To know this life isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Sure, it has its moments. Nothing's all bad. Even Hitler loved his dog. But there is something wrong with things. There is something wrong with everything. The simple pleasures simply don't add up to the incontestable fact that life, if you have your eyes open, is an abomination. You may be happy enough. Shame on you. It is a form of moral blindness to smile in an abattoir. We all live our comfortable lives on the backs of nameless and numberless suffering others, human and animal, and to say "So what?" is to spit on the inconceivable horror that is a daily fact of existence to so many. We know, we know, we're a bummer. But it must be said. This life we lead is built upon a heap of corpses. There is nothing to be done about it, either. The situation is hopeless. As it was, so it shall always be. Human progress is a grim joke. And the punchline is composed of bulletholes on the walls of buildings from here to Minsk.
Life itself is kind of okay, it's us humans who make it complicated and nearly unbearable. Look at the apes in the trees - eat some, copulate some, and that's a day's work well done.
That's how it was meant to be ...
Posted by: Jan Martin Löhndorf | June 02, 2016 at 05:36 AM
Forget that post. I sound like a scold. I mean I agree with you about humans--but I'm one of them and in no position to pass judgment on anybody.
Posted by: Mike | June 02, 2016 at 08:23 AM
... "I'm one of them and in no position to pass judgment on anybody." I am one of them as well and I did pass judgement, didn't I? Yes, I did, although I am not in a position to do so, either.
Did you know you have grown more and more buddhist lately?
Thanks for the lesson! I mean it!
Posted by: Jan Martin Löhndorf | June 02, 2016 at 10:56 AM
I hear gorilla tastes a lot like Soylent Green.
Posted by: Bulletholes | June 02, 2016 at 01:24 PM
Very poetic. And very true. However, just the fact that there is something wrong with things, make it worthwhile. Like Marilyn's mole. And Las Vegas laughter.
Posted by: Martijn | June 02, 2016 at 01:29 PM
It really does, Bulletholes!
Posted by: Jan Martin Löhndorf | June 02, 2016 at 07:10 PM
"The simple pleasures simply don't add up to the incontestable fact that life, if you have your eyes open, is an abomination."
Amen, brother.
"You may be happy enough. Shame on you. It is a form of moral blindness to smile in an abattoir."
Too true, but what else to do while waiting for the ax to fall?
Nice to have you back.
Posted by: mordantmouth | June 03, 2016 at 01:10 AM
True, Mordantmouth. I'm all for laughing in the abattoir, at the sheer absurd horror. Jan Martin, I think the Buddhism comes from E.M. Cioran, who was no Buddhist but did believe in total detachment and inaction. As for gorillas, they taste like big hairy chickens with the capacity to thump their big hairy chests.
Posted by: Mike | June 03, 2016 at 08:37 AM