Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Philosophy, life.  ---  .See also: Philosophy, world.  ---  7/14/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  .See also: Problem theory.  What are the problems in the world?  Political problems.  Economic problems.  Health problems.  Environmental problems.  Education, literacy, information, media problems.  Psychological, sociological problems.  ---  7/14/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  .Statements about life in this section may be metaphysical, epistemological, or ethical.  ---  12/30/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  .This section is about life.  Topics include: ( ) Complexity and simplicity.  ( ) Negative views.  ( ) Postitive views.  ( ) The system.  ( ) What is life worth?  ---  1/24/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  "Live simply so that others may simply live", is a very good, commonly expressed notion.  Overconsumption is bad.   Americans overconsume.   Americans are overconsuming the most, and that is bad.  Big houses.  Multiple houses.  Big cars.  Multiple cars.  ---  11/28/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) At any moment a bomb could go off, or a stroke could hit.  You have to consider this when you try to determine what is important.  (2) Distractions, temptations, seductions, digressions, tangents, side tracks, waylaid, preoccupied.  ---  9/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Bitching.  Those bitching vs. those not bitching.  (2) Rebelling.  Those rebelling vs. those not rebelling.  I.e., the non-content vs. the content.  (3) Fixers.  Those fixing things vs. those not fixing things.  I.e., the active vs. the ass-sitters.  (4) All combinations are possible.  For example, you can be a bitcher, afraid to rebel, and afraid to do anything about it.  You can be a bitcher, rebelling against the system in thought and word, who still does not do anything.  You can be one who does not bitch, who does not rebel against the system, who works at fixing things anyway.  ---  11/16/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) How could my life be better?  How can I get my life to be better?  (2) How could my life be worse?  How can I avoid my life getting worse?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) I am interested in the primordial.  Not the soup but the primeval.  The forests in the mists.  The beginnings.  The sex.  The base instincts.  Man is an animal.  A fu*king animal that thinks, with divine aspirations.  ---  7/23/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Isolating, withdrawing and abdicating from your life vs. (2) Engaging, energizing, adding meaning and adding purpose to your life.  (3) The former is bad the latter is good.  ---  10/25/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) It is very easy to get lulled into apathy and complacency by money, pleasure, etc.  Keep learning and keep working to improve the world.  (2) It is very easy to get discouraged and depressed by adversity and setbacks.  Keep learning and keep working to improve the world.  (3) We see from the above two points that life is an emotional issue.  ---  7/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life as a game of skill and chance (luck).  (2) Life as a journey.  (3) Life as tragic.  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life as a work of art that each person must create.  This view implies that there are many different ways in which one can compose ones life.  (2) Life as a puzzle or riddle.  This view implies that there is one right answer that the person must discover.  ---  1/26/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life as competition.  (A) Sports analogies to life (boxing, racing, etc.).  (B) Business analogy to life  (2) Life as conflict.  War analogies to life.  (3) Life as chance, opportunity, gift, ability.  ---  12/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life as energy, ability, power, will, pep, vitality, vim, vigor.  The more things you do, and the more you do them, the more you are living.  Doing includes thinking.  It is a view.  Activity, action, speed rush.  ---  04/26/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life is a test.  Mental (intellectual and emotional) and physical.  (2) Life is a puzzle: but puzzles are supposed to have solutions.  Life is a riddle.  (3) Life is a chess game.  (4) Life is good for some, but life sucks for others.  (5) Life is absurd but it is not funny, it is grim.  (6) Life as a work of art.  (7) Life is a game, where the stakes are high, and the rules are not set.  Play your game, not someone else's.  (8) Life is absurd.  Life is for naught?  Life is important still?  (9) What is life?  What are we?  What does life do to us?  (10) In life there are lots of things to juggle, lots of roles to play.  (11) Life is a game of skill, of strategy, and of chance.  (12) Life is a dream, an illusion.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life is absurd but not funny.  (2) Life has no meaning, we give it meaning.  (3) Life is rare.  Life has value.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life is short.  (2) Life for humans is an ethical issue.  (3) Life is full of good things and bad things.  (4) Improve the world.  You can have an effect on the world.  Increase the number of good things, and decrease the number of bad things.  ---  4/25/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life is short.  Don't waste time.  (2) Life can be difficult.  Persevere.  Give it your all.  (3) Think about everything (figure out).  Learn about everything (find out).  Work on all fronts.  Solve a lot of problems.  ---  7/2/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Life, what is it?  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.   People living on earth.  The earth is an ecosystem.  People have some degree of intelligence and freewill.  (2) Life, what to do?  Think about what goals to set.  Set some goals.  Solve some problems.  ---  4/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) Purpose of society.  (A) Find all the issues, views, and arguments.  (B) Find most and best truths.  (C) Create a system to support above inquiry.  (D) Communicate above truths to masses.  (E) Create a society where individuals have resources to do same.  (2) Purpose of the individual.  (A) Find the answers found above.  (B) Think the answers through.  Improve the answers.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) What is good in this life?  Love.  Friends, family.  Clean environment.  Thinking, learning, truth.  Justice, equality, liberty.  Beauty.  Goodness, fairness.  Health.  Wealth.  Making a contribution, doing some good.  (2) What is bad in this life?  Injury, illness, torture.  Chronic physical pain.  Chronic mental pain.  Mental illness. Injustice.  Crime.  Oppression, exploitation, slavery.  Poverty.  Ignorance.  Toil.  ---  4/8/2001


