Contingent Logicalism

I believe that each of us has the right and possibly the duty to found our own school of philosophy and give it a cool name and then argue in its defense until our inevitable demise. We should seek acolytes in the full knowledge that they will fall out with us over some arcane point and repudiate our teachings when founding their own school. Everything we accomplish in our lives will then be consigned to the ash heap of history, where old ideas can be scrounged up for free and hot-glued together in the form of new and startling insights.

A terrible thing to waste

We don’t need to add states. We need to subtract or rather consolidate them. Like, fold up Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin into one. If Rustbeltiana was a single state, it would be about 248,000 square miles in area, comparable to Texas (around 268,000). And it would have a lot more people than the Lone Star state, maybe 49 vs. 39 million. (It would also have 7 Major League Baseball teams.) Then, for neatness, we should simply give Michigan to Canada. In general, I have found Michiganders to be very polite and cautious people who would fit right in.

Trying times

The way I see it, a human life can be divided into four stages. Stage one is where you try to get your bearings and figure out what the hell is going on here. Failing that, you move on to stage two as you try to prove to an uncaring world how very very special you are. During stage three you try to make yourself useful. Stage four you try to make yourself comfortable. An extended attachment to stage one has produced some of the most wonderful things our species has ever done. Too long in stage two makes monsters.