No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
That’s about as good as it’s gonna get around here today. Another lockdown weekend starting at 2:00 today. Complaining won’t change that fact, so maybe I can try to learn something. This short video explaining Jean-Paul Sartre’s ideas on mauvasie foi was my first exposure (that I recall anyway) to this philosophy:
Yeah, I know he was a commie, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Plus, I got to learn a little more French!
Speaking of which, if you missed it in the comments to yesterday’s post, Kevin Kim gave a brief history of the origin of the word Flotsam.
Yeah, the “flot” root is a clue that flotsam floats. Jetsam might or might not be debris that washes ashore, but it’s usually thrown overboard. For French speakers, it’s easy to remember that the verb flotter means “to float” and jeter means “to throw,” so a “franglais” mnemonic would be that flotsam always floats while jetsam is cast (i.e., thrown) away—maybe to float, maybe to wash ashore.English words sometimes change to more clearly reflect their ancient roots. For example, the verb “to float” contains an “a” next to the “o,” but that “a” drops off in the noun “flotation,” whose “flot” root brings us closer to the Latin original. Same goes for the “u” in “devour,” which drops off the -vor- (= consume) root in words like “carnivore” and “voracious.”
Good stuff!
I started the day early, getting up at 0500 and the full moon was there to greet me:
I scrolled through my Facebook feed while enjoying my morning coffee. For some reason I couldn’t stop watching this:
I also enjoyed this, but for different reasons:
Speaking of masks, that whole “it’s what’s inside that counts” belief is truer than ever.
Nothing exciting to report from my morning walk, my standard trek around Barretto and down Baloy beach. Well, I did find this bench “interesting”:
Speaking of walking, here are a couple more pictures from yesterday that Scott posted:
That’s about it from here for today. The steaks last night were about as tender as I’ve had here, although I did overcook them a tad (had a flaming grill to contend with). It’s been years and years since I’ve made spaghetti at home and that’s just what I intend to do now. Alas, no garlic bread though.