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) What is important in life?  Improving the world.  Knowledge, reason, information, education, communication.  (2) What is important to think about?  (3) What is important to do?  (4) What do I care most about?  Defending reason against the abuses of raw power and the abuses of unthinking religion.  ---  12/1/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) What is the purpose of life?  What can we do vs. what should we do?  (2) What is the meaning of me?  What is the purpose of me?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1) What's good in life?  Fresh air, water, food.  Women.  Being in love.  Sex.  Nature.  Friends.  Music.  Meaningful purposes.  (2) What's bad in life?  Injustice.  Physical pain, disease, injury.  Ignorance.  Mental pain and illness.  Economic poverty.  Political oppression.  ---  2/24/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  (1)(A) Ends, goals: things to get.  (B) Anti-ends, anti-goal: things to not get, things to avoid.  (2)(A) Means: what you do to get what you want.  (B) Anti-means: what you won't do.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  100 years.  36,500 days.  36,500 nights sleep.  36,500 defecations.  36,500 toothbrushings.  36,500 exercise sessions.  100,000 meals.  ---  3/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  A coherent philosophy of life has three parts.  (1) Metaphysics.  What is life?  The whole ball of wax.  The world.  Reality.  Life is short, precious and valuable.  (2) Epistemology.  How do we know?  We know by reasoning.  (3) Ethics.  What to do?  Stay healthy.  Pursue truth and justice.  Pursue knowledge.  Help others.  Be politically active.  ---  5/23/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  A life spent in books.  What are the drawbacks?  There are at least three issues here.  (1) Experiential knowledge versus book knowledge.  (2) Thought without action versus thought with action.  (3) Reading without writing versus reading with writing.  That is, finding out without figuring out versus finding out and figuring out.  ---  5/29/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  A maxim: Be happy while confronting and working to solve problems.  ---  9/12/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  A maxim: Enjoy and appreciate while being productive.  ---  5/17/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  A maxim: Enjoy the simple pleasures while working to solve complex problems.  ---  9/12/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  A philosophy of life is composed of three parts.  (1) A metaphysics of life.  (B) An epistemology of life.  (C) An ethics of life.  ---  12/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  A philosophy of life should answer at least three questions.  (1) What is going on?  (Metaphysics).  (2) How do we know?  (Epistemology).  (3) What should we do about it?  (Ethics).  ---  7/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  A philosophy of life.  (1) Find out what is going on.  (2) Take some action.  Pursue some goals.  Solve some problems.  Do some good.  Don't waste time.  ---  1/9/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  All human life is an exercise in problem solving.  Even if the problem is a question (like "How do I live my life?"), or a predicament (like "How will I get my dinner?")  ---  05/04/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  All I have is time and ideas.  Money and things come and go.  There will be more or less money.  Things appear and disappear.  Ideas endure.  Time is my resource.  I need to make better use of my time to produce more ideas.  Get more focused and more motivated.  Waste less time.  ---  5/25/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  All it takes is one man with brains and determination to change the world.  ---  12/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  All our advances can be undone.  They are not locked in.  ---  3/30/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  All we can do is "mind" and act.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  All you have got is your thoughts and actions.  Stuff (material things) can disappear.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Answers to the questions.  (1) Why live?  (2) What is the purpose of life?  (3) What is important in life?  What matters most in life?  (4) What to live for?  What is worth living for?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Attack (approach) everything from every angle.  ---  02/20/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Basics of practical living: Job, doing something useful, and getting the things you need.  Housing.  Transportation.  Health.  Social.  ---  5/5/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Beautiful day, no problems, life is good, anything is possible.  Foul weather, many problems, life is pain, nothing works.  ---  07/18/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Booze, drugs, mental illness, brainwashing, physical illness and injury, and crime all claimed a lot more lives than I thought they would.  Even in times of peace it seems like carnage.  ---  11/20/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Boredom.  I really thought life would be more exciting, with more exciting experiences and actions, and I thought the people would be more exciting.  Boredom kills.  Boredom causes mental illness and pathological behavior.  Boredom is a serious condition.  ---  09/10/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Can we enjoy life without ignoring the problems of life?  Yes, we can.  Can we enjoy life while striving to solve the problems of life?  Yes, we can.  ---  11/12/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Can you think of anything that outweighs the b.s. and pain?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Challenges and abilities.  (1) Everyone faces challenges, problems, difficulties in this life.  And everyone faces a different set of challenges, because we are all different people.  My set of challenges is unique to me.  My burden.  My puzzle.  (2) Everyone has skills, tools and abilities in this life.  Everyone has a different skill set, tool kit, abilities.  (3) You get to work on a unique set of problems with a unique set of tools.  ---  1/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Climbing is not it.  Music is not it.  Writing is not it.  Love, sex and friendship is it.  Love comes first.  All things from love.  Love helps us deal with adversity and trauma.  Without love we self destruct, and fall apart.  Without love there is just repression and obsession.  ---  02/07/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Common philosophies of life.  (1) Work and make money to raise family, put kids through college and retire.  (2) Have fun. Don't work.  Lazy.  Party.  (3) Activists, philanthropists.  Help strangers.  ---  1/9/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complex versus simple.  (1) The truth is not always obvious.  (2) The truth is not always simple.  ---  8/2/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complex versus simple.  (1) The world is often complex, not obvious and simple.  The problems and solutions in life are not always obvious and simple.  The questions and answers in life are not always obvious and simple.  The truth is not always obvious and simple.  Sometimes the obvious and simple answer is wrong.  For example, it is an obvious and simple answer that the earth is flat, however, the earth is not flat.  (2) The answer may seem obvious and simple after you have figured out the problem.  Then again, sometimes the answer can be almost as complex as the problem.  (3) Ockhams razor says to look for as simple an answer as possible.  But don't sacrifice truth for simplicity.  Don't dumb it down.  The notion, "Keep it simple, stupid", has its limitations.  ---  8/2/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  (1) Purity: moral goodness, innocence, isolation from b.s..  Simplicity: we don't need all the mental crap and clutter.  (2) Amorphous vs. differentiated.  (3) Simplicity.  KISS (keep it simple stupid).  Ockhams razor: simple as possible.  Complexity: more realistic?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  Don't make things more complicated than they are (Ockham's razor).  Don't make things more simple than they are (Reductionism).  ---  09/20/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  Folk and Pop expressions of Ockhams razor.  "Cut the bullshit".  "Life is too fu*king short".  ---  09/15/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  Ockhams Razor: avoid needless complexity. vs. reductionism: avoid over simplification.  ---  03/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  Some people's views of things are simple, easy, and pleasant.  Without being reductionist.  Why do I make things complicated, difficult, and painful?  See Ockhams razor.  Do I do it unnecessarily?  How often and to what degree, and with what bad effects?  ---  04/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity and simplicity.  The simple(ton) life.  Long naps, good food, hot babes, clear conscience.  The last one contradicts the first three.  ---  10/25/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  (1) In order to say the complex, you must first say the simple.  (2) Complexity is worthless if it is not right.  ---  07/27/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  (1) There are a lot of things going on in the world and that makes the world complicated and interesting.  (2) What to do?  What to think about?  Think about improving the world.  Think about the problems of the world.  Solve problems.    ---  6/1/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Life is complex due to number of things.  Number of sub and super groups (classification).  Number of variations.  Natural and manmade things.  Abstract and concrete things.  Number of relationships.  Number of interactions.  Number of choices of action.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Life is complex today and tough to understand, let alone deal with.  When it was simple, and we knew less, was there as much injustice and insanity then too?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Life is complex, especially here today.  Tougher to organize mentally.  More confusion, more stress, and thus, more mental illness.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Life is complicated, but not that complicated.  Only 26 major concepts, 1000 minor ones.  Plus a lot of trivial bullshit, and lies.  Not much more concepts than you find in a quote book.  ---  06/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Life today in USA is complex.  You have to be organized enough to handle it, survive and thrive.  Or else it handles you.  Life today is so complex that most people don't know what is going on.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Lots of things happening.  Lots of objects and events.  Lots of people and actions.  ---  6/1/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Number of things.  Number of relationships (one on one combos).  Number of situations (group combinations).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  So many things exist.  So many things affect us directly and indirectly.  Much potential control over these things creates many choices.  Complex: inter-relationships, inter-dependencies.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  So many things.  So many different things.  Imagine if the world was only a few hundred miles round, and a few million in population.  Even as I lie calmly, people are being born and dying.  And great scholars write the new great works.  And hacks type.  ---  02/24/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  There is a lot of things going on in life, the world, the system.  There is a lot of people doing a lot of different activities, and there are a lot of different ideas being thought of and discussed.  To some degree, figuring out the complexity of the system is a matter of combinatorics.  To some degree, figuring out the complexity of the system is a matter of how finely we classify things.  There are a lot of questions to answer, a lot of things to know about.  There are a lot of problems, a lot of things to improve.  There are a lot of injustices, a lot of wrongs to be righted.  ---  3/27/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Complexity.  Why is the world so complicated?  (1) The world is big in population.  The world contains many people and each person is unique.  (2) The world is big in size relative to humans.  The world has a large geographic area.  (3) The world has been around a long time, relative to a human life span.  The world has a history.  (4) There are many objects in the world.  (5) There are many possible thoughts about these objects.     PART TWO.  Imagine a world that contained two people.  Imagine a world that you could walk around in under ten minutes.  Imagine a world that was only a few days old.  Imagine a world in which only a few objects existed.  Imagine a world in which only a few actions were possible.  Imagine a world in which only a few thoughts were possible.  Imagine a world whose language had only a few words.  ---  4/19/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Current attitude.  Life is too short to waste time on jobs and relationships that are not in line with my highest ideals, values, and principles.  Life is short.  Don't waste time.  Don't sell out, don't settle, don't compromise.  ---  12/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Death of a loved one (mortality), and birth of a loved one (responsibility), will both make you think hard about life and ethics, and help develop a air of solemnity, and dignified nobility.  ---  11/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Describe the big picture.  (1) Problem one.  Humans are having a critical negative impact on the ecosystem.  (2) Problem two.  A billion humans live in poverty.  (3) What to do?  Pursue social justice and ecological sustainability to solve problems 1 and 2.  ---  8/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Describe the big picture.  Earth is a life supporting ecosystem.  A species on Earth called humans exhibits a certain degree of intelligence and thus freewill.  Intelligence plus freewill produces the subject of ethics, including the ability to judge actions right and wrong.  Intelligence in this case involves reasoning, language and science.  That's about it.  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to pursue truth and justice in order to save the Earth.  Good luck.  ---  8/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Describe the big picture.  Life is imperfect.  Life is unfair.  Humans can improve the situation.  Humans can make the situation better.  Solve problems.  ---  8/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Eleven views of life.  (1) Life here and now versus life in other times and places.  (2) Life for the masses vs. life for the outliers.  (3) Life here today.  Work: difficult to find a meaningful job.  Relationships: difficult to find meaningful relationships.  Leisure: easy to get sidetracked by the mindless fluff that surrounds us.  Easy to waste leisure time in meaningless hedonistic pursuits.  (4) Life is an interplay of what you choose to do and what happens to you.  (5) Life = your life, what happens to you in your little world, plus everything else going on in the wide world at the same time.  (6) Life = your mental life plus your physical life.  Your mental life can be very active.  Your mental outlook can be very happy and positive.  (7) Life.  You can choose whether to engage or disengage from life.  Confront or escape.  Withdrawal, isolation and ignore versus engage.  (8) Life is what you make of it, people say.  (9) Its easy to waste your life.  Its easy to do less than you are capable of.  (10) Humans live on an earth in a universe.  Life has psychological, sociologically, political, economic, technological and ecological dimensions to it.  (11) Purpose of life.  Do some good.  Solve some problems.  Make a contribution.  Do no harm.  ---  9/14/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Have fun, enjoy: hedonism.  (2) Work: puritanism.  (3) Screw: playdude.  (4) Little of everything: combo, variety.  (5) Health: physical and psychological.  (6) Be happy: bliss out.  (7) Be free.  (8) Get the good, and get rid of the bad.  (9) Do what you want to do.  (10) To learn.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Living well.  Justice.  Health.  Freedom.  (2) Life work vs. job or occupation vs. hobby.  (3) Fun, pleasure, happiness, enjoyment.  (4) Sociology: sex, love, family, kids, friends, social feeling of belonging to group, (example, patriotism).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Money.  (2) Ideals.  (3) Fear.  Fear of death.  Fear of god.  Fear of police.  Fear of social ostracism.  (4) Laws.  (5) Religion.  (6) Entertainment vs.  (7) Knowledge (me?).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends for anyone.  Some things people live for.  Live for emotional happiness.  Live for physical pleasure (hedonism).  Live for freedom.  Live for equality (human rights).  Live for justice.  Live for truth.  Live for love.  Live for peace.  Live to learn.  Live to do most good for others (altruism).  Live to do most good for self (egoism).  Live for money.  Live for power.  ---  1/22/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Do what you want.  (2) Get out of the house, and get new experiences.  (3) Conquer.  (4) Picking lesser evil, picking greater good.  (5) Kicking ass is best.  (6) Talking down to people, acting dumb: I don't take it, and I don't do it.  (7) Play your game, not theirs.  Do things your way, not theirs.  (8) Keep the big picture, get out of house, away from job, away from friends.  (9) Keep healthy, psychologically and physically.  (10) Do what you like to do.  (11) Be brave, fight hard.  (12) Strong starts with strong finishes win races.  (13) Fu*k it, kill it and eat it, or knock it down and take its money (joke).  (14) Search and explore.  (15) Use what you got while you have it.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Experience the good first hand.  Experience the bad second hand.  (2) Enjoy, and do good.  (3) Survive, stay healthy, grow.  (4) Pursue truth and justice.  (5) Not go crazy.  (6) Not hurt other innocents.  (7) Develop character and personality.  (8) Set and get goals.  (9) Money in order to get sex, in order to stay healthy mentally, in order to do good philosophy, in order to kick ass in all areas.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Get goals (yours, everyone's).  Solve problems (yours, everyone's).  Avoid mistakes.  (2) Protect, provide, maintain, and grow yourself (psychology, physical, economic).  (3) Stay free, stay separate, stay strong, fight.  (4) Cover and develop all fronts.  (5) Figure out all the philosophies, good and bad and why.  (6) Take good points and avoid bad.  (6) Reduce final total pain.  (7) Reduce pain.  (8) Get health and justice.  (9) Forming and reaching best goals.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Get stronger.  (2) Collect experiences, collect thoughts and feelings, and collect truth.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) I hate: domestic, civilized, traditional, normal, bourgeoisie. (2) I love: passion, guts, wild, strange, new, perverse.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) I live to learn.  (2) I live to figure out why to live.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Kick ass on the assholes.  Don't let anyone destroy you any bit.  (2) Brave rationalists achieve.  (3) Attack your goals.  Defend yourself from assholes and enemies.  Enemies including yours (you are enemy to them) and them (they are enemies to you), known and unknown enemies.  (4) Study and practice.  (5) Push your mind hard in all directions.  (6) Bravery, struggling.  (7) My goals: career, education, notes, girl.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Live nobly.  (2) Learn truth.  (3) See and do everything (in experience or in mind).  (4) Kick ass, conquer, get successes.  (5) Be your own person, never let your spirit be broken.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Most important thing in life is doing philosophy, and acting on philosophy.  (2) I like going to little traveled areas and finding jewels.  (3) Do what you can to get what you can.  (4) Gain and use knowledge/truth.  (5) When in doubt, say it, do it.  (6) Do what you want, do it well.  Don't waste time, energy, money, materials.  (7) Kick ass, satisfy drives, don't get hurt.  (8) Attack and defend.  (9) Fu*k everyone and everything.  (10) Things to do, and things to not do.  Avoid jail/prison, court/law, and hospitals.  (11) Don't let anyone do you wrong at all.  (12) Live by the highest ethical standards you can formulate.  (13) Have others leave me alone.  (14) Attack everything from every angle.  (15) Fight.  Question, inquire, search, explore.  Feel.  Think.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Never be happy, content, satisfied, or relax.  (2) Get time and head to think.  (3) Development of mind, wisdom, and bravery.  (4) To do the best you can, to be all you can be.  (5) Stay just a step ahead of competition?  (6) Work to get money to get sex.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  (1) Think well and write well.  (2) Learn and do, know and do.  (3) Travel the ideological wilderness.  (4) Kick ass, conquer, pile up successes.  Don't get your ass kicked.  (5) No jail, no kids.  (6) Work hard and play hard.  (7) Survival, catharsis, justice, fight smart.  (8) Rationalist and technician.  (9) Scholar and warrior.  (10) Brave and wise.  (11) Smarter, faster, quicker, cooler.  Stronger: power to act.  Tougher: adverse conditions can withstand.  (12) Live nobly, collect experiences, not go crazy, not hurt others?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Be a rebel, be an anti-hero.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Develop self.  (1) Get head, body, and life set up well.  (2) Get healthy.  (3) Develop head.  (4) Develop, maintain, and repair mind.  (5) Avoid loss of good mind.  (6) Avoid development of shit head.  (7) Develop ideal character.  (8) Maintain soul, spirit, mind, and individuality.  (9) Think big thoughts.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Do what want, within law.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Gain sovereignty, freedom, autonomy, independence, in financial, physical, emotional, and intellectual areas.  Depend on no one.  It can occur at any age.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Health, power, autonomy, peace, wisdom, free time.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Important things.  (1) Thinking, about philosophy, psychology, and sociology.  (2) Character development.  (3) Action.  (4) Notes.  (5) Not hurting others.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Keep the big picture.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Life is pain.  How to live with pain?  Never accept it, and always fight hard against it.  Never get discouraged.  Cure it.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Maintain spirit, mind, individuality, sovereignty, soul, and freedom (mental and behavioral).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  To live means to have imagined, thought of, and known everything.  To have been everywhere and done everything.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Why live?  To develop ideal character, mind, and behavior.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Work smart and hard at what you like.  Work long, intensely.  Work efficient, effective, productive.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ends of mine.  Worst thing is to get complacent, stop striving, and take it easy.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethical issues.  How should I live my life?  What should I do today?  What kind of society should there be?  PART ONE.  Mindless pursuit of money?  No.  Mindless pursuit of pleasures like food, sex, drugs?  No.  Doing nothing, wasting time?  No.  Complacency, thinking things are fine the way they are?  No.  Give up, resignation, nihilism?  No.  Distraction, escapism,  avoidance?  No.  Conformity, conventionality, normalcy?  No.  Mindless work, work for work's sake?  No.  Mindless popularity contests?  No.     PART TWO.  Then what?  Ceaseless effort and struggle in thought and action.  Help people.  Save the world.  Social problem solving.  How to change the world?  How to make progress over recurrent, chronic problems and constant opposition?  Constant work.  ---  4/15/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethics of life.  Values.  Industriousness, hard working.  Creativity, creative (Inventor, Scientist, Philosopher, Artist).  Knowledgeable, curious.  Sociable, diplomatic, tactful.  Brave, integrity.  ---  4/25/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethics.  (1) What is the most important thing in life?  Keeping people from dying.  (2) What is the most important thing you can do in life?  Keep someone from dying.  ---  5/23/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethics.  (1) Who can you help?  You can help the people that you meet.  (2) How can you help the people that you meet?  (A) You can help the people that you meet by talking with them like a philosopher and psychologist.  Be authentic.  Live authentically.  (B) You can help the people who visit your website by putting useful information on your web site.  (C) You can help people by giving money.  (D) You can help people by donating your time and energy.  ---  1/2/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethics.  Examine a person's goals in all areas (work, leisure, education, social, etc.) to get a sense of their ethics.  (See: Psychology, drive, goals).  ---  9/2/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Ethics.  PART ONE.  Do not get caught up in the useless and mediocre.  Pursue your highest ideals.  (1) Do not be distracted by things that interest you, or that you like, if it is useless, non-productive or counter-productive.  (2) Do not be distracted by things for which society rewards you with money, if it is useless, non-productive or counter-productive.  (3) For example, some people get caught up in a vapid hobby which becomes an obsession.  Some people get caught up in a personal relationship that becomes an obsession.  Some people get caught up in money making which becomes an obsession.     PART TWO.  Do be a progressive activist.  Progressivism.  Activism.  Don't spend all of your time in books; balance thinking, speaking, action.  Organize.  ---  4/25/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Everything.  Consider everything.  ---  7/14/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Fame, power, and intelligence are not the same thing.  Nor does one imply the other.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Four main activities of most people: make money, raise kids, eat and sleep.  ---  9/28/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  Four mistakes in life.  (1) If you are focusing only on yourself, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (2) If you are focusing only on your lover, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (3) If you are focusing only on your family, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (4) If you are focusing only on your friends, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (5) The world awaits you.  ---  11/25/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Gather information about the situation.  The situation is you in the world.  Form best goals.  Pursue goals doggedly.  ---  6/25/2001


