In his last letter to La Monte, on the question of Socialism against Individualism, he writes
I am not a religious man, but I cannot think upon my own good fortune in life without a feeling that my thanks should go forth, somewhere and to someone. Wealth and eminence and power are beyond my poor strength and skill but on the side of sheer chance I am favoured beyond all computation. My day’s work is not an affliction but a pleasure; my labour selling in the open market, brings me the comforts that I desire; I am assured against all but a remote danger of starvation in my old age. Outside my window, in the street, a man labours in the rain with pick and shovel, and his reward is merely a roof for to-night and tomorrow’s three meals. Contemplating the difference between his luck and mine, I cannot fail to wonder at the eternal meaninglessness of life. I wonder thus and pity his lot, and then, after a while, perhaps, I begin to reflect that in many ways he is probably luckier than I.
But I wouldn’t change places with him.
The series of letters between La Monte and Mencken are quite interesting and both sides are persuasive. For a brief moment, La Monte almost persuaded me to socialism, but I think at the end, I have to agree with Mencken that socialism attempts to fight the laws of nature.
The charge of racism on Mencken, I think is justified. His view of the Aframerican, the Russian peasant and Jew doesn’t leave any doubts as to his low opinion of them.
In general, it is a good read.
It’s inexcusable, but being a product of the high colonial era when western authority and technology swept aside all before it there was perhaps a compulsion even in the minds of learned/thoughtful men to believe (erroneously) that the European stock inhabited some higher rung in evolution. From inside their teak and chestnut libraries Humanism would not have seemed a particularly valid worldview given the experiences (and comforts) flowing in but one direction.
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He was a brilliant fellow and his racism is, well, inexcusable. He got many things right though. His comments on religion for one are to the point
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It is interesting to note how the US did produce many brilliant voices who tore Christianity/religion apart, like Mencken, but how those voices failed to penetrate the psyche of the “general” population, allowing evangelical nonsense to thrive. This is in stark contrast to the European/Commonwealth experience where religion morphed into more of a cultural expression (handling births, deaths, marriages and nothing really else) rather than external way of life.
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That is a strange thing. I think there is something to it. Maybe most of them, Americans, are ineducable and only a few were able to grasp the ideas being set forth.
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Geography must have played a large role. Isolated small towns can be tremendously efficient, impenetrable bubbles. This argument certainly rings true as we watch Christianity crumble under the stresses of the information-rich interwebs
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You may have a point John, but look at the idiots like CS, IB, Brandon, Wally and the rest of them who live in a country with high speed internet and access to so much information repeat the BS that the bable was inspired by a god and somewhere a virgin gave up and is still a virgin
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They are strange men and women, but they are also a dying breed having a tantrum (online, and perhaps in the streets) as the water drags their ship down.
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I am reluctant to believe they are a dying breed. I have been called elitist but I think the majority of the human family are not concerned with such lofty ideas as freeing themselves from superstition
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Agreed, but we can encourage the religious to take a back seat 🙂
Did you see that Ted Cruz is a Dominionist? His father (a Domonionism preacher) gave a speech in 2013 (i think?) where he anointed Ted as a Gentile King who will effect the Seven Mountain Prophecy which initiates the End Times. That shit is just scary.
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And the idiot is against improving immigration laws and I gather he is an immigrant! Now that is a fellow I think of as an idiot of the first order
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Hey, in Australia we have a PM who was born in England then emigrated to Australia… but he’s the most outspoken PM we’ve ever had on immigration, and is a crazy Catholic who studied to become a priest. Listen to this crap:
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Hahaha.
That was a load of crap
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And the idiot is against improving immigration laws and I gather he is an immigrant!
He is an idiot, but unfortunately not an immigrant. Were it so he would not be eligible even if naturalized. His mother is a U.S. citizen so he has a legitimate claim to citizenship.
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Thanks for the correction.
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Not a correction. Just information. Though it is a puzzly puzzler why Donald Trump isn’t asking to see his birth certificate.
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I want to see Donald Trump’s toupee/hair stylist bill. Whatever it is, he’s paying too much. I also think 98% of his brain is in that external mop on top of his cranky ass head.
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He must have that thing super glued to his head. Have you ever seen that thing flappin’ in the wind?!?
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It’s like some new species of terrestrial octopus that forms a symbiotic relationship with the balding head of its host.
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It definitely has a life of it’s own. It’s a dilemma. Do you kill it or try to make friends with it?
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I’ve heard it has a decent singing voice. Maybe Trump can tour with it and do a few duets. They can call it the “Just Me and My Hairpiece” tour.
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Maybe he has got something to keep him busy
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His toupee keeps him very busy. Most of his fortune goes into feeding that thing.
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if that could distract him long enough not to run for presidency, I think it would be a good thing
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Well he is gearing up to make a presidential run, himself. Against none other than Ted Cruz.
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i think the biggest indictment against democracy is it allows any one to run for office as long as they have money
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Here:
http://aattp.org/flashback-rafael-cruz-calls-son-ted-cruz-an-anointed-king-responsible-for-the-end-time-transfer-of-wealth/
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That is just batshit ceazy
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Religious people were ignoring reason well before our modern era.
This quote struck a nerve with me, mainly because there are days, moments, where I am just glad to be alive. Glad to experience the things that please me, be they moments with family, or spectacular beauty, or awe in the discovery of something new.
I am merely grateful for life. Grateful for the evolutionary processes that brought us here. Grateful for a planet that makes these things possible. Though I do not look for some (insert god here) to thank specifically. I, we, are well past that mythical security blanket.
As far as trading places with someone who may be worse off, I have already been worse off. If I am going to trade places with anyone I would prefer a well to do. While money cannot solve your problems, I am sure it makes them easier to take.
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I’d trade with Prince William. Sure, there are a mountain of privacy issues besetting his life, but damn he must be having a ball 😉
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John I agree.
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Oh, I made a mistake. Not William, but Prince Harry.
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I sure would only want to trade places with a well to do guy. It opens more shops from where to buy salves
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Here, do you like this?
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That is well put John. I like it very much
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You know, in my moments most dire, in my times of down and out, hope was less available to me than was determination. Hope in my view is waiting, wishing for something to get better. Determination on the other hand is actively working to make things better.
My hope is restricted to things like, hoping my kids have good lives, with only enough hardship to breed determination. 🙂
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You have put it so well. The determination to get out of the rut. That is something
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Nice post and great comments.
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Thanks mate.
And I hope you will not take offence by my saying majority of your countrymen and women have been and are ineducable
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I agree completely. They voted George W Bush into the presidency 2 times, and now, they may just vote his brother Jeb into the same office in 2016. Evil bastards like Ted Cruz have political life because my fellow citizens are too stupid to realize guys like him feed off the masses whilst spewing them out as bones when finished. I’m not the least optimistic about people here ever getting educated enough to see these things, at least not enough of them to really make a difference. Totally infuriating.
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I can rest easy now. I was afraid i may just find in my mail a lightning bolt delivered by Pigeon express.
I don’t think the majority ever moves far from the savage
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And the stupid.
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W didn’t win the 2000 election. The Court handed it to him
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Yes. Which proves even further just how f*ckin’ stupid my fellow countrymen are. Placid. Weak. Silent. And very, very stupid.
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But also great, my friend. You just need some new moon shot, something to focus that sleeping genius on
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I hope we do wake up here, and soon. We have great potential, but we squander it on silliness and give equal voice to brain dead morons like Ken Ham and Ted Cruz. Once fools like that become embarrassed for speaking their ridiculous shit aloud, America will have taken a giant step out of its diaper and into big boy underpants. 🙂
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Don’t waste your time hoping. Enjoy life, it is beautiful. The majority will always be fooled for they hardly think beyond what they shall eat
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Even when the very food is taken from them by the leaders they elect. But yes, life truly is a beautiful thing and very nice to have. 🙂
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Unfortunately yes
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I’m grateful every day for various and sundry things that I’ve been afforded in life. Grateful to whom? The Universe? Mother Earth? I have no idea to whom I should feel grateful and am not convinced there is one to be grateful to. Still, it does not diminish my appreciation for life.
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Am just wondering whether there is really any need to be grateful for being alive. Tomorrow we die and we shall be soon forgotten.
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There might not be. I think it’s just an emotion that people feel. Just because we have an emotion and just because we feel grateful doesn’t mean there must be some object to express it to.
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I’m very grateful I don’t have a toupee like Donald Trump’s living on my head. Every morning I wake up and say, “Thanks, Universe, for not putting an ugly-ass toupee on my head like Donald Trump’s and allowing me to have real, normal human hair instead.”
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That is definitely something to be grateful for! See, Mak? There are reasons to be grateful!
I’m thankful that I don’t have a Donald Trump toupee living on my head AND that I don’t have a lightning bolt glued to my hand. That could make certain tasks quite difficult.
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We all have our crosses in life. I have two HUGE ones: 1.) Said bolt glued to my hand, and 2.) I’m only a foot and a half tall. These two elements combined make life very challenging. However, I’m still grateful I do not have a Trump-like toupee living on my head. 🙂
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Being so close to the ground is an advantage. It means you don’t get hurt when you fall
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Very true. It’s also an advantage in crowded areas. I just scamper between people’s legs. If they don’t let me, I zap their knees with my bolt. They cry out, “Who the f*ck was that white-bearded tiny guy who just zapped my knees and ran off? He looks CRAZY!”
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Hahaha. Another cool advantage. The biggest disadvantage I can think of is you see tomorrow way after every one else has seen it
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That’s OK. I often forget yesterday, too. Kinda makes living in the “now” a lot easier. 🙂
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Agree fully
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On the other hand, you have a lighting bolt glued to your hand! How freakin’ cool is that?!?
Blessings and curses, man. Blessings and curses.
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Hard to pee, but other than that, I kinda like it. 🙂
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Hahaha. Nice one Ruth. Really nice
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Ruth, here is what I was alluding to about Cruz.
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Hahahaha
But you do have a lightning bolt on your hands 🙂
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I agree with you
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I had already been thinking about buying this, but your comment persuaded me to buy it.
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William, I think you will enjoy it.
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[…] I am talking about Mencken’s letters to La Monte by the same title. I am writing about man as he is in the African setting, or rather in traditional […]
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