I'm a loser, and proud of it, so every time someone insults Elon Musk and his ilk for being a loser I find myself thinking, "Don't compare me to that asshole." 

     Sometimes I just sit back and think that of all the people I could have chosen to be, I chose to be me. I don't really regret that decision. It works, and that's all that I need it to do. But then I think about all how everyone else, to some degree, chose to be who they are, and sometimes it's okay, but other times that person's a billionaire who can't manage charisma no matter how much plastic surgery he has. I'm not cool at all, but I think even I can say that I'm cooler than Elon Musk, if not by much. I have to say, if that's true, than why the hell is society so set on giving Elon Musk billions of dollars. 

     I wonder if Adam Smith felt the way that I do about the world. I've always had strong but unreasonable opinions about what is and isn't important, and my opinions don't often intersect with what other people believe about the world. Because of that, I believe that the world's at it's best when we act according to our own beliefs, since all the people with "good" opinions will outweigh those with "bad" opinions. If I had to live my life just guessing what other people wanted, I'd go mad. Yet a lot of people seem to think we should live like that, making crude guesses and annoying people by constantly demanding they clarify something they didn't think that they needed to clarify. At the end of the day, a world of selfishness, like a world of selflessness, needs people to really commit to it in order to work. 

    In the future we will look at this moment as the moment that hubris overtook us. It was possible, once, to simple curb our expenditures and let the Earth take care of itself, but we're well past that moment. Now, whether we want it or not, we are stuck being Earth's caretakers. 

Sunlight

 Sunlight
Used to be good.

Once there was a time when sunlight
Meant warmth and protection,
Flowers and trees,
Water to splash in
And grass to play on.

Not that long ago
Sunlight
Meant a world that was safe.

Now sunlight
Means fire and destruction,
Mountains of ash,
Ages of emptiness.

Sunlight
Made us better,
Until we overcame 
Our limitations. 

Now sunlight
Means that we stand
Under a ball of flame,
Burning us to death. 

    Maybe when society collapses completely and we're all living in little enclaves, I'll open up a school for Infinitelists. I think it would be neat to reintegrate science with religion. 

     I'm thinking of relearning about physics. Religion these days needs to contend with the existence of science and scientific rules, and I think it would help to have a framework people can use to shape your world to fit around science. Physics seems like a good place to start. 

     I think we should adopt a new aphorism for this year; "Our world is only real so long as we believe it exists." We've grown too accustomed to the idea that our leaders own the world, too accustomed to the idea that if we believe in something than we can just will it into existence. But behind every utopia is a boring, smelly reality with incomplete bits that everyone has to share, and we've been neglecting that reality in pursuit of our hopes and dreams. Now we need to rebuild that world, so that we have somewhere we can retreat to when we're tired of dreaming. Moreover, we need to remind our leaders that they aren't the ones who make the world real. We are. Unionized or not, collective or alone, we shape the world they rely on. If they neglect us, they will eventually be wiped off the face of the Earth. Their dream of staying safe in their bunker while the world above them falls apart is not one that they can realize. To quote Mockingjay, "If we burn, you burn with us." 

    I could be wrong, but I don't think it's a good sign if fire season starts in January. 

    I realize this news is a day old, but why did Meta decide to stop policing misinformation? Do they want to create a world where fascism is the only valid viewpoint? I do realize the answer these questions is, "Yes, they do want fascism," but I still hope the people in charge have enough integrity to at least pretend they don't want to be fascists. Clearly, they do not.