7.31.2010

Aphorisms: Language / Aphorismen: Sprache

1. So-called philosophical problems are the result of too much sitting.

2. Men on bicycles or running or hunting for meat are philosophically untroubled men.

3. One is without language when one is out of breath.

4. Bad philosophy and abuses of language are a result of weakened bodily function, sicknesses, lethargy. To be untroubled philosophically is a physical state: a healthy one.

ORIGINAL GERMAN TEXT:

1. Sogenannten philosophischen Probleme sind das Ergebnis von zu viel sitzen.

2. Männer auf Fahrrädern oder Laufen oder die Jagd nach Fleisch sind philosophisch unbeschwerte Männer.

3. Einer ist ohne Sprache, wenn man außer Atem ist.

4. Bad Philosophie und Missbrauch der Sprache sind eine Folge der geschwächten körperlichen Funktion, Krankheiten, Lethargie. Um unbeschwert philosophisch ist ein Aggregatzustand: ein gesundes.

7.30.2010

Zettel


To live a long or short life is not relevant.
To have died at peak power is the only consideration.

7.28.2010

Recap 7/27/2010

So Paul the Pollock says, “You told Ken to rob a bank?”

“Where’d you hear that?” I says.

“I hear things,” Paul says. He’s got this big grin on his face.

“Did Ken tell you that?”

Paul just keeps smiling and doesn’t say anything.

Then I explain to Paulie how it really went:

I was sitting in the break room when Ken comes in from the parking lot, and suddenly he starts talking to me. The guy has never spoken a word to me before and I’ve never actually heard him speak other than the mumbling while he’s pushing carts. He starts talking about how life costs money, you got to pay for everything, there’s no way around not paying. I tell him there are a few things that won’t cost him anything. Going to the park, bird watching, maybe going to the beach and swimming and building sand castles. Ken thinks about these things. Then he tells me the government is taking most of his pay. What do you do about that? What would I do? I said I would flee the country. Make them look for you. You can push shopping carts in Mexico. Surely there are lot attendants there. Ken thought about it and responded that he didn’t want to leave. Well, I said, then the only other option is you got to rob a bank. Ken looks at me seriously. I said, That’s where they keep the money, isn’t it? Ken nodded. This made sense to him. Then, without saying anything further, he walked out of the break room.

****************************************************************************************************

Mario says, “Frank, you ever had your ass kicked?”

Frank stops shrink wrapping the pallet. “Yes, I have. Howie Blakely. July 4th, 1986.”

“He remembers the fucking day,” laughs Paulie.

Mario is laughing too.

“Howie Blakely was a big, big guy,” says Frank. “I was into the martial arts then for about 10 years. I had a little to drink and I start telling Howie Blakely that I don’t like him picking on my cousin and I say some other things I shouldn‘t have said. He comes at me and I have never been hit so hard. Blood just gushing from my mouth. [Frank bends over and motions with his hand how the blood poured from his mouth]. So then I kick his nuts up into his throat [Frank demonstrates the powerful straight kick to the groin he gave Howie Blakely]. But Howie Blakely keeps coming at me, it didn't stop him at all. And then his friends join in--and his friends are bigger than all of my friends. Ah, it was a bad day for Capasso. It was a bad day.”

7.27.2010

Further Fragments for a Prolegomena

First installment here.

It has been said that the best way to attract a woman is for a man to not give a fuck. To not care. To be aloof towards the woman as well as towards everything. The GAME guys have used this, mastered it even, as a pose to lure woman and to fuck them. It is a masquerade that is up quickly, however. They are playing a role, masquerading as a type, and the woman--any woman--can see this after a time. Of course, the GAME guys have gotten what they have wanted and moved along.

Nonetheless, the woman’s desire for this man is particularly meaningful. And it is in some ways unfortunate that the GAME guys would abuse this important aspect of the woman’s character/biology.