Philosophy, life.  ---  Get grades.  Get friends.  Get popular.  Get job.  Get money.  Get stuff.  Get house.  Get food.  Get sex.  Get mate.  Get kids.  Get happy.  Get healthy.  Get buried.  This is how many of us think and live.  Mechanistic survival.  ---  3/14/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  Get your words together.  Get your logic together.  Get your knowledge together.  Get your creativity in gear.  ---  12/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Give everything 100% and get it done quickly, or else you will look back and say "I only gave it 50%, and took to long, and wasted much.  ---  03/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Good and bad.  How good does it get?  (1) Health, psychologically and physically.  No hospitals.  (2) No major enemies.  No lawsuits.  No jail.  (3) Intimacy.  Lover, friends, conversation, trust.  (4) Good job.  No poverty.  (5) Time to think, write and create.  Solve problems.  Make a contribution.  (6) Good you in a good world.  Social justice.  Clean environment.  (7) This is how good it gets.  How bad does it get?  Infinitely bad.  ---  12/25/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  Good and bad.  Is life good or bad?  "Life is pain.", said the Buddha.  (1) How much time do people spend in emotional pain, versus emotionally neutral states, versus emotional happiness?  (2) How many good things and bad things happen to an individual, and in the world total?  ---  9/8/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Good and bad.  Life is good, more often than not.  Life is good, most of the time.  Life is good, for most people.  Life is good, even though some people do bad things.  Life is good.  ---  1/9/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Good and bad.  List of (1) All the wrong views, and why.  (2) All the bad things, and why.  (3) All the ugly things, and why.  ---  11/16/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Good and bad.  What is the worst?  A lifetime of chronic physical pain?  A lifetime of chronic psychological pain?  A lifetime of chronic abuse, oppression, exploitation and injustice at the hands of others?  Prison is bad.  Mental illness is very bad.  Physical pain is bad.  Mental hospitals are bad.  ---  8/26/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Greek idea of happiness was to make full use of all one's abilities.  This view vs. the peace and quiet (quietude), rest and relaxation and recreation and recuperation philosophy.  Take it easy, take it slow, layback, mellow out.  Serene machine.  ---  04/26/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  How to avoid wasting your life?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  How to motivate people to spend hours working hard, often for no pay, in order to educate themselves about the problems of the world, in order to pursue progressive activism, especially in the face of tempting time-wasting leisure alternatives, and in the face of opposition?  How to get people to think critically?  How to get people to be active?  How to change attitudes in order to elicit effort?  ---  12/22/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  I am in business for myself in a world full of garbage and assholes.  I am a garbologist and proctologist.  I examine garbage and finger assholes.  ---  02/05/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  I am trying to learn a lot, quickly.  Avoid stress, wasting time, and assholes.  Understand and deal with my neurosis.  Achieve catharsis.  Sacrificing short term money for long term knowledge.  ---  03/19/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  I seek to see and understand all from all perspectives.  ---  03/09/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  I shouldn't get so depressed.  If one person is happy, is it worth it?  I used to think if one person was unhappy, it is not worth it.  ---  04/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  I used to expect good things to happen automatically.  Then I began to pray for good things to happen.  Then I began to pray at least for bad things not to happen to me.  Then I began to expect bad things to happen.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  I want to make a difference.  I want to help improve the world.  I don't want to live in vain.  I don't want to die.  ---  4/27/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Idealism as holding on to your ideals.  At what point exactly did you give up?  When was it exactly that you were reduced to mere survival?  When did you betray your ideals?  When did you forget your ideals?  When did the practicality that surrounds you overwhelm you?  When did you start grumbling things like, "Its all a fix.  Its rigged.  You can't win".  When did your dreams die?  When did you start to cover, grovel and stoop?  When did you recant?  When did you capitulate?  When did you give up and give in?  When did you compromise?  When did you slay hope?  When did you become practical and realistic?  ---  7/22/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  If you are merely sitting at home, you have nothing to bitch, gripe, complain about.  The minor pains of living are bullshit.  Massive shit is going down around the world, injustice and pain, and people still obsess and bitch about the little things, trivialities.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  If you believe in progress you believe that your kids will be smarter than you, that they will be born into a better world than yours, and that they will have better lives than yours.  ---  07/18/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Importance.  What is most important in life?  ---  7/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  In a wired world there will be (1) More knowledge, to solve more problems.  (2) More choices, to choose from (what to read, buy, etc.).  More freedom.  (3) More efficient, faster, less wasted resources.  (4) More communication.  ---  08/01/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  In their twenties people futilely try to gain meaning from cigars, wine, coffee, beer, darts and billiards.  ---  1/20/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Is love (to love someone and to be loved by someone) enough to live for?  No.  Love is necessary but not sufficient.  You need a project.  ---  07/18/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Is the thirst for knowledge all sublimated sex drive?  Experiment: get a girlfriend and get laid and see if your thirst for knowledge abates.  ---  12/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  It is all the same games/situations.  The stakes vary.  The players understand the situation less or more (knowledge).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  It is easy to do nothing.  It is difficult to do something.  ---  4/26/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  It is not always easy to face the truth, but it is the best thing in the long run.  ---  11/24/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  It seems like everything good we do or achieve eventually becomes undone, and everything bad we do lasts forever and can never be undone.  Why does it seem like this?  ---  11/02/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Its not "Life is good".  Its "Life can be good".  We can fix this place up.  ---  7/13/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  Know what's going on worldwide.  Find out what is going on in the world.  ---  7/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Knowledge increases ethical responsibility.  Technology increases ethical responsibility.  Technology and knowledge increase ability and thus power and thus freedom.  Technology and knowledge increase freedom and responsibility.  Technology is merely knowledge applied.  Thus the maxim is, "Acquire and apply knowledge."  Thus the big mistake is to not acquire and apply knowledge.  Life is about acquiring and applying information.  Anti-intellectualism is unethical.  Humans are information machines.  ---  5/10/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Letting your life go to waste vs. life wasted by external forces.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life as a totality versus life analyzed into all its various parts.  When people wonder about life they often wonder about life in total.  Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?  ---  8/23/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life can be discussed philosophically with three main questions.  (1) What is going on?  This is a question of metaphysics.  (2) How do we know?  This is a question of epistemology.  (3) What should we do about it?  This is a question of ethics  ---  11/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life can be heaven.  Life can be hell.  Life can be somewhere in between.  Part of it is due to luck.  Part of it is due to you.  Part of it is due to others.  It can change in a minute.  There are no guarantees.  There often is no reason to it.  There often is no justice to it.  ---  8/23/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life can be viewed as a three dimensional web, much like the brain can be viewed.  It is similar to a three dimensional road system, where the object is not to travel every road, but to know how to get where you want to go.  ---  04/12/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life courses can change when an idea dawns on you (or not), when you do something (or not), or when you pick a instead of b.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life in these modern times is essentially a battle of the individual against nature, other people, and oneself.  It is the fight of the ubermensch for autonomy.  ---  09/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a bully.  You are going to get whooped.  Your only hope is to throw a few punches before you get mauled.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a conga line.  Two steps forward, one step back.  ---  8/20/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a constant struggle in ideas, words and actions against oneself, other people and the world.  ---  3/11/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a dichotomy.  It does not make any sense.  It is insane, and few people will acknowledge this.  It is an insane predicament.  An insane world.  They have hopes and faith, but the fact is that it is an insane world.  Admit it.  ---  07/23/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a job; a quest; a responsibility; a pain; difficult.  Life is not a party; a game; a joke; easy; a fun trip.  Life is serious.  Life does matter.  Life is not inconsequential or trivial.  ---  12/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a journey of pain and pleasure (objective and subjective), with more pain than pleasure.  Life could be better or worse, it depends on the individual.  We can change things.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a mix of good and bad events, and pleasure and pain feelings.  Objective and subjective perception of both.  Most people get more bad than good.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is a struggle against (1) Naturally caused injustice and opposition, (2) Injustice and opposition caused by other people, and (3) The pain they both cause.  If you do not know how to fight (techniques), and if you do not have a fighting attitude (psychology), then you will perish.  This is something that most peace philosophies and religions fail to teach.  ---  02/28/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is about "work".  (1) Work meaning a way to make money to provide for yourself.  (2) Work meaning a way to help society and improve the world.  (3) Work meaning "to accomplish something", as opposed to wasting your life, or destroying things, or fu*king things up, which is really bad.  ---  08/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is an experiment.  ---  11/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is different things to different people in different situations.  Some things we all have in common (abstract things).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is full of good and bad.  A lot of life is waiting.  Instead of waiting for the bad, I am now waiting for the good.  This change in attitude leads to reduced apprehension, less tension, better health (psychological and physical), increased productivity, and greater happiness.  ---  07/01/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is full of pain (physical and emotional) from problems.  Live as smartly as you can.  Avoid problems as much as you can.  Give a lot of thought and action to this or you will regret it greatly when anything bad happens.  Try to live with remaining pain that comes your way as best you can.  Be prepared.  Avoid future pain.  ---  09/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is important because it is rare.  Life's rareness gives it value and importance.  Life has no meaning but it has value.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is like a yard sale; ninety five percent of the time people are trying to sell overpriced junk, and occasionally you will find something useful for a bargain.  ---  10/30/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is like linear programming.  Maximize a variable (productive work), given constraints of time, money, energy, materials, etc.  ---  05/18/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is not a game.  Games are inconsequential and fun.  Life is neither.  ---  10/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is problem solving.  (1) Find as many problems as you can.  (2) Make as much progress as you can towards solving as many problems as you can.  Pitch in and help out.  (3) Write down the solutions to problems.  Post them on the web.  (4) Determine the cause, symptoms and prognosis of every problem.  Determine the prevention and cure for every problem.  ---  11/5/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is problem solving.  If you had to pick one, would you rather solve problems, have fun or make money?  I would rather solve problems.  If you had to pick two which would you pick?  Solve problems and have fun.  What if someone wanted all three?  Are you mad?  ---  11/5/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is problem solving.  Secret of life: we are going to have a lot of fun solving some vicious, nasty, bad problems.  ---  11/5/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is problems causing pain and suffering.  Purpose of life is (1) Don't cause more problems, (2) Don't make mistakes in trying to solve problems, (3) Learn to and do solve problems (actual and theoretical problems, of self and others, self caused and accidental).  So take care of yourself (physical, psychological, social, financial), and help others (mate, kids, family, friends, strangers).  Life is a problem.  Purpose of life is to avoid mistakes.  ---  10/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is serious.  Life is absurd (irrational, illogical).  Life is not funny.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is the constant struggle to keep the system from lulling you into a zombie like stupor, unthinking, unfeeling, unremembering.  It is the constant struggle to keep your lesser self from lulling you into such a state as well.  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is the threat of death.  Sex is the momentary absence of no-sex.  ---  03/13/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is too fu*king short (to put up with any b.s.).  ---  05/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life is tough, but it can be less tough if you think and use your brains.  ---  03/07/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life now has become a nightmare of pain and injustice.  Was it always this way, and I was just shielded from it?  ---  5/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life philosophy.  (1) What is the situation?  Earth, 2005.  Humans trying to save the planet from themselves.  (2) What to do?  Solve problems.  ---  10/16/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life strategies.  (1) Living to please one's mate.  People can disappoint you.  I do not advocate this strategy.  (2) Living for money.  Taking the highest paying job.  Spending all your time thinking about money.  Working to make money.  I do not advocate this strategy.  (3) Living for principles.  Finding something meaningful and purposeful to do.  Helping the world.  This is something I advocate.  ---  12/27/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life, job, school, women, can get to a point where you say "fu*k it, I don't care, it just does not matter."  Do not let them break your will, spirit, soul.  Do not let them mold or shape you.  Say the above, not to justify doing evil, but to justify not doing evil (so you don't freak out).  Or say it just to avoid or reduce stress.  ---  06/20/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life, sex, work, school, they are ridiculous.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life: the anal version.  (1) Kick ass.  (2) Don't get shit on.  (3) Stay away from assholes.  (4) Don't get screwed up the ass.  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life: what you think it is vs. what it is.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life.  (1) Ignorance is bliss.  People want to be happy.  Therefore, many people choose ignorance.  We are faced with waging an ongoing struggle against ignorance.  A life of non-ignorance will not be blissful.  It will not be easy, but it will be worthwhile.  (2) People strive for illegitimate power, and then people abuse power.  It happens over and over.  There is a ongoing, perennial struggle against abuses of power.  (3) Ignorance and power-abuse are two examples of problems that reoccur over and over, everywhere and all times.  These types of problems need to be constantly addressed.  This is the "same old shit" school of history.  There is no guarantee of a win.  A win is not inevitable.  ---  8/27/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life.  Kicking ass vs. getting your ass kicked.  Fu*king vs. getting fu*ked.  Justly and unjustly.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life.  Life is not a war.  Life is not a fight.  Life is a reasoned conversation, with the other side throwing a tantrum.  ---  10/2/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Life.  What is the speed of life?  The speed of a ticking clock?  The speed of sound?  The speed of light?  The speed of events?  The speed of thought?  What is the speed of thought?  ---  3/20/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle = (1) Work: environment, activities, and amount time spent on it.  (2) Leisure: environment, activities, and amount time spent on it.  Possessions, friends.  (3) Psychological aspects: philosophies, attitudes.  (4) Behaviors.  (5) Physical aspects: your body.  (6) Environment: possessions, technology, resources.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle you desire vs. end up with.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle.  (1) Percent you could have chosen your lifestyle vs. couldn't (forced into).  (2) Percent you did choose your lifestyle vs. let others choose it for you.  (3) Percent you consciously did choose your lifestyle vs. drifted into it.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle.  (1) Where to live?  Some people put a great emphasis on where they live.  Location is not that important to me.  (2) Who to live with?  Some people put a great emphasis on finding a sexy partner.  A sexy partner is not that important to me.  (3) What to do?  I put a great deal of emphasis on what I do for a living and what I do in my free time.  ---  5/29/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle.  Amount your are free to choose your lifestyle.  Amount you are not free to choose your lifestyle.  Amount you let others choose your life style.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle.  My lifestyle.  Not married.  No kids.  Low paying job.  Very industrious in free time.  Spend free time thinking, writing, reading, and doing progressive activism.  ---  5/29/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lifestyle.  What causes changes in lifestyle you desire?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  List of metaphors for life.  Life is a: Game.  Journey.  Puzzle.  Riddle.  Artwork.  Dream.  Illusion.  Absurd.  Short.  Rare.  Opportunity.  Pain.  Unjust.  ---  7/10/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Looking for a better way of life; one that's not empty, boring, stupid, imperfect.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lunch analogy.  There is no free lunch (every action has a cost).  Paul's addendum: There is no escape from the lunch counter (action is unavoidable).  ---  11/16/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Lunch analogy.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.  And you can not skip lunch either.  You have to buy lunch.  ---  12/26/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Meaning of life.  (1) A meaning of life that applies to all people.  vs.  (2) A unique meaning of life for each individual person.  ---  1/26/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Meaning of life.  (1) Meaning of life as something the individual must choose or create.  vs.  (2) A pre-set meaning of life that humans either know instinctively or must discover.  ---  1/26/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Mental activity.  Many people equate physical activity with life.  I equate mental activity with life.  If you are not thinking, feeling, remembering and desiring, then you are essentially dead.  When you get home at the end of the day, and your mind is frazzled, and you can only stare blankly into space, it is essentially the night of the living dead.  ---  8/31/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Mental activity.  Of course, this view would hold that a hyperactive maniac on speed would be the model of the good life.  And such is not the case.  So perhaps this theory has a few kinks to be worked out.  Also, all thought and no action makes Paul a dull man.  ---  8/31/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  Mistaken ideas of an adolescent nihilist.  (1) There is no one cool.  (2) Even if there was someone cool, you could not communicate with them.  (3) No one knows me or understands me.  And no one can.  (4) I am alone.  Friendship is impossible.  ---  11/16/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most important ideas about life today.  (1) Leisure.  There is less leisure time than you think.  Most people waste it.  They vegetate and do not think or learn.  (2) Work.  Do not take too long to figure out what you love most.  Go for it hard.  Society may try to limit you, do not let it.  (3) Time.  Time flies.  There is less time than we think.  (4) Love/sex.  People do not look hard enough for their true love.  People throw away true love when they have it.  They have kids when not ready.  They spread diseases unethically.  (5) Family.  There is too much emphasis on it.  (6) Psychology.  Get your head together.  Most people, most of the time, are in a semi-healthy mental state, not an optimal mental state, and do not realize that they are.  ---  01/02/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most important ideas about life.  My life.  Anyone's life.  The world.  All living things.  Non-human animal life.  ---  7/2/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most important ideas about life.  There is a lot to know about life.  There is a lot to do about life.  ---  1/1/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most important ideas.  (1) Metaphysics.  Life is short.  Life is a struggle.  It takes all types of people.  (2) Ethics.  Fight for justice.  ---  10/30/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most important ideas.  Stay out of court.  Stay out of the hospital.  ---  10/05/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most people can't see what's really important at all.  Some get occasional glances and then forget.  A few see some of it.  A very few see it all, constantly.  ---  9/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Most people live (1) Unaware of what is going on, or why, and (2) Not really doing anything.  ---  12/12/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Much of life is boring and repetitive.  There is no guarantee of reaching your dreams.  And I keep raising the bar on myself, which makes things seem more difficult.  ---  11/28/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  My life is a fragile thing.  Many parts to go wrong. (head, body, work, home, girl, leisure, etc.).  Many things can go wrong with each part.  Many bad results can happen from each thing that can go wrong.  Same for world in general.  Much work of many different types is needed to prevent these bad things from happening.  ---  06/06/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  My new, improved attitude toward life and work.  We are all lucky to be alive.  Lets be happy and work hard together to solve the world's problems.  ---  4/17/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative view.  Life is a series of uninteresting jobs and failed relationships, leaving you disenchanted and unimpressed.  ---  6/23/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views of life.  Life is...  (1) Life is unfair.  (2) Life is not perfect.  (3) Life is unjust: natural injustice (by fate), social injustice (by others), and personal injustice (by self).  (3) Life is more stressful and dangerous than climbing.  (4) Shit world, life sucks, people are trash, god jerk.  My job is to make it all better and right.  (5) Life sucks, work sucks, people suck, death sucks too.  (6) Most of your life you are too busy and too tired to think, to do, to care, to enjoy, to understand, and to appreciate (value).  (7) Life is decay, disorder, chaos, disease, and death.  (8) Life is difficult to understand, and difficult to make decisions.  (9) Life is hard work/labor.  (10)  Life will drive you crazy if you let it.  (11) Life is problems, stress, grim, and hard.  (12) Life is disasters, a gyp and a rip-off.  (13) Life is a long, hard, fu*k.  (14) Life is a forced fu*k, a rape, and without grease it hurts.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  (1) Everything is not fine.  The world is imperfect.  Make it better.  (2) Life is a struggle against problems and against adversity.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  (1) Life is so lifeless, boring, and unexciting.  (2) Life.  If if you are doing it right, life is less fun than if you are doing it wrong.  It is a rip.  It sucks.  (3) Life.  If you are doing it right life is arduous and boring.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  (1) Life is unfair, and life is luck dependent.  (2) Life is imperfect, stressful, dangerous, unfullfilling, unsatisfying.  (3) Life is pain, love, survival.  (4) Life is a series of crises.  (5) Life: there is no magic.  (6) My life is so boring, and so hard.  (7) Life is bad, death is worse.  (8) Life: when it is good it is bad, and when it is bad it is worse.  (9) Life: nobody wins.  Finish high as possible in rat race.  (10)  Life is adversity and opposition, struggle and battle, pain and difficult.  (11) Everything and everyone is against me.  (12) Life is hard work.  The better you do life, the tougher it is.  (13) Life sucks.  Life is pain, complex, and difficult.  (14) All relationships are opposition, stress, pain, and problems.  (15) Most of life you are too busy, and then too tired.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Depressed view: My life is a series of mistakes.  ---  01/31/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life and others fu*k us over.  Best: make it better.  Bad: make it worse.  Worst: sit there and take it.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is a battle against others in order to maintain individuality and mind.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is a battle with many fronts, against many enemies, with no cease fires.  Fight hard and long and smart.  Fight your fight.  Enjoy the fight.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is a crappy situation.  Limited resources.  Conflict of interests.  It is not just what we do (as some say), that makes life bad.  The whole setup sucks, logically.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is decay and ends in defeat.  ---  12/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is moving from one disaster to another.  The goal is to avoid disasters, postpone disasters, and don't include others in disasters.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is much dull boring hard work, and little fun and excitement.  ---  04/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is one long painful transition.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is pain with various causes and various effects.  Purpose of life: hurt as least as possible.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is pain, scary, lonely, boring, unsatisfied, sad, degrading, no fun.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is pain.  Living life is living pain.  Recalling life is recalling pain.  ---  03/30/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life is problems.  Problems cause decisions, which cause injustices and mistakes and pain.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  Life.  Imperfect world, absent god, cruel nature, evil greedy people.  I've written this before.  ---  02/04/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  There is no peace.  Life is struggle, opposition, and conflict.  A fight and a race against nature, others, and self.  Everything is against me, in ways and degrees.  Fight well.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Negative views.  What is guaranteed: nothing.  What can you expect: nothing good, a zillion bad things.  If you are ok, use it (ethical imperative), don't abuse it.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Never stop questioning everything from every angle.  It is a natural thing to do.  Only from questioning do we gain knowledge of any sort.  ---  02/02/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  No one thing is worth living for.  A combo of good things might be.  All the future sunsets for example.  Or working towards ideals.  Or righting wrongs in theory and action.  It depends also what you have to put up with.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Nothing feels better than kicking ass.  The purpose of life is to kick ass.  ---  01/16/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Objects, people, ideas.  (1) Physical objects suck because physical objects constantly break down.  Cars, computers, any physical object, they all break down.  They all let you down.  Resulting in aggravating repair fees.  Things fall apart.  (2) People break down too, being physical objects.  People break down physically and mentally.  (3) Ideas are cool.  An idea can live forever.  ---  1/27/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  One view.  What's it all about?  Information management.  The creation and accumulation of ideas, by figuring out and finding out.  How does one do good?  By becoming knowledgeable.  How does one become knowledgeable?  Through thinking.  What is thinking?  Information management.  ---  12/1/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Pain and pleasure.  Life is pleasure and pain.  How to deal with the pain of life ethically?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  People are not reliable.  Friends drift apart.  Lovers break up.  You can't count on people.  What then can you count on?  Ideas, principles, values, goals.  ---  10/13/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Philosophy of life is composed of philosophy of work, philosophy of leisure, philosophy of social life, philosophy of health, etc.  ---  12/28/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Philosophy of life.  (1) Philosphy of life is a collection of ideas, with a logical structure, and a importance structure (hierarchy, order).  (2) Everyone has their own philosophy of life, and it changes as you develop.  (3) Philosophy is any non-science, non-art, non-religion, statement or idea.  (4) Philosophy of life is any statement that answers questions "life is..., life should be...".  (5) Any statement about a part of life.  (6) There are an infinite number of ideas about life, some true(r) and some false(r), some important and some unimportant, they can all be ordered logically.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Pick a purpose in life or one will be assigned to you.  ---  05/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Playful work, serious joy.  ---  10/30/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Pluralism.  (1) To understand life, understand all the parts of life.  (2) To understand life, understand all the views of life.  (3) Combine 1 and 2.  To understand life, understand all the views about all the parts of life.  (4) Life is not one thing, life is many things.  ---  4/19/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Politics of life.  Sometimes life makes us feel:  (1) Impotent.  Not in control.  Powerless.  Weak.  Ineffectual.  Scared.  Small.  Insignificant.  (2) Worthless.  Useless.  Hopeless.  No good.  (3) Robotic.  Automatic.  Zombified.  Routine.  Exhausted.  Beat.  Numb.  Dull.  Dead.  Spent.  Tired.  (4) Overwhelmed.  Inconsequential.  (5) Alone.  Amuck.  Detached.  Stuck.  Adrift.  Broke.  ---  2/17/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views of life.  Life might be unjust.  People might be unjust.  But people have the opportunity to do good.  You and I have the opportunity to do good.  There might be many negative things in life.  There might be many negative views of life.  Nevertheless, we have the opportunity to improve the world.  That is perhaps better than a hypothetical situation of living in a lovely world with no opportunity to improve it.  ---  11/22/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  (1) Life is a miracle (biology).  (2) Life is holy (religion).  (3) Life has value.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  Human life is rare.  3 million years of human life out of 3 billion years of earth.  8 billion people have lived ever.  Only x people have lived since renaissance.  Only x people have lived in last 40 years.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  Life is an opportunity to live, to suffer, and to do.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  Optimistic view of life.  America is still a big, free country full of opportunity.  ---  1/1/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  PART ONE.  "At least one" views about life.  (1) One can argue that the life is worth living if there is at least one happy person in the world.  (2) One can argue that life is worth living if there is at least one good thing in the world.  (3) One can argue that life is worth living if there is at least one good thing we are capable of doing.  That is a compelling, empowering thought.  PART TWO.  "Mostly" views about life.  A second set of views looks for some type of majority.  For example: Life is worth living if there are more happy people than sad people.  Life is worth living if there are more good things than bad things.  One could even attempt to argue for a notion of "at least half good in the long term", but what is the long term?  This second set of views is less compelling that the first set because it is not reasonable to automatically assume that life will be at least half good.  PART THREE.  Scope.  When tallying up the good and bad in life, some people look at their own life, while other people look at the lives of the people around them, while still others look at the entire world situation.  I think one should look at the entire world situation.  Some people look at the present, while others look at the present and past, while still others look at the present, past and future.  I think one should look at the past, present and future.  PART FOUR.  There is a point of view that says do not give up hope, even if things are bad.  Keep working to improve the situation.  That is a good thought.  PART FIVE.  Hypotheticals.  (1) If you were paralyzed, and lost the use of your body, how would you cope?  How do people who are paralyzed come to terms with their situation?  (2) If you developed Alzheimer's, and lost the use of your mind, how would you cope? (3) How did people survive the Holocaust?  (3) One can argue that if you can think, you can do something.  For example, if you can think then you can potentially solve problems.  So, in addition to Descartes statement, "I think, therefore I am.", there is also an idea that "I think, therefore life is worth living".  PART SIX.  Sometimes people ask the question, "Since I am not enjoying this situation, why should I continue?"  One possible answer is that the situation will probably change for the better in the future.  PART SEVEN.  Also, consider the following:  (1) In your desire that life should be enjoyable, ask yourself how enjoyable?  Completely enjoyable, with nothing bothering you at all?  That is not realistic.  How happy do you demand to be?  Ecstatically happy twenty four hours a day?  That is not realistic.  (2) Also, consider that your "happy, sad" sensor may be out of whack.  Little bad things may be bothering you completely out of proportion on one hand, while major bad things may not be bothering you enough on the other hand.  Good things may be failing to make you happy, or they may be making you too happy.  The entire issue of emotional responses of happy and sad might not be accurate indicators.   Emotions cannot be used to justify completely whether life is worth living.  PART EIGHT.  These are all valid philosophical issues.  Philosophy continues to have a valid role to play in human life.  One could argue that people in psychotherapy are doing as much philosophy as anything else.  PART NINE.  All the negative views of life seem to be offset by the above arguments.  It might be true that life is often unfair, and people often act unjustly.  Life is not perfect.  The first step is to recognize the problems in life.  The second step is to not let the problems of life completely depress you.  The third step is to work at solving the problems of life.  ---  11/22/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive views.  The living flesh, and the thinking mind.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Positive, negative and neutral views of life.  (1) Positive.  Life is good.  Enjoy life.  (2) Negative.  Life is a struggle.  Life is unfair.  There is more bad than good.  Life is a bitch and then you die, as people commonly say.  (3) Neutral.  Life is neutral.  The good and bad balance out (baloney).  Life is what you make it.  Life can be good or bad, it depends on your luck.  ---  1/9/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Practicality and the system.  How things can go wrong.  One does not necessarily give in to practicality.  One is not necessarily beaten down by the system.  One might simply loose the fire of ideals, visions, and principles.  One might loose sight of, or forget, what is important.  The muses may take a vacation.  You might relax, take it easy.  You might lose the drive and motivation.  ---  7/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Practicality bribes and threatens you.  Practicality leaves you burnt and exhausted.  Practicality leaves you cynical and jaded.  Whores do it for money.  Practicality is the loss of ideals.  ---  7/1/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Principles.  (1) Think, write, publish.  (2) Work hard on a worthy goal.  Something useful.  Something that helps everyone.  Ecological sustainability and social justice.  (3) Don't waste time.  Don't do nothing.  Don't watch television, it is mindless entertainment.  (4) Help other people.  Help everyone.  (5) Stay healthy, physically and psychologically.  ---  4/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Psychology, History, Philosophy, Literature; these are what keep people going.  At a basic level they are in many ways indistinguishable from one another.  (1) Literature.  How is writing any different from talk therapy?  (2) History.  How is me writing up my history any different from psychotherapy?  (3) Philosophy.  Reasoning is key to mental health.  ---  10/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Pureland.  Lead a good life.  No regrets, no worries.  Goody goody.  Kids running in wheatfields.  Innocent, having committed no sins and no crimes.  Unscathed, by self, others, and fate.  Not bitter, not crabby.  No decadence.  Feeling good and positive about life.  No bad habits or addictions.  All good eggs, no bad apples.  Healthy natural living.  Sunrises and sunsets.  Walks.  Hard work.  Honest fair dealings.  Colorful cereal boxes.  Is this a complete lie, or not fully realistic?  I will not forget the bad if you will not forget the good.  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  Purpose in life.  When you choose your own vs. when it is chosen for you.  If you don't choose your own, one will be assigned to you.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Purpose of life.  The pursuit of truth and justice.  Truth by getting educated and figuring new stuff out.  Justice by solving social problems.  ---  10/10/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  Questions.  How do I feel today?  What do I think today?  What will I do today?  ---  12/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Questions.  What to do right now, this minute?  What to do today?  What to do this week, month, year.  What to do with my life?  ---  7/31/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Real life is about making new, serious, monumental decisions in new, serious, monumental situations.  Not trivial decisions in trivial, repetitive situations.  ---  08/15/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Reality yields problems, which yield struggle, which yield decisions, which yield action, which yields mistakes or right moves, which yields outcome of a new reality.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Rebellion is natural and good.  ---  03/10/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Relax.  Enjoy (the moment, life).  Create.  ---  11/16/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  Right now, in this world:  Someone is polluting the earth.  Someone is going nuts.  Someone is starving to death.  Someone is dying of illness or injury.  Someone is committing a crime.  Someone is having a crime committed upon them.  Someone is being abused  and neglected.  Someone is in pain and suffering.  It does not have to be so.  It can change.  I can help.  That is what is most real.  That is what is going on.  That is what matters most.  ---  2/10/2001  ---  *


