Enjoying the view from Limbo
A few thoughts on the eve of “the most consequential election in U.S. history,” as it is being advertised. (Sorry, in order for an election to be that, the U.S. would have to be the constitutional republic it once was, and civilization in a dangerous but reversible condition, neither of which is the case.) To be clear, mind you, I have no further...
The dream entertained by men of a totalitarian mind is an illusion that will quickly dissipate, if not during their lifetimes then very shortly thereafter. For all such men are craving immortality, as indeed we all are, but their peculiar notion of everlasting life entails creating a society so all-encompassing in its centralized control — which is to say under their personal control...
You cannot do what you have never attempted. You cannot attempt what you have never imagined. You cannot imagine what you have never seen. You cannot see what your faculties have never sought out. You cannot seek out what you have never desired. You cannot desire what you have never thought of. You cannot think of what you have never experienced. You cannot...
Everything in our experience can be divided in two. After all, that most basic division explains why we have our world of experience in the first place: the primordial world-egg was split in half, or God created heaven and earth, or the Yin and Yang were distinguished — as you please. And this is why we rational animals are so naturally apt to...
I suspect that the universe extends as far as the range of our vision — and I mean exactly that far. For I believe there is no universe, in any of the senses that we use that term, without perception. The universe — extension and time — is in part a product of the activity of enmattered souls, which is to say limited...
An alien perspective.– During my early years in Korea, I taught children, mostly elementary school students, at a private academy. Sometimes, with the younger groups, particularly if there were some rambunctious boys in the class, I would exploit my foreignness and their low English levels by teasing them with the claim that I was an alien. After a few incredulous guffaws from the...
To be eternal is not to live through an endlessly long time, but to live through no time. It is not like writing every book in the world, or counting every number to infinity, but rather like writing a single word that implies all books, or thinking “one” not as the beginning of a series but as all numbers simultaneously. To be eternal...
As you back away from a mirror, your reflection becomes smaller, and therefore less minutely detailed — but also, in another sense, more complete and true, due to the widening context. For a man seeking the truest image of himself, the goal is to hone his eyesight and maintain perfect focus, while viewing his reflection in ever more distant surfaces. The smaller he...
Jupiter and Saturn, as seen from South Korea — December 21st, 2020.
A beautiful world is a comforting thought, until you allow yourself the luxury of comparing that thought to our present reality, at which point the phrase “beautiful world” suddenly becomes a cruel mockery of our lives, and possibly a source of paralyzing cynicism. The danger of “idealism,” then, lies in its potential to eviscerate the will to live by making all hope appear...
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