Because for the great man, who has overcome all, who truly gives not a fuck about anyone or anything--an outlaw and a creator--a woman will quickly sense this and be drawn to him. She will want him as the great prize of all prizes. She will want to mate with this man. (A woman, one might say, is the best evaluator of talent.)

Mating with this man is mating and procreating with the creator of new worlds. A woman will consider it her greatest gift to have this man’s child and to raise it. She will give birth to the promise of further novelty, further creation, leadership--the furthering of the new.

The average man does not interest her in this way. He cannot. He is a continuation of the same. He is not a leader of men, an outlaw, or a creator.

ADDITIONAL:

The creator-outlaw-leader is aloof precisely because he acts outside a society. He projects confidence and aloofness because those are the byproducts of his overcoming. The society and its language and customs are useless to him. It should be no surprise that when he encounters others it is with an aloof confidence.

A common male characteristic asked for by women in the personal want-ads is confidence. Certainly it would be the case that a man who stands apart or against the crowd is confident. He would need to be, or face destruction.

It must be repeated that a woman is the best evaluator of male talent.

It will be a woman, and not a man, who first recognizes the overman.

7.25.2010

Prostitution

"Then we talk until we disagree about something."


"Its fun here. If we could only find something to do."


1. One works to eat and to have shelter.
2. Work done for others in order to eat and keep out of the cold is justified. One must eat. One cannot sleep in the rain.
3. Work done for others beyond what is necessary for eating and maintaining shelter can only be justified by a specific goal.
4. What is the purpose of this surplus work done for others?
5. She works to buy things not for eating or for making a shelter.
6. He works to buy her more of these things. He even buys these things for himself.
7. They prostitute themselves for things. They put themselves in the service of others so that they may make purchases of things other than food and shelter. It is a prostitution.
8. There is an abundance of food and shelter in the West. Even the garbage cans are filled with edible food. There is always work too, if you need it.
9. There should be less work for others being done. Instead, there are more willing prostitutes.

Loose Change







I can do it with dimes too. But for the purposes of these instructional videos, we, the producers and myself, have chosen to use quarters. The video was shot by the Pollock Paul on a cellphone (although he claims vehemently to be Italian).

7.21.2010

Fragments for a Prolegomena

The confusions caused by and made manifest in language must be dealt with at the physical level, at some point, if they are to be resolved. It is not simply by talking that philosophy is done. It is physical therapy as well, this philosophy I speak of. Language can be a cover that obscures the disparities between a man’s instincts (read: his biology, his genetics, etc) and the society in which he acts a part. Words (read: moralities) can often do much to lessen his feelings of inadequacy or angst or anger when the actions a society expects of him are in conflict with his instincts. He may use words to rationalize or justify himself and his place and course of action--even to justify the society itself, if he is a particularly thoughtful man. But the words are generalities. The words are concepts, placeholders for an area of meaning, they are poetry, and have none of the specificity of meaning the word appears to imply.

In contrast, the desires of his body are most specific. Only a man’s actions are meaningful. The history of man as he understands is a history of action. A man is as he acts. If he is lucky, the action encouraged by his instincts is consistent with the conduct expected of him from the world he lives in. If he is unlucky, his body urges him to action which disagrees to varying extents with the world. It is a source of conflict, either within himself if he chooses not to act, or, if he does choose to act, a conflict with the world around him. For such a man, the pursuit of pleasure and satisfaction can bring a painful response or punishment from those he lives among.

A man is lucky to live as an obedient animal, following urges that just so happen to coincide with the expectations of the society in which he was born. His is a life without conflict. He may pursue his pleasures and his happiness without worry of offending society. The generalities of language will not be a source of confusion for him. Language will appear as specific and meaningful as his actions and the group action of the society. His action will seem guided, life structured and predictable. He cannot imagine a life lived in any other way. And he will hate those in his society that try to live otherwise. He will speak out against them with his fellows who live and speak the language that he does. He will speak and act as the group. He becomes what is general. He is the many. He and the others are the same.

