Off my chest.

I have a lot to feel guilty about. As a Jew, I’m told I had a hand in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I’m of white European descent, so I have to bear responsibility for enslaving, colonizing, displacing, or exterminating entire cultures. Born male, there’s no way I can deny my tacit culpability in the injustices of the global patriarchy, while as a human being I have to accept my complicity in what’s shaping up to be the biggest extinction event since that cyanobacteria thing. Also, I’ve always felt I was a big disappointment to my mother, so there’s that.

For instance Grote Reber

Long before you and I were born, everybody in town knew how to do everything. You might not be good at baking bread or shoeing horses, but you at least understood the gist of it. Kids bought magazines that showed them how to build their own full-sized gliders and crystal radios. The big deal last week was the 75th birthday of the transistor, an apparatus which you simply cannot build at the kitchen table. I can’t find the choke on my car’s dashboard. It’s not pleasant to admit that one is hopelessly stupid and incompetent, but there you have it.

Pubbekatahetuvada

Don’t blame me if I keep coming back to topic of free will. Everything up to now has led to it; I have no other option. To support my position, let me point to the utter lack of even a single instance where the present is not a direct result of the past. Look, I’m not saying you can’t make a decision; I’m just suggesting that you don’t have any choice about it. Here’s a fun thing – if anyone ever tells you they believe in free will, you should respond by saying, “I knew you were going to say that.”

Impossible?

They should call it the Unnecessary Burger. To me, fake meat is stupid; there is no reason to expend resources to come up with half-assed ersatz versions when it’s so easy to just forgo some menu items. There are a lot of delicious things to eat that aren’t meat. So here’s a parallel: As we try (half-heartedly) to reduce fossil fuel dependency, maybe it’s not necessary to come up with greener private cars, sustainable airliners, eco-friendly skyscrapers. Maybe just live different lives. It’s crazy to think that we can change everything while surrendering nothing. Hey, whaddya know? An actual rant!