Philosophy, life.  ---  See also: Philosophy, death.  ---  4/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Seems like everything that feels good is bad for you, like booze, drugs, sugar, fat, smoking, lounging around, etc.  Seems like everything that feels bad is good for you, like health food, exercise, etc.  ---  02/10/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Self-censorship is a dangerous thing.  It leads to lack of knowledge.  Dogmatism and ignorance go hand in hand.  ---  02/20/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Selling out; don't do it.  People sell out for money.  People sell out for the leisure money brings.  People sell out for the comfort money brings.  People sell out for the security money brings.  People sell out for the status money brings.  People sell out for the survival that money brings.  People try to make excuses for selling out.  People sacrifice their ideals for money.  ---  10/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Similarities and differences.  (1) Everyone is different.  Everyone's trip is different.  ("Trip" defined as life experience).  (2) We all have something in common.  All our trips have something in common.  ---  8/5/2003


Philosophy, life.  ---  Simple joys, yes.  Simple life, yes.  Simple thoughts, no.  ---  05/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Some people feel the prison analogy for life best describes school, job, family, etc.  They are focusing on the freedoms they don't have, not the freedoms they have.  They want total freedom.  They are idealistic.  ---  12/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Stay physically strong and mentally healthy.  ---  03/17/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  Thank god life is short.  And thank god the years speed up as you get older.  Because life is a big pain.  And the pain increases with age.  There is little joy.  The sooner you get out the better.  Give life 100% effort, and then get out.  To bad we can't commit suicide ethically.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  The big ethical principle is "Don't waste your life".  Figure out what activities qualify as "wasting your life" and what activities do not.  Figure out what activities waste your life least.  ---  4/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The big picture = everything, life.  Everything is of vast importance if looked at in the right way.  ---  12/06/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  The days are going to disappear.  The question is, are you going to have anything good to show for them?  Are you going to accomplish anything useful?  Money, material possessions and social status all mean so little.  ---  5/8/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  The dream, the goal.  Better job, more money, happier me, save the world (earth and people on it) through philanthropy.  ---  7/14/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  The gaps are what is important.  Most people see what there is.  The key is to see what is not there.  Inventors and artist see what does not exist.  Filling in the gaps, fleshing out the picture, is the key to creativity.  ---  10/30/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  The ideal life.  The ideal life is smooth; humming like a well tuned engine.  In the ideal life great work is produced effortlessly.  The years fly by without disaster.  Things come together.  The parts fit.  ---  2/1/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  The modern life is essentially a struggle of the individual for self identity and justice.  One must struggle against everyone else, and do everything (within the legal law) to get self identity and justice.  ---  01/28/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  The most important thing in life is to change the world for good, hopefully a big new change, but if not then a small usual change for good.  The second best thing is to at least be able to make an effort to make a change for good (even if this means changing yourself for good).  The next best thing is health, and then the love of a good partner.  Fame and riches are not important, they can even be a pain.  Wild sex is not important.  There are so many bad things in life.  So many bad things that can happen to you.  If you are not suffering these bad things then you are fine and dandy and shouldn't complain.  ---  05/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  The nature of reality can be summed up by adding up all knowledge in all subject areas.  Example:  In a world of scarcity and value (economics), thinking feeling beings (psychology) struggle or cooperate to avoid pain and gain power (sociology).  ---  03/17/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  The nose philosophy.  Keep your nose (1) Out of other people's business, (2) Clean, and (3) To the grindstone.  ---  06/20/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  The paradox.  (1) Enjoy every moment.  Appreciate every moment.  No matter where you are.  Even in less than perfect situations.  Treasure every precious moment.  (2) At the same time one should be aware of the problems in the world.  These problems should bother you to some degree.  You should be motivated to solve these problems.  One should be dissatisfied to some degree with the current situation.  (3) So this is the paradox, enjoyment and appreciation vs. dissatisfaction and discontent.  Happiness vs. unhappiness.  Where is the balance?  What is reality?  ---  8/3/2002  ---  *