At the opposite extreme is the truly unlucky man who cannot control the urges of his body that are in conflict with the group. He is a misfit of society and in the most extreme cases an outlaw. He does not have a sense that he needs the group or requires it. He acts in accordance with his instincts without fear of the group or his own safety and thereby represents the greatest danger to the group. He does not care if his life is long or short, only that he follow his instincts.

But a less extreme case of unlucky men are those who feel acutely some conflict between themselves and their societies, yet are able to exercise the self-control necessary to avoid acting on their impulses. Some are even capable of critiquing both themselves and the group. They restrain themselves from action that might bring them into conflict with society, while also examining the action and language of other men. Some of these men have constructed elaborate personal philosophies to justify their conduct or that of the society; using language they cured themselves of the conflict and learned to live as the others, learned to become the same. Rationalizing one’s life with language is a sort of poetic deceit to make onself feel better. Some of these thoughtful, unlucky men were even able to change societies with their arguments and thus make a place for themselves.

If he is not a very unlucky a man, words will be enough to smooth over his conflicts. He will convince himself with generalities; words will be a poetic trick to make him feel better and calm his instincts, calm the desires of his body, calm him into not acting on the urges that inspire him. He may convince himself to work with others on their projects because that will bring him money, or some measure of power, or provide the security so that a particular girl will give herself to him. This unlucky man may rationalize that this life of quiet internal conflict is preferable to action that might jeopardize his place in a society.

His body may wish to run, to hunt, to ascend great mountains. Instead he will sit for most of the day, inside buildings of glass and steel, doing the work of the others, breathing air recycled and chilled by noisy machines. He does this for his safety. There is safety among the many--to act as the others act is the safest act. He will say this to himself: This is how I shall live longer, by living in this way. A man lives longer as a member of group than if he is alone. Even if I have some disagreement with this group I will remain a part. To live as long as possible is meaningful. The group will protect me and if we are attacked it is only the outer, weaker members who will perish. I will amass money and prestige to be among the inner circles of the group where it is safest and warmest and most protected.

It is easier to do philosophy with a pencil than with one’s body. Words do not offend the group as actions can, and words can be politely renounced. For the man for whom words are insufficient, he must change his life through the action of his body and not by talk. Some have left for mountaintops. Others stopped using language entirely. Others left for societies that were more amenable to their instincts. Even some others have chosen to end their lives.

There are many choices for this type of unlucky, but thoughtful, man. But he must choose a path of action. When the rationalizations of language (read: personal philosophies he may read, religions, philosophies he may write for himself, etc.) are insufficient he will have to physically act. He must quit the role he is performing within that society or leave the society altogether. He must find some new way of living to resolve the conflict between his body and his society. There is great work he must do. He must come first to an understanding of his body and what it desires. He must then come to understand those areas of conflict with the group. He will use language to do this. With language he will identify the troubles and with language he will begin to formulate a plan of action. It is messy work using language but his use of language will only be an means to an end, and that end is a particular action.

Man most fears losing the others. He needs others to speak with, to fuck, to be entertained by. He needs others to like him. He fears being disliked and outcast and alone. His body tells him it is dangerous to be alone. His body tells him that you die when you are alone and he fears all action that would put him into conflict with the others. He finally fears his own conflicted urges because they threaten to separate him from the group. So he polices himself. He is against himself. He speaks and acts in conflict with the instincts of his body. It is some part laziness and fear that he lives this way and he will live out his life conflicted and unhappy, working alongside men he finds contemptible, a marriage to a woman he is disgusted by, children he never understood he wanted, things and things in abundance, and the quiet, complicit face he presents to his different bosses. He may even express himself sincerely regarding his conflicts to some other men who feel as he does. This will be a tiny society of the conflicted and outcast--of men lacking the courage to act, lacking the will to change society, or the will to leave it.

