One of my core assumptions is that life might improve in some ways at some times for some people, but for most of us the conditions of life won't get much better: every step forward brings a push back, or we sidestep or turn into another situation that ain't much better. And complicating our lives--struggling even harder, or facing more or more difficult choices--is more likely to increase fatigue and frustration than to increase our satisfaction with our lives. At bottom we are very simple primates, not a breed of demigods.
Life's winners are those who don't care very much for other people, either as individuals or groups, and who view life as a succession of conquests: what matters is fulfilled desires--piles of spoils, racks of skulls, rows of medals--regardless of the cost to other people, and without more mental exertion than needed to get what they want this time. Their minds are focused, their desires are few, their theories are instrumental, and their ethics are self-justifications. "I see, I want, I take, I win."
The small injuries they might suffer provide battle scars to show off, proof that they deserved that ripe fruit because they pushed through briars to get it. Regardless of whose land they were on, or who they had to knock aside. Consequences are for other people, and if they spare a thought for what souls they might have they're confident of absolution.
A case in point: Donald Trump is President. And he can always pardon himself, or get Pence to pardon him.
Those who preach otherwise are probably trying to sell you something you don't really need.
And me? "Lead, follow, or get out of the way": I don't care very much about leading, and I refuse to follow, so I stay out of the way. This took years to learn, though it was always my default option. In this state my needs are few, my desires simple, my conscience clear.
You might think me one of life's losers, compensating myself for my failures and avoiding more damage; or you might see me as another kind of winner, one who sees the apple is wormy and blighted. In the latter case I'm beyond good and evil, in the former I'm beneath it.
Either way I sit here, removed from the fray, watching you apes maul one another: here in a warm dry place, with a full belly, with my door locked and no one to vex me. A perch from which to point and giggle.
I
am a simple primate with the luxury of imagining myself to be a
nihilist buddha. I have accomplished all I really needed to; all that
remains is to keep it till I die.
Worship me or fuck off.
