RoR: Forum

Post 0

Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 4:30pm

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While this could be interpreted in a Nietzschean manner, it is quite true. Unfortunately, I know far too many people who are never happy unless they have something to be unhappy about.

Post 1

Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 5:55pm

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Ted, some Eric Hoffer quotes could be used to counter one sense of what it is that you said (though, not every quote, or even every sense of what it is you said) ...

Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.

I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind.

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.

Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.

We are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about.

We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.

;-)

Ed

Post 2

Wednesday, January 17, 2007 - 7:16pm

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To flesh it out, I know a lot of people, who when they could be happy, let their minds wander until they find something to gripe about. It's not temporary dismay or principled anger, its plain old lazy and un-self-critical rouchiness. When I am temporarily unhappy, I recognize the fact, and act to change my mood, rather than wallowing in my own crapulence. I think that that is the better interpretation of Setzer's quote.

Post 3

Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 6:06am

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To flesh it out, I know a lot of people, who when they could be happy, let their minds wander until they find something to gripe about.

It's actually very easy to do that. For some people, it's not that easy to stop.

Post 4

Thursday, January 18, 2007 - 6:23am

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It's actually very easy to do that. For some people, it's not that easy to stop.

Chris, I may very well be one of those with a racing, nearly-unstoppable mind, scurrying around planting "red flags" on the potentially-destructive imperfections I find in the world -- but do you see yourself as one of these people, too; when you say "For some people, ..."?

Ed