ever-increasing distance? And if that distance is not overly relevant, why the increased exclusion?

Right, Left, Libertarian, Authoritarian, Traditionalist, Progressive, Atheist, Muslim... I'm happy to break bread with any of them. Yes, even the Communist and the Fascist. I'll happily have a polite, if blunt and overly verbose from my side, conversation with any-one who wants to engage - if nothing else, for curiosity and a chance of good company. I can and will. The "larger world" can't and won't. Not anymore. Being a curmudgeonly feller with a new gray hair appearing in his beard almost daily, I fail to understand the fashion - the need for being a victim, for externalizing blame, for ever looking to them for all things bad, and to us for all things good. I'd rather talk about why I'm wrong - and why you are.

Brexit, Trump, the rise of Populism in Europe... They are all a backlash - symptoms of... It's difficult to word precisely. A weakness, I suppose. Individuals and therefore their societies lacking the strength required to face the hostile Universe with their head held high, in stead attempting to mould it to their utopic ideals, to which they feel entitled. And where there is backlash, someone will always lash out against that, and so we get the rabid but utterly impotent counter-culture movements like Antifa and the more potent, insidious forces of "new-wave" Marxism, Intersectional politics and racial supremacy.

Historically, the war of counter cultures was reserved to the fringes of cultural, political and economic sphere. In the Universe which has expanded so much that no other galaxies are even in view, however... Those fringes are now the quadrants of our own - of mainstream. Thus, the bland Centrist who does not oppose abortion being legal is Communist scum and the equally-bland Centrist who refuses to use your weird-ass pronouns is a Nazi swine.

I wonder how long it will take for the dust to settle on this new reality, and if the settling of said dust will reveal the world of Mad Max rather than that of Star Trek Federation. Here, today, it certainly looks like the former. I don't blame the politicians, nor cops or the wealthy, the migrants or even The Systemâ„¢ - I have a mirror. Get one. You may not like what you see, or not see what is there, but you not seeing it does not diminish its reality.

While waiting to see if I need a bigger V8, here I am, at the centre of my Universe, which will ever continue growing away - in every direction. One is the loneliest number. Also, a legion. An army. One... Suits me.

Disclaimer: Not talking to or about any-one specific. Them's general ramblings.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Ecurb Noselrub

Good to hear that the center of your universe is still intact. Ramble on.

Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Randy

It's nice to see ol' Grumpy back in full form.
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

Asmodean

Why, thank you. The hairlines may creep backwards and the beards may take a whiteish tinge here and there, but some variables are invariable enough to be near-constants. Asmos ramble. As certainly as the seasons come and go.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Ecurb Noselrub

I also could have a conversation with anyone, irrespective of how different their views were from mine, as long as the conversation was civil.  That's difficult in the USA today.  Everyone demonizes everyone.  I understand the urge to be alone - I could handle a bit more of it.

Asmodean

It's not just the States. It's like that in the UK too - and even beyond the Northern anglosphere. Even some people within my own fair shores are becoming rabidly <insert an -ism>

...Must be nice to have everything figured out to such a degree that one's own opinions become The Way, The Truth and The Life. A "God-shaped hole," filled by faith of a different kind - though just as absolute. I do not possess such an orifice, but in the circles in which I move, some people apparently do. Then they convince the predisposed and the vicious cycle continues. Inquisitors coming for wrongthinkers, with literal torches sometimes, angry mobs pillaging and looting in the name of their ill-defined "gods..." History. It repeats. An asshole in different trousers, though it may be - it is an asshole still.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Magdalena

Hi, Asmodean. I was wondering where you were.  :reading:

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Icarus

Dear Gray one, you are waxing eloquent. Please continue. 


Bad Penny II

Quote from: Asmodean on October 20, 2020, 11:08:34 AM
Quote from: Trent ReznorYou are someone else - I am still right here

Well, good folks,

I'm offended by your exclusion of us bad folks in your intro.  >:(

Quote from: Asmodean on October 20, 2020, 11:08:34 AMFriend, I suppose is the correct word by its common application. In any case, lost me another one of those to the growing chasms caused by, on a personal level, rather irrelevant bullshit of political and ideological persuasion.

Good folks want to be friends with good folks, political and ideological persuasion is key to "good" status.
You can't just say you're indifferent, well you can, but that's bad.


Take my advice, don't listen to me.

Asmodean

I see your identity politics and raise you a Stephen Fry;


Good to see that you are still in possession of Her Majesty's hat collection  ;)
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Ecurb Noselrub

Yes, but what about Luxembourg?  Isn't everything prim and proper there, with all the bankers and such?  Very cordial, I'm sure. No incivility or display of emotion.  And no rats.  Should you go there on holiday, perhaps?

xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Asmodean

#13
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on October 21, 2020, 04:56:58 PM
Yes, but what about Luxembourg?  Isn't everything prim and proper there, with all the bankers and such?  Very cordial, I'm sure. No incivility or display of emotion.  And no rats.  Should you go there on holiday, perhaps?
It has been alleged that a rumor is going around about an Asmo being spotted giving some sort of virus to some Chinese food bats as a part of an elaborate scheme that may or may not have been aimed at a certain mountain dutchy in Europe.

Vicious slander, of course...

Quote from: Bad Penny II on October 21, 2020, 09:58:56 AM
Good folks want to be friends with good folks, political and ideological persuasion is key to "good" status.
You can't just say you're indifferent, well you can, but that's bad.
...But you can be indifferent. Actually, I think I can intertwine both points into a single answer;

I do not buy into the climate hysteria (Not to be confused with not buying into the climate change) and so I do not live my life as though it were a/my problem. It's not driven by malice, or even selfishness, but rather, by me refusing to alter that, with which I am largely content, based on an unconvincing argument about what in my world view is a non-issue. Thus, I lazily and largely indifferently avoid the labour. Still, I will not set fire to some Extinction Rebellion kid's dreads, and ye average Extinction Rebellion kid will not Molotov my diesel-powered car. Ok. Now, we have a line in the sand: don't burn each other's shit. Let's draw some more. And with our sandbox crisscrossed with lines, as long as we both respect them, then we are both "good folks."

This holds especially true on issues where there are no empirically correct answers - the oughts of our daily lives.

How is this relevant to what I've been saying? Thusly; the abovementioned pretty-much former pretty-much friend did not cross any of my lines in any meaningful way. The opposite is also true. As far as I'm concerned, he is one of the good folks - we just disagree on certain shades of gray in some larger issues. In my less-than-humble opinion, that's not a reason for unfriendliness - quite the opposite, in fact.

We are not enemies until the fires start - we just disagree. And should we agree that fire bad, then maybe recognizing that reality before a more serious conflict is unavoidable is preferable to just waiting to fight a war.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Magdalena

Quote from: Asmodean on October 22, 2020, 07:39:54 AM
...

We are not enemies until the fires start - we just disagree. And should we agree that fire bad, then maybe recognizing that reality before a more serious conflict is unavoidable is preferable to just waiting to fight a war.

Ooh, I like this.  :smilenod:


"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant