Live from the Ritz

As I hunker down in what is a sports themed eating establishment, recovering from the effects of an Irish hot chocolate and muddling over the latest lecture from Philosophy, for which I'm glad I had the comfort of the Irish Hot C, I try to put my personal philosophy in perspective.

This, as I think on it more, is a very daunting task. Summing up anyone's personal views on Life, the Universe, and Everything seems like it would take any rational thinking being a bit more than the space of a single post. This being my case, though rational may be successfully argued against, my personal philosophy takes on, as I've learned in my brief stint in the philosophic world, a few basic ideas from several most notable Philosophers. And while their names for the most part escape me, again due in part to the whiskey infused chocolate drink I take regularly to this class, the basic premiss is still there and I shall do my best to descibe just how yours truly works, in my attempt to let you in on a dark world as yet mostly unexplored by anyone, including myself.

As I've grown over the last year, through a handful of experiences that range from legal to illegal to morally depraved, I've come to know a lot about myself, and now have the proper words to describe exactly who I have become. Here goes...

A large philosophic force in the early years of its progression was Ecipurianism. From what I gather from poorly taken notes, it's largest basis is that one should live a pleasureable life, seeking to maximize one's tranquility through knowledge and friendships and minimize stress and fear. However this life, while describes the underlying skeleton of my views, fails to go to the extents that I would. It also says that one should abstain as it were to the physical desires, of course being sex, lavish spending, and appetite satisfaction.

A more tame form of Hedonism, it does not quite allow the freedom I seek in my own life. And before you say, "Well, Jeremy, wouldn't Hedonism be what you are looking for then?" I would say, "Shut the f**k up and do not interrupt me." Hedonism, while it is quite tempting, treats pleasure as the Number 1 and puts far too little emphasis on a few other things in live I deem necessary.

One of those things is experience. So far, through the loose attention I've paid to class, I have not found the exact philosophic stance that would best explain, or at least support, my desire to experience life. The closest I've come was through David Hume. Hume was in short, an asshole. This is not an official philosophic community view, but the damned jack-off's largest contribution was to say that there is very little you say with absolute certainty. In an example given by Hume, and fitting to my seat next to a pool hall, if you can say that you saw a billiard ball traveling down a pool table, and label this Event A, then you witnessed a second billiard ball traveling down a pool table, Event B, you can not know with absolute certainty that these two events are connected.

I would put forth, my fist to Hume's face, Event A, and my continued barrage of insults and conjectures to his explaination. If I had witnessed these two events happening myself, and had seen the first ball hitting the second, I would be absolutely certain that the two events were linked through a series of physic's laws. Being an engineer, I could draw the Free Body Diagram in effect to prove this to Hume.

As every good lawyer is, as Hume was, he would have his counter arguement ready, and it is this: If the two events happened in close spacial and temporal proximity, it can be assumed they are linked... Fine, whatever you win this round due to my lack of patience to argue forth. Who win's the war? Well, Hume eventually when crazy and suffered a nervous breakdown. He then left his philisophical writings and played billiards, and the irony is evident. When he came back he had only this to say:

It is best to leave the frustration of thinking, and go out and experience life.

Well put. Apparently I take my philosophical views from a man who went temporarily insane and from a philosopher who couldn't get laid. Well not quite, like I said earlier, there is a lot more too it then what I will be able to put here, but this is the distilled version.

I also see an informal relationship as a trial-run for marriage, and therefore feel cheating is perfectly acceptable under several conditions. If something does not directly affect myself or someone I care about, it is not my problem, and unless I can save face by helping, I will in all likelyhood ignore the problem. Most people would simply call my an ass, myself included. If anyone is ever up for a more indepth discussion on any of it, I would be happy to oblige.

I feel Thursdays should be stricken from the calendar and a second Tuesday added in its place, perhaps Twosday? Write your Congressman...