A few people have been commenting on the current “death by semantics”, or what Orwell called “doublespeak.” I used that image just in October, but it’s too on-the-nose not to use it again here. T. Ryan Gregory wrote, “Death by semantics. It’s spread in the air, but it’s not airborne. It’s
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A Puff of Absurdity: Ideology and Indoctination
We’ve got marches and rallies surfacing, sometimes right outside of schools, with people chanting, “Leave the kids alone” in order to put an end to “gender ideology.” What does this even mean? First off, check out this 8 minute TikTok on indoctrinating kids (also here if embedding doesn’t work): @headonfirepod Replying
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Age of Absurdity
We’re skipping gleefully into the most absurd period in history. The philosophical notion of the absurd came from Camus. It grew legs with existentialists after WWII when the youngest and fittest men were sent to be slaughtered in war. The streets of Paris were full of widows and grieving mothers
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Plague of Climate Change
I just finished Camus’s compelling read, The Plague. It’s a parable provoked by the Nazi Occupation, but also about general occupation, oppression, and isolation. It’s about resistance to incomprehensible evil and what it looks like to be a good person. But, it’s striking how well what much of he says fits
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On the Absurdist Victory: All is Well
A while back I wrote about a video comparing Stoicism and Existentialism. The video also touched on different psychology principles developed from each philosophy. Stoicism is easily seen in CBT and REBT, which start with the premise that when we’re upset it’s because of our perception of things, not the things
Continue readingmark a rayner: Camusic of the SpheresÂ
The dreams had returned, again, and no amount of coffee and cigarettes could keep their influence at bay. The ennui was crushing at times, and even talking with an outrageous French accent would not help. He thought of his days in the theatre. Oh, the …
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Tell Me About Your Mother
You awake each morning screaming, your mouth dry and your eyes red from the tears that bath your Pillow of Ennui. You had the dream again. Of falling. Of dogs tearing at your carcass, broken on the dirty pavement of … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: The Stranger (The Outsider)
I read this originally in French class, sometime during my high school career. (Where I was a music nerd, and a hard-core nerd, long before that was remotely cool.) Most of this famous existential work was read aloud in class, … Continue reading →
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