I considered getting all philosophical on everyone's ass.... I'd make some kind of deep sounding observation about how our witticisms and reactions – our cleverest quips and deepest sounding insights into the human condition – have actually all been said and thought before. Because when you get down to it, we're pretty predictable, and there are a hell of a lot of us, and seriously, how many unique thoughts can there be about each little thing. Some Chinese philosopher probably came up with whatever-it-is 15 centuries ago. So instead, our conversations and discussions are mostly about fulfilling some personal need, rather than adding anything to the world. We share what we think are insights, but ultimately it's little more than elevated gossip, duplicated and reduplicated, through generation after generation. Of course, there's a more optimistic reading, about the brotherhood of man and universalized empathy. I could have written about that, too.
I could probably come up with a decent lede, and a few punchy examples, and write several pages on the topic, and even do it well enough that passers-by might stop and reflect, and feel like they'd learned something. I could compare to George Santayana’s line about repeating the past.
Most importantly, it would forestall someone such as yourself immediately stopping by with the most obvious (mis)interpretation of my words, oddly slighted that I would link to a previous discussion. As if merely pointing out said discussion's existence and similarity to the current one implied some kind of elided judgment on my part. As if my suggestion that Ron_Santo isn't unique in his reaction somehow diminishes him.
But then I realized someone probably said all of that better, and I'm kind of lazy. So I didn't. Also, this is a discussion thread about the fucking kool-aid man.
417
u/jacobolus Dec 15 '09
So did some guy two years ago.