Philosophy, life.  ---  The purpose in life is finding your voice.  Finding what you are good at and what you enjoy.  Find how your mind works best.  Find what modes of thinking and learning you do best.  Find what subject areas you are inclined toward.  ---  3/13/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  The purpose of life is to do some good by improving the world.  Improving the world means changing the world for the better.  Changing the world for the better means not doing things the same old way.  Changing the world for the better means thinking, writing, speaking out.  Changing the world for the better means not being normal,not fitting into the norm, not adhering to the status quo.  Changing the world for the better means effort, struggle, risk.  It means giving up a life of ease, comfort, safety and entertainment.  Changing the world for the better means running the risk of appearing lonely, poor, and defeated.  Changing the world for the better does not mean going along with the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing, that is, when one is living in a money-obsessed, overly-consumerist, egoistic society.  ---  12/17/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  The purpose of life is to improve the world by solving problems.  The meaning of life is you have an opportunity to make a contribution, make a difference, improve the world.  ---  1/28/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The question, "What am I going to do with my life?" is similar to the question of "What type of job should I get?", yet it is a question that is much wider in scope and much more fundamentally important.  There are different ways to look at it:  (1)  What do you like doing?  (2)  What are you good at?  (3)  What needs most to be done?  PART TWO.  (1) To some extent our situation determines what we can do, for example, by determining the technology available to us.  (2) To some extent the situation determines what we should do by presenting us with a specific set of problems.  (3) However, sometimes we are free to move to another situation that affords us more opportunities or more challenges.  PART THREE.  "What am I good at?"  meaning "What of all the things do I do best?" or "What do I do competently?", not necessarily "What am I best at doing out of all the people in my neighborhood or in the world?".  ---  1/17/2002  ---  *


Philosophy, life.  ---  The ride you have in life can be bumpy or smooth.  The ride you have in life is composed of two parts, one part being the actual events you experience, and the other part being the thoughts and emotions (i.e., attitudes) that pop into your head and how you deal with these.  We can call these two components the "physical" ride and the "psychological" ride.  The two rides are not always in sync.  You can have an easy physical ride (no major actual obstacles) and a bumpy psychological ride (many mental obstacles).  Or you can have a bumpy physical ride and a smooth psychological ride.  ---  9/4/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  The secret of happiness in life is not to get bogged down in one thing.  Variety is the spice of life, they say.  ---  04/25/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  The smartest thing a person can do is buy 300 sheets of paper and a pen, and just start writing about life.  Then organize it into sections, index it, and pick out the good stuff, save it, and share it.  ---  03/13/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system crushes people because the system is not flexible and diverse enough.  The system rewards pragmatists, realists and centrists.  The system penalizes idealists, dreamers, and fanatics.  ---  6/8/2001


