Death Beckons

[Secular Sanity]

A friend of mine noted the other night (under the influence) that he thinks it's impossible to be an intelligent person and not be depressed.

Yes, but melancholy is a different species that arises when we’re open to the fragility of our ideals, the inherent challenges, and grief that life presents.  It’s not a disorder that needs to be cured.  It contributes to our development, but you already know that, don't you?

So its not sin, its not insanity, and there is no "to be sure" about it.

I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's vanity.

7 billion.
It means nothing. Other than to the immediate circle, which is so much smaller than it once was. Well... Facebook.

You’ve read Rand, right?

What do you dream of?
Nothing.  Of what account are dreams?
Of what account is life?
None.  But who made it so?
Those who cannot dream.
No.  Those who can only dream.

Those who do not dream value only what is close at hand and have nowhere to go.  Those who dream don’t go anywhere, but they do live their own lives, and according to their own values.   Knowledge and action are connected, you can see that.

You ever sat there and hummed a surname in tune with some particular theme from a movie when considering something? 
While I'm sitting here wondering what to type, I've got Vader's theme from Star Wars going through my head... Donne, Donne, Donne, Doonnnnne Donne, D-Donne D-Donne.

If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that you're following me, peeking at my bookmarks.

The Imperial March vs. Stars and Stripes Forever; both convey a message.  One of superiority, inflicting fear. The other, seductive comradery, but both are equally dangerous.  

"They were shining there for you and me, for liberty, Fernando."

However, in the original Swedish version, the narrator tries to console the heartbroken Fernando, who has lost his great love. "The sorrow can be hard to bear, but the fact that friends let us down is something we all have to cope with". The chorus' lyrics are: "Long live love, our best friend, Fernando. Raise your glass and propose a toast to it; to love, Fernando. Play the melody and sing a song of happiness. Long live love, Fernando". [1]

I'm wondering if I admire martyrs or not. On the one hand, there's that biological imperative (for want of a better term) decrying it as a particularly ridiculous act. On the other, there's poetry. And here we are back on the subject concerned with that platform from above from which we are able to see the reaction to our action. 

With regard to that pm, martyrdom seems particularly useless, doesn't it? 
For who are others, compared to the man who knows himself?

Yes, but I wonder sometimes for those who dare to dream, do they ever really learn who they are, or only what they are not?  Here be dragons, Ben.

*Edit - and then there is Yukio Mishima.

A struggle for sustenance is usually replaced by thumos, is it not?

"The hara-kiri is very important and very proud way of death. I think it’s very different from the western concept of suicide.  The western concept of suicide is always the defeated self, but hara-kiri makes you win."[1]

How could a man, who railed against vanity be so vain?

Morality:

"It can often paralyze the critical will with a single look, or even seduce it to itself: yes, there are even cases where morality can turn the critical will against itself ; so that then, like the scorpion, it thrusts the sting into its own body."

But unlike Yukio Mishima, who finds meaning for his life in preparing for a fatal goal, the scorpion does not kill itself when surrounded by fire.  The sting cannot penetrate the hard shell.  It's also immune to its own poison.  The scorpion is unable to regulate its own temperature.  It’s not stinging itself.  It’s having frantic spasms...like Syne.  [1]  

I think... I'm off to assassinate a princess.

Careful.  She may be wielding a claymore.

[Syne]

A friend of mine noted the other night (under the influence) that he thinks it's impossible to be an intelligent person and not be depressed. I would tend to tentatively agree. Not to the extent of being impossible, of course, but far more likely.

That, or alcohol is classified a depressant for a reason.