The Intellectual Farce
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
I have spent the afternoon lying in bed and reading a good book. It has been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity or the desire to do that, and I forgot how fantastic it feels to finish a very good book, especially when you have no other duties that HAVE to be done just then. It seems like my problems are a little more reasonable, when pitted against some hero figure who must save the world, the universe, or the woman he loves from the ravages of some evil. I wish I could hang on to the euphoric feeling I get when I finish a book, especially one that takes a good long time to wrap up the lose ends, so you get a good view of just how “happily ever after” life will be for the deserving hero or heroine. Hurrah for the writers of books. You all make my life easier, or at least more bearable.
In any event, our house has not yet closed, my car is still dead (but being worked on, and may come back to life for a relatively small amount of money thanks to some very good people we’ve met out here. You know who you are ;-)).
I wish the problems of my life were as clear cut as many I see in stories. It seems like the ravages of life on Earth kills you with small cuts, until you are a torn and bleeding mass and you say, “I just don’t care anymore.” Or worse, you give in and become one of “them” – one of the ones who does as little as possible with your life, sailing through, insulting, hurting, stepping on people with no care as to how it affects them. I certainly have felt that way lately; that I don’t care any more. That I would rather be the one doing the trampling, and not be the trampled. If only I could raise my banner against a clear cut evil I would do it, and ride to war.
But how do you wage war on those who strive for mediocrity? How do you do battle with those empty-minded belittlers, those cringing cowards, those assassins of joy who every day come at you to take a cut? I have met many intelligent people who make themselves smaller and less worthy of the title “human” with their snobbery, their backhanded compliments, their useless attempts to make sure you see them as somehow “better” or, perhaps “higher” than you.
I know a woman who believes that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Seems like a good adage to live by, doesn’t it? Sometimes her silence rings as loudly as if she had hurled sewage at you. She is a smart woman, but she isn’t wise. She doesn’t realize that she is as transparent as glass.
But how am I supposed to battle this? Do I say to her, “How dare you not insult me out loud!” like some lunatic? See, much better to have an enemy you can get in your sights and kill. Not these foul and pestilent snakes in the grass that pretend to be polite and socially acceptable.
Ah yes, life is so much easier in books.
I think I shall go read another.
In any event, our house has not yet closed, my car is still dead (but being worked on, and may come back to life for a relatively small amount of money thanks to some very good people we’ve met out here. You know who you are ;-)).
I wish the problems of my life were as clear cut as many I see in stories. It seems like the ravages of life on Earth kills you with small cuts, until you are a torn and bleeding mass and you say, “I just don’t care anymore.” Or worse, you give in and become one of “them” – one of the ones who does as little as possible with your life, sailing through, insulting, hurting, stepping on people with no care as to how it affects them. I certainly have felt that way lately; that I don’t care any more. That I would rather be the one doing the trampling, and not be the trampled. If only I could raise my banner against a clear cut evil I would do it, and ride to war.
But how do you wage war on those who strive for mediocrity? How do you do battle with those empty-minded belittlers, those cringing cowards, those assassins of joy who every day come at you to take a cut? I have met many intelligent people who make themselves smaller and less worthy of the title “human” with their snobbery, their backhanded compliments, their useless attempts to make sure you see them as somehow “better” or, perhaps “higher” than you.
I know a woman who believes that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Seems like a good adage to live by, doesn’t it? Sometimes her silence rings as loudly as if she had hurled sewage at you. She is a smart woman, but she isn’t wise. She doesn’t realize that she is as transparent as glass.
But how am I supposed to battle this? Do I say to her, “How dare you not insult me out loud!” like some lunatic? See, much better to have an enemy you can get in your sights and kill. Not these foul and pestilent snakes in the grass that pretend to be polite and socially acceptable.
Ah yes, life is so much easier in books.
I think I shall go read another.