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system is a mad scramble for stuff, money and power.  The work system (technology).  The political system.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system is a routine made for predictability and efficiency.  The routine reduces the need to think and makes new thoughts difficult.  It is dulling monotony.  Designed to avoid pain.  A numbing anesthetic.  It is safe.  The hours and years slip by.  Comfortably numb.  Mental pain is doped and drugged but not cured.  Happy, trivial, games.  Bourgeoisie.  The key is to keep confronting problems, even when you don't have to.  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system is comprised of subsystems.  The system is flawed.  The system can be improved.  The system is comprised of people, ideas and tools.  ---  4/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system is flawed (school, work, government, etc.).  If you play along you get rewarded with money, fame, women.  If you try to change the system you get penalized with no money, no fame, no women.  ---  7/30/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system produces callous, dastardly, unfeeling, unthinking, narrow minded, farts.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system uses people up, and gives little in return.  You can lose a lot trying to please the system.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system, definitions of.  (1) The system defined as life in the United States in the years 1990 to 2010.  (2) The system defined as life in the first world countries in the year 1990 to 2010.  (3) The system defined as life on earth 1990 to 2010.  (4) The system defined as humans living on earth anytime anyplace.  ---  6/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system, how did it evolve?  Who thrives in it, benefits from it, perpetuates it?  Who is destroyed by it?  Is there any alternative?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system, views of.  (1) The system is fine the way it is.  (2) The system is flawed.  (A) There is nothing anyone can do to fix it.  (B) There is something people can do to fix it.  (3) I agree with view 2B.  ---  2/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  (1) "The System" is things like school, work, family, relatives, culture, nation, authority, group pressures.  The system has the effect of making one an automaton, non-thinking, obeying, sheep, slave.  (2) The healthy individual is about thinking, optimizing, disobeying, and bucking the system.  (3) However, there is something to be said for working with others, cooperating, helping others, and teamwork.  ---  2/21/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  (1) Bucking the system, rebelling against the system, may lead to living poor, horny, and lonely.  To make progress, sometimes it is necessary to buck the system, to protest.  (2) On the other hand, for the sake of food and a place to live, people often cave in to the system, and are warped by the system, and sacrifice their ideals to the system.  "Being practical" often means "selling out" and "caving in".  ---  12/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  (1) Dare to think about the system.  Dare to criticize the system.  Dare to describe the system.  List the pros and cons of the system.  List the problems and solutions of the system.  (2) Its difficult for people inside the system to see the system.  Its difficult for people inside the system to to think critically about the system.  Its difficult for people inside the system to speak critically about the system.  (3) Those who benefit from the system are less inclined to criticize and change the system than are those who do not benefit from the system.  But those who do not benefit from the system are less likely to have the tools and resources needed to criticize and change the system.  (4) The system is not perfect.  The system has problems.  The problems of the system can be solved.  The system can be improved.  Progress is possible.  ---  7/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  (1) Some people put a lot of trust in the system, implicitly, when they refuse to question the system, and when they refuse to think critically about the system.  (2) The system is not perfect.  The system is flawed.  To improve the system you must understand the flaws of the system.  (3) The system is composed of subsystems.  Understand the flaws in the work subsystem.  Understand the flaws in the leisure subsystem.  Understand the flaws in the education subsystem.  Etc.  ---  12/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  (See also: Philosophy, systems networks models).  (1) The American system.  (A) Is the American system just?  Is there any justice in America, even 1 percent?  Is there a majority of justice, say 51 percent justice?  Is there complete justice, 100 percent?  No.  (B) Is the American system the best system in the world?  No.  There are other countries doing a better job.  (C) Does the average American have a clear understanding of the way the American system really works as opposed to the ideals of the myth of America?  (D) Do the schools transmit the truth of the actual American system?  Does the mass media transmit the truth of the actual American system?  (E) In the USA, and globally, how is money distributed?  How is power distributed?  How is information and education distributed?  How is health distributed?  More generally, how are resources distributed?  How are burdens distributed?  How are opportunities distributed?  Are they distributed fairly?  ---  5/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Adventure, bravery, romance, and passion.  These things are sorely lacking and much needed in modern civilization.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  At what point will you say, the system is imperfect, or further, the system is unfair, or further, the system is unjust?  And how will you respond?  With another wrong?  Or with a way to improve the system?  ---  5/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Definitions of the system.  (1) The U.S. system.  (2) The capitalist system.  (3) The system is not perfect.  The system is not the best system.  Versus those who think it is.  (4) The system can be helped.  Versus those who think it can't.  ---  6/23/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  If we had a healthy system then there would be fewer midlife crises because people would not realize halfway through their lives that they had been working meaningless jobs.  ---  1/1/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Learning to live in society is learning (1) How to get fu*ked up the ass.  (2) How to lie.  (3) How to be a coward.  ---  02/06/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Many people have the prissy isolationist attitude: "The system is corrupt and dirty.  I don't want to be corrupted.  I don't want dirt on me.  Don't bring me down."  ---  5/15/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Modern life is a struggle for catharsis, justice, knowledge, self identity, self autonomy, and mental health.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Modern life, society, "the system".  Modern life is so civilized.  Contra: enslavement and dogmatism vs. pros: refinement.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Out of intellectual laziness, by not thinking critically about the system, many people put a lot of blind trust in the system.  The system is not perfect.  The system can be improved.  Recognize the flaws in the system.  ---  1/1/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  The System.  Some counter-arguments to negative views of the system.  (1) Most of the people in the system are decent law-abiding people.  (2) The system put clothes on my back and food on my plate.  The system gave me a good life.  (3)  I am part of the system.  If the system is bad then it is partially my fault.  (4)  The sensitive artist and the delicate genius are perhaps too sensitive and too delicate, and not enough of an artist or a genius.  ---  1/1/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  The system is unfair because the system is set up by the rich and powerful for the rich and powerful.  However, opposing an unjust system by using unjust means is not progress.  The goal is to create a just system using just means.  ---  4/15/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  The system.  People go along with system out of desire (greed), unthinking (repression), and fear.  The system teaches cowardice, lying, fu*king others and getting fu*ked.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Those satisfied and content with the system, versus, those dissatisfied and discontent with the system.  Those who are ignorant of the system, versus, those who are knowledgeable about the system.  ---  6/15/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Those who think the system is fine.  Those who think the system is flawed.  ---  3/12/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  To some degree, by requiring and valuing conformity, society tries to destroy individuality and tries to destroy the individual.  We should embrace the different and new because it is a sign of individuality.  And valuing individuality leads to mental health, creativity and freedom.  Repressive conformity is efficient and productive, but also mentally unhealthy, non-creative and enslaving.  It devalues, disrespects and disempowers people.  ---  10/21/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  Two important questions.  How to change the system?  To what should we change the system?  ---  4/15/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  The system.  You can lose a lot and give up a lot running after the American Dream.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  The thing is to make something while you have it, because it will go, everything does.  ---  03/01/1988


Philosophy, life.  ---  The world is full of shit.  (1) Do not let it drive you crazy.  (2) Do not let it make you miserable.  (3) Do not let it stop you.  Do not let it demotivate you.  ---  12/5/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  The world is imperfect.  I.e. It is illogical, unjust, and ugly.  ---  10/30/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  There is a lot to do.  There is not a minute to waste.  Do not waste a minute.  ---  7/15/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  There is no best when everyone is different.  ---  6/7/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Things could be worse.  This idea is used as an excuse for passive acceptance of the way things are (the status quo).  This idea blocks progress.  Things could be better.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Thinking ("minding") and acting.  Life is full of problems.  Think and act.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Thinking, writing, and publishing my notes; its not a lot but its all I have.  Not many people read the notes.  I don't get paid for the notes.  I live in a hut.  Its all I have.  Its not much.  Its next to nothing.  That's my life.  Oh, well.  Its better than nothing.  Next to nothing is better than nothing.  Its something.  Its not much, but its something.  Its all I have.  Its enough.  Whoa, Beckett.  What did I give up?  Friends, a woman, relatives, a family, a career, a house, money, and more.  That is okay.  Everyone has to decide what they are going to do with their life.  ---  4/16/2006  ---  *


Philosophy, life.  ---  Those who are at the top of their fields, or on the cutting edge, or are true originals, have no models.  ---  04/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Three questions.  (1) Is anything fun anymore?  Yes, maybe thinking.  (2) Is anything new anymore?  Um, I'm not sure.  (3) Is anything worth fighting for?  Yes, plenty.  ---  2/24/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  Three topics in philosophy of life.  Ethics of life.  Epistemology of life.  Metaphysics of life.  Make these sections in the philosophy of life section.  ---  4/25/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Three views.  (1) My view of my life.  For example, I spent 20 years working on the Notes.  (2) My view of the world in 2006.  For example, I give the human species 50/50 odds for survival.  Humans can have an effect on their own survival.  (3) My view of life in general for anyone.  ---  12/16/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  To escape boredom, we had to escape conformity, so we rebelled, and then we searched.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two different economic strategies, leading to two different lifestyle strategies.  (1) Make little money, and spend little money.  Take a job that pays little, and live a frugal lifestyle.  (2) Make much money, and spend much money.  Get a job that pays a lot, and then spend a lot.  ---  12/28/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two different groups.  (1) Individuals and societies that write and talk but do not read and listen.  (2) Individuals and societies that read and listen but do not write and talk.  ---  6/15/1998


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two important ways to look at life.  (1) Space and time view.  World view, global view.  Throughout time; past, present and future.  The global view helps one avoid leaving anything out of the picture.  (2) Challenges and problems view.  Focusing on solving problems helps one avoid getting distracted and complacent.  (3) The two views combine to form a view of solving the world's problems.  ---  5/15/2004  ---  *


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two philosophies of life.  (1) Health, work, saving money, growth, joy, hope.  (2) Decay, despair, loafing, waste, spending, negative emotions.  ---  4/11/2001


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two points of view.  (1) That's the way life is.  That's the way things are.  That's the situation we are faced with.  Be practical.  Be pragmatic.  Be realistic.  Be a realist.  (2) Try to change things.  Try to improve things.  Think critically.  Speak out.  Be idealistic.  Be an idealist.  (3) The second way is better.  Its better to be idealistic that practical.  ---  10/9/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two questions.  (1) What is going on?  (To paraphrase Marvin Gaye).  What is going on in my life.  What is going on in the world.  (2) What to do?  (Marvin Gaye's sequel album?)  What can I do?  What should I do?  ---  4/24/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two questions.  (1) What will you work toward?  What are your goals?  Do you have worthy goals?  (2) How will you work toward it?  What are your tactics?  Do you have worthy tactics?  Avoid unethical tactics.  For example, for any goal, murder and terror are unethical tactics.  ---  10/10/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two views.  (1) Be here now, pay attention to what you are doing.  Pro: it is practical.  Contra: you don't get to think of anything.  (2) Absent minded, theoretical, imagination, drift, mental freedom.  Pro: think of cool shit.  Contra: Fu*k up what you are doing at the moment.  ---  04/30/1993


Philosophy, life.  ---  Two views.  (1) Friends come and go.  Family members betray each other.  All you have are your principles.  (2) Other people believe that all you have is your friends and family.  (3) I tend toward the first view.  ---  12/10/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  Various crowds.  Various things people are into.  (1) The picture crowd.  The book crowd.  The music crowd.  The movie crowd.  (2) The food crowd.  The architecture crowd.  The fashion crowd.  (3) The money crowd.  The politics crowd.  (4) The leisure crowd.  The sports crowd.  (5) The work crowd.  The entrepreneurial crowd.  The corporate crowd.  ---  4/12/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Very few people talk seriously about the truly important issues and problems of life.  Most people, most of the time, talk about marshmallow fluff.  ---  7/22/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  Views of life.  (1)(A) Life is good.  Most people, most of the time, act ethically.  Most people, most of the time, feel neutral or happy.  Yes.  (B) Life is bad.  Most people are in pain.  Life is unfair.  No.  (2)(A) Try to improve things.  You can improve things.  You should improve things.  Yes.  (B) Do not try to improve things.  You can't improve things.  You shouldn't improve things.  Do nothing.  Only enjoy self.  No.  (3)(A) Try to understand.  Yes.  (B) Don't try to understand.  You can't understand.  No.  (4) I think life is good, we can improve things and we can understand things.  ---  1/20/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  We are only a few days away from death without food water and heat.  How quickly and completely we forget this fact.  Yet is this the "reality" that should guide our actions and lives?  Or should the reality of what surely could be?  Or should the reality of what was?  The reality of present is not the only reality.  There is also the reality of the past, and the reality of the possible.  ---  05/28/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  We get so concerned with staying alive, climbing the career and social ladders, getting stuff and doing chores.  It monopolizes us.  Then when problems arise we have no time to sort out our head and deal with them.  We have no time to meditate on what a good life entails.  Our lives go unexamined.  We have no time to learn and develop.  This is bad.  ---  05/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Web of life.  Nothing is separate.  The artificial divisions of academic departments do not hold in real life.  Everything is inter-related.  Everything is connected to everything else.  For example, politics, economics and technology interact.  Each affects the other.  Nothing exists in isolation.  No person is alone.  No idea is alone.  No thing is alone.  Its not a circle of life; its a web of life.  Its an ecosystem.  ---  10/19/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  What am I for and against?  In my life, and in the world, what's my platform?  (1) Things I am for.  For Philosophy, psychology and sociology.  For Linux.  For Environment and Ecology.  For Equality and Rights.  For Chomsky's views. For labor.  (2) Things I am against.  Against corporate power abuses.  Against crime and corruption.  ---  12/1/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What are you doing?  What did you do today?  What do you do everyday?  What could you do?  What should you do?  What do you want to do?  People get mesmerized by routine.  People fall into screen saver mode, into auto-pilot mode.  Unblinking, unthinking.  Lulled, pacified, placated, appeased, complacent, compromised.  ---  2/7/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  What do I really want and need?  (1) Time.  (2) Health.  (3) Energy.  (4) Knowledge, information, attitudes.  ---  6/24/2002


Philosophy, life.  ---  What do you need to lead a happy life?  It depends on what makes you happy?  What makes a normal healthy person happy?  In order to lead a ethically great life you need ethical scruples.  What are the factors involved in either of the above lifestyles?  What are the variations of these factors?  How best to get them?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What does it take to live a happy life?  A lot of things working well together.  List them.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What good is life without conscious beings, and without the potential for conscious beings to exist?  A million years of flowers blooming.  Are not they still beautiful?  Who is to say the value of things depends on the presence of humans?  ---  10/31/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  What happens.  People get sucked into the system.  People are drawn into a maze to which they see no escape.  People lose the ability to envision an alternative.  People get comfortable and complacent, seduced by comfort, distracted by fluff.  As a result, people lose sight of what is important, and people waste their lives.  It is a constant struggle to live authentically.  One must constantly challenge oneself to live a more ethical life.  One must risk facing discomfort and stress in order to do good.  One must sometimes give up money and love in order to live a better life.  You may feel poor and alone at times.  ---  1/1/2007


Philosophy, life.  ---  What if no one did nothing?  What if we all took a "do nothing" philosophy?  What if we all took a "do bare minimum" philosophy?  What would happen to society?  What would life be like?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life about?  Life is about pursuing what is most important.  What does "most important" mean?  Importance is a value judgment that we ascribe to things.  Most important for a specific individual vs. most important for humanity.  The things we consider most important change as we change as individuals.  The things we consider most important change as society changes.  The things we consider most important change as the situation changes.  The things we consider most important change as we become better at perceiving or judging what is important.  ---  6/30/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  How much is a human life worth?  (1) Cost to maintain a human.  How much does it cost to maintain a human?  How many dollars are spent on food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, etc?  (2) Price of work done by a human.  The economic worth of the work that a human produces over a lifetime.  For example, if you make $40,000 a year for 40 years.  (3) The twisted logic of the unjust system of slavery in the United States let people put a price on humans.  ---  9/8/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  How much is a human life worth?  The monetary reward for catching a criminal.  ---  9/8/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  How much is a life worth?  $1 of chemicals.  $10,000 for a hit man.  $1,000,000 average lifetime total job earnings.  Can you put a dollar value on the good, or the bad, that one can do in a lifetime, or on the second it takes to kill or save another person?  ---  05/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  How much work (mental and physical) (creative and non-creative) can you do in a life?  How much is that work worth in dollars?  Is that how much life is worth?  (If we say a working life of fifty years: 10 hrs/day times 6 days/week equals 60 hrs/week.  Which equals 3000 hrs/year.  Or 150,00 hours in fifty years.  At a payrate of $10/hr this equals 1.5 million dollars.  At a payrate of $20/hr this equals 3 million dollars).  ---  4/28/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  How to convert between dollars and human lives.  Of course, human lives are priceless.  But consider, if a human can live today on ten thousand dollars a year, then one billion dollars equals one hundred thousand person-years.  That is to say, at a cost of living rate of ten thousand dollars a year, one hundred thousand people could live for a year on a billion dollars.  ---  8/21/2004


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  If life is priceless, then surely it is worth more than a million dollars.  How much money is that per each second of your life?  If you live 100 years, that is 36500 days, or 876,000 hours, which works out to $1.15 per hour.  ---  4/28/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth?  Life is worth a lot, but death is cheap.  As cheap as $10,000 for a hit man.  As cheap as the price of a bullet.  ---  4/28/1999


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life worth.  If you valued life at its actual worth, how much would that worth be, and how would you live?  ---  7/21/2000


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is life?  What is living?  How to do it well?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is most important in life?  How to act?  What to do?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is most important?  Life is about ideas first, then actions, and finally stuff.  ---  9/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is the meaning of life?  (1) Semantic meaning.  Life means itself.  It signifies nothing.  (2) Biological definitions.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is the situation?  What to do?  (1) World.  There are too many humans on earth.  Humans are destroying the environment.  (2) USA.  Bush lied the US into a war for oil profits.  (3) My life.  Trying to stay healthy.  Trying to make a living doing something meaningful and useful.  Trying to write something meaningful and useful in my spare time.  ---  7/14/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What is worth living for?  What is worth putting up with b.s.?  (1) For me, what I feel is worth living for and not?  (A) Family: no.  Old blood: no.  New blood: no.  (B) Money: no.  (C) Community service: no.  (D) Society: no.  (2) For others, what they feel is worth living for and not.  (3) Is anything worth living for?  Is anything not worth living for?  When should we kill ourselves?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, life.  ---  What matters?  Information, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, science, philosophy, reason.  Idiotic jobs run by shallow, narrow people are of less consequence.  ---  9/5/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  What should I do today?  What should I do with my life?  ---  12/22/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What should I do?  How should I live?  There are many parts or components to life.  There are many things going on.  There are many choices or possible courses of action to be evaluated.  ---  12/22/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What things are most important in life?  All else is avoidance, denial, repression.  ---  4/27/2005


Philosophy, life.  ---  What to do?  Teach ethics.  Effecting change, effecting progress, is about teaching.  The communication of ideas.  And its about teaching ethics.  Teaching all you've learned, especially when new, true and different.  ---  12/17/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What to say at end of life.  "I didn't accomplish all I wanted, but I tried hard and got some of it done".  ---  12/30/1995


Philosophy, life.  ---  What's on the line in life?  What's at stake in life?  (1) What's at stake in life for humans.  All the good things: truth, justice, love.  All the bad things: war, crime, murder, sickness, accidents, emotional pain, hate, violence.  Everyone gets a chance in life to pursue the good and struggle against the bad.  That's why human life is important.  That's why life matters for humans.  Humans can think, feel, and do.  Try it some time.  Everyone will experience good and bad things of various types and degrees as a result of circumstance.  Humans are ethical beings, capable of recognizing and doing right and wrong.  Thus life is an ethical situation.  (2) What's at stake in life for animals.  Many animals besides humans have rich mental lives, capable of memory, emotion, and thought.  Life is important for non-human animals because non-human animals are sentient beings.  (3) What's at stake in life for plants.  Life for a plant is less complicated.  Life for plants is important because plants support sentient beings like human and non-human animals.  ---  7/8/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  What's the meaning of life?  (1) Solve problems.  Save the world.  (2) Formulate some worthy goals and pursue those goals.  ---  8/13/2006


Philosophy, life.  ---  When I was young I hoped for a simple, stressless, uncluttered, peaceful life.  Hippie, Zen, rural, happy, stagnant, boring.  But the real world is not, and cannot ever be, that way.  Conflict is inevitable.  Now I would not even want the world, or my life, to be that way, if effort (no matter how stressful) could make things better overall.  Let the world be complex, cluttered, turbulent, stormy, stressful, and effort filled.  Life is better than it was two million years ago, and I am fighting for an even better world.  ---  05/20/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  When you are on top, avoid making mistakes.  ---  06/08/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  When you dislike yourself, or are apathetic to yourself, you don't take care of yourself.  When you like yourself, you take care of yourself, and realize the great value and importance of (your) life, and also the great fragility of life.  ---  9/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  When you get right down to it, life is like this: Massive pain and injustice exist (self inflicted, other inflicted, and naturally inflicted).  Yet there exists the opportunity to do something about it.  We can lessen the pain and injustice.  Right?  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Work vs. play.  Fun vs. not fun.  Easy vs. hard.  You can have six combinations and six types of activity to which these combinations would apply.  ---  04/26/1994


Philosophy, life.  ---  Wrong views on life, and commentary on them.  (1) You can't fight city hall.  (2) Whatever will be, will be.  (3) It is all part of God's plan.  (4) Everything has been thought of.  (5) You can't do anything about it.  (6) It is not my job.  (7) Mind your own business.  (8) Live and let live.  (9) Head in sand.  (10) Not my problem.  (11) Does not affect me.  ---  06/10/1997


Philosophy, life.  ---  You can do things your way or their way.  Do it your way.  ---  02/05/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  You can't let your job or physical or psychological problems or pains define who you are, what you can and can't do, and what you can and can't become.  They will only hold you back if you let them.  Just because you can't land a job, it doesn't mean you should say "I am not capable of doing that task".  Don't give up on yourself.  Keep striving.  Keep working, keep producing.  ---  7/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  You can't polish shit.  ---  01/16/1989


Philosophy, life.  ---  You wake up one day.  That's it, that's life, you are alive.  You can't expect much more than that.  Wanting more is ok.  Expecting more is being a whiner.  ---  07/30/1996


Philosophy, life.  ---  Your life = you + your environment.  ---  12/30/1992




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.