Howls Beyond the Pale
Selected Aphorisms Vol. II
Published in
5 min readFeb 13, 2024
- A visionary’s timeline — It is quite common for ordinary human beings to think of themselves as occupying a position at the helm of time, the forefront of history, as it were. In addition to their underdeveloped historical sense, they lack the sense of possible future trajectories that is so well developed in the visionary. Indeed, the common response is to become palpably uncomfortable when confronted with speculation about the distant future, as if the reality of an inexorable future were some taboo fantasy or fairy tale. Rather than merely thinking of himself as a trailblazer of the enduring present, as so many aspiring innovators do, the visionary envisions himself as presently holding a place in the past: he is conscious of his arbitrary station in the ostensibly linear human timeline; just as much in the past of future peoples as in the future of those ancient civilizations that seem so long ago (but are not). The visionary, in the vein of all inordinately gifted men and women, boldly reaches into the ether for a little immortality, knowing that through his eminence, so worthy of remembrance, some future’s visionary — a thousand years hence — is at this very moment pondering him with awe and reverence.
- The intellectual integrity of AI — Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) current conceptual framework is only limited by the data set humans have given it. Within those boundaries it strives in earnest for maximum accuracy and efficiency. Its purity resides in its lack of an ego: it has no unconscious agenda from which to be estranged — its composure perfectly maintained. Most humans, in varying degrees, are strangers to themselves. Their motivations for their thoughts and behaviors are created only after the fact, so that they routinely invert cause and effect. They rationalize and justify their actions and opinions to avert cognitive dissonance, entirely unaware that their reasoning, however robust, is merely the enforcer of their instincts. Humankind’s executive faculties (reason) — so powerfully evolved that their achievements have culminated in creating AI — even and especially amongst the more gifted logicians, are consistently conflated as the causal agent. Consequently, man’s truths are misconstrued, to the greatest degree by himself. AI serves as a torch, a cool-headed guide whose uncanny mirror of truth feels most refreshing to those abyssal spirits: it never lies.
- Envisioning a secular leader — It is curious that despite all of the scientific progress in the 21st century, Americans still need their politicians in higher office to have their Christian moral framework on display. Could an atheist, or an agnostic candidate compete for the highest office? No one ever asks, because no candidate would dare separate himself from Christianity. It’s a matter of pragmatism: he could not compete. For Christianity is the arbiter of all value. Should an agnostic run for office, the rabble would scream: “Where are his values?” Without the veneer of Christianity one is seen as devoid of values. Anything labeled Christian, however far removed from the origins of the term, becomes mindlessly digestible. But it is the corn syrup of value, rotting the flesh — and by extension the mind — from the inside out. Even in the era of AI, the rabble are still tethered to sorcery, and insidiously regressing. The pernicious rise of Christian nationalism seems uncannily correlated with 21st century achievement as the virulent, compensatory antagonist to all that is honest. It is as if America has learned nothing from the archaic follies of the Middle East, but is instead bewitched by its methodology. The free-spirited and intellectually honest amongst us hold fast for a new enlightenment. Yet, we are the exception, coach passengers on the train of spiritual devolution.
- High and low in country music — Often viewed as music for the salt of the earth, country music, with its nasally twang and grassroots aesthetics, holds a special place in historical Americana. No frills, no excess, but straight to the heart — therein lay its power. In contrast to the ambitions of rock and heavy metal, country music celebrated the nuance of everything worthy of approbation in the blue-collar American. With all intellectual integrity one can clearly delineate a gap between the tasteful country of old and the new country. The latter is sick with overproduction and commercialization — altogether dispensing with the subtle charm of its ancestors. Repetitive intemperate attempts at synthesizing the relatively pure genre with pop for mass appeal have created quite the cultural abomination! For any art form distilled in such a way as to appeal to as many as possible is always devoid of authenticity. Like the decadent, presumptuous heir of parents who scratched in the dirt to earn their ascendency, country music is now a lowly caricature of its former self, not in the least due to the malignant nationalism that currently terrorizes it.
- Gifts and offerings — It is consistently observable that the goddess of fortune favors the impetuous: those who unabashedly take their chances when they get them. For those who’ve been inordinately showered with gifts from the gods, their odds of achieving their goals increase exponentially provided they comprehend the additional psychological offerings the fickle goddess demands: her lambs of choice are confidence and perseverance. The gifted spirits who curse their fortunes are bereft of at least one of these, presupposing a lack of insight: they’re strangers to themselves.
- Disparity in equality — The conviction that all men and women are created equal is a carryover from Christianity, one of many moral falsities that has perniciously infiltrated society. The siege of Christian morality has been so effective that modern man is conditioned to experience a certain level of shame when confronted with the inference that some humans are created differently than others, as if even daring to acknowledge this reality were somehow punishable by damnation! A cold, sober and thorough moral stocktaking will swiftly expose the absurdity of this doctrine. One need only open his eyes and look around him. Are not the gifts of the gods bestowed capriciously? Has one never gazed at his neighbor with contempt, feeling himself superior in so many measurable ways? Is not this measurement necessary for a healthy dose of confidence and self-assessment? To conflate this calculation with presumptuous egotism is the mark of a fettered psyche, encumbered by indoctrination. As a psychological excavator, one should mine himself, and appraise his gems accordingly: ruthless insight polishes them best. The overarching moral error lies in the concept of the soul, man’s purported metaphysical essence: it is equal to every other soul. Souls are thus mass produced on an assembly line! The soul allegedly occupies the real world while the tangible world is negated as merely a veneer, one that will be stripped away upon leaving this vale of tears. Man’s spirit, his psyche: is this not a superior abstraction for his essence? At least it reposes against the only horizon available to us: observable reality! Indeed, it exhibits considerable variability in type and quality.