They will feel some comfort from the small group they have made together. Lives of what they call a desperate quietism. They may have a few hours after work to express themselves with each other. They may be given a few weeks of vacation from the group which they use to explore what their body’s desire most. They are men who require great action to resolve their conflict, physical action, but they lack the will for it and are the unluckiest of the animals. These are men who die regretful, these most unfortunate of the unfortunates.

7.12.2010

The Last Good Country







It was a 40 mile ride through Wild Rose, Saxeville, and Spring Lake. It ended with a puncture, as Saint Maximin predicted, just 1 mile outside Wild Rose. It is good country, all of it, and do not say that we have none yet left. It is just as good as Northern France, the old growth forests the same, the way the road gently rises and falls, and riding along the Pine River was as the ride along that river at the Belgian frontier. I remember that man we met at the border with the heavy artillery from the World War and he is gone now. They put him away and took away his guns. We read of that in the papers years later. They do not have such men in central Wisconsin. But this country is good country of rolling hills and good pavement, and the corn and the soybeans and sorghum are rich from the rain, the farms operated by the same families that have always had them, and the cows and horses are happiest in the sun.

7.05.2010

Typology

FEMININE: shortcuts, home ownership, careers, obedience, nice new things, variety, pity, pleasures, the middle class, vacations, insurance, hobbies, sugar, gym memberships, democracy, entertainment, inducing guilt, retirement, guidebooks, consumption, compromise, friends, talk, talk, talk, literature, a long life, philosophy, drug use, wanting, jealousy, debt, equality, waiting, restaurants, cities, charity, suburbs, spending, apologies, working on the projects of others, religion, distraction, desk jobs, tears of pain/joy, round trip tickets, television, soda, procrastination, expansive government, 401k plans, alcohol, automobiles, asking permission, the words "never" and "always", "everything" and "nothing", cliches, 30 year mortgages, liberal arts colleges

MASCULINE: pain, adventure, risk, action, solitude, projects of one’s own, decisiveness, exploration, lack of security, hard labor, blood, sweat, silence, saving, farming, running, needing, physical strength, dictatorships, rigor, steel, the risk-free rate of return, pioneering, one-way tickets, confronting danger, water, choosing when to die, the countryside, commitment, expertise and mastery, no apologies, taking, training, mountains,

7.04.2010

Discarded Alternate Version

This story might also have gone this way:

“Gentlemen, is it true that a Jehovah’s Witness gains Heaven through good works?”

“Yes. That is true.”

“And these good works have a sort of point system attached to them?”

The older man paused. “Sort of. Yes.”

“And often it is good works performed in the face of adversity that garner the higher point values?”

“That can be true,” nodded the older man.

“Given these facts I would like you gentlemen to rake my lawn.”

“What do you mean?” said the younger man.

“Using rakes I want you to gather up the many leaves on this lawn.”

“It is the middle of summer,” said the young man. “There are no leaves.”

“Surely you see the leaves? The leaves are everywhere. Are not Jehovah’s Witnesses men of imagination?”

The young man appeared angry.

“We’ll rake your lawn,” said the older man. He was trying to smile. Clearly he was imagining the points this would earn him.

I went to the garage and brought back one rake.

“Where’s my rake?” the young man said.

“I want you to pull up that bamboo,” I said. “It's taking over the yard.”

The young man wasn’t smiling. “I don’t see bamboo anywhere.”

“It’s there, there and there. And make sure to get the root systems out entirely. They are deep and invasive.”

The Jehovah's Witnesses took off their sport jackets and I watched them work for awhile. Later on I offered them some imaginary lemonade.

Poetry While Speaking On The Phone With Maximin

USHUAIA

At the end of the world
A sharp left,
There you will find
Cardboard.


(Poem refers to the presence of cardboard boxing used for packing up a folding bicycle and putting it on a plane back to Buenos Aires)
 
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