Cinq Cent Mots:

The predisposition to be evil presupposes a Predisposer, for otherwise the Individual Will would be able, quite easily, to live up to those expectations that any rational moral agent would expect with total objectivity. The objectivity of moral reasoning allows one to expect good behavior and to suffer the shock of that expectation’s disappointment.

After some time, even being Evil is exhausting. If one continues to do it, it implies that some Outside Force compels it.

Dm.A.A.

I can think of at least two ways to break the “laws of physics”: making music and making choices. One might consider all so including making love and making art there, too.

Dm.A.A.

If even only for one moment one could see all of Existence as a Sensible and Intelligent, self-generating Construct, one would look at one’s uninitiated neighbours with pity, and one would not know whether to hug them or kill them. Don’t let the latter option submerge the integrity of the former.

Dm.A.A.

It’s been said that the lunatic does the same thing over and over again expecting different results. What about the fanatic? The saint would theoretically be crazy to go on in strict adherence to an ethical code if it produces only disappointment. But what degenerates forget is that the product is only disappointing insofar as it is secondary to the process. Righteous indignation is akin to pity for those lacking in virtue, and it is not religious zeal that renders Life painful but rather it is that same zeal that makes pain meaningful. The religious fanatic at least defends a sensible cosmology, though he may not be able to master it in verbal logic; conversely, the secular militarist finds no alternative but to fight, for dying is terrifying in the “absence” of an afterlife. The latter has no fundamental ground to survive, however; he simply sustains his disjointed, envious and meaningless life out of spite and pious self-importance. Some men smile at his arrogance; others rebel against it with the entire force of violence. The method is not the important variable; it is the intent. So it is with virtue that the important variable is not some ulterior expectation of reward but rather the fortitude of virtue itself. Goodness is neither a coping mechanism nor a confidence ruse; the pain that surrounds it is not of its creation but rather the product of Vice, for vice will invariably produce pain whereas Virtue at least offers the possibility of transcendence in proportion to allegiance. Once one has embraced morality, moral questions of what ought to be can be rather easy to resolve. Yet the question of whether or not to embrace Morality to BEGIN with is not yet a question of what ought to be but of what is. And there can be no further debate that Morality Exists. Virtue IS its own reward, though only virtuous men see it. God IS Good, though to the atheist He is only an Object, and not the Totality of Things.

Dm.A.A.