How to Find Your Place in a World that seems Pretty Crazy
by Robert M. Herzog, a pragmatic humanist
A practical philosophy for finding contentment in scary, changing times
1. Get over yourself
a. Origins aren’t determinate
b. Look at how long hatred lasts and assess if you are buying in to it
c. Stop judging, start accepting
d. what really affects you
e. there is a common weal, and the higher it’s quotient, the better off you are
2. Let go of whatever binds you
3. Just say yes
4. Fundamentalists are bad news, here and there. Fundamentalists think they have all the answers because they don’t ask any questions.
5. If you think Sarah Palin makes sense, you were poorly educated
a. Analytic thought is learned, not divined
b. there’s a reason education is so lousy — it keeps the self-serving in power
6. Politics are personal, not ideological
7. What happened a long time ago still affects you, if you let it
a. Yugoslavia
b. slavery
8. Identity defines you if you let it, thought frees you if you recognize it
a. My party right or wrong is not a path to your happiness, cause it’s just plain mean
9. Yes, they really are nuts, and it’s ok to say it
a. stupidity doesn’t deserve equal time. That’s for Congress.
10. When do you go all in (public space), when do you give up and build your fortress around family
11. Why horrible people are exploiting your fears for their own gain
a. supporters of lower taxes when they won’t benefit
b. Abortion, gun control, gay marriage — who gives a shit, and how you get screwed by identifying with the people who proclaim to
12. Let them be, pay attention to you and yours — don’t fall into the identity trap.
13. Money, food, cars and clothes — what will make you happy, what will sink you into the consumerist trap
14. There really is a need to protect people with public action, that will make you better off; and there really is a need to keep ridiculous interference from defining your environment, which you need to fight for
15. You’re getting fucked over by the food people
16. The reason you can say anything is because nobody is listening — the illusion of freedom in a plutocracy
17. What happens over there — does it matter back here.
18. Buy local, because the globalization of trade is screwing you, your city and your neighbors
a. How a buck saved at Walmart is a lot more less to go around
19. JOY — it’s there and doesn’t have to be at the expense of someone else
a. The Stranger — on top of others, or in and of itself
b. Just think of music
20. Look at the people, think of them as kids
a. all the kids are beautiful
b. No mom wants the kid to end up bad
c. all the kids are beautiful
d. how does it go bad and what can you do about it, for yourself, and for others in ways that gratify you?
21. Why are the people whom society has enabled to have so much so mean spirited and greedy — recognize them for what they are
22. It’s not about coping with less, it’s about making more with what we have
23. It’s not about finding the perfect moment, it’s that each moment is as perfect as it’s ever going to be.
Tell yourself one time a day, and it doesn’t hurt if you’re stoned or had a drink, that you are happy. Content with yourself, and with others around you. You’d be surprised.
Then let go of judgment.
See more of Robert’s writing at https://www.thezog.com/ Let him know what you think at zog@thezog.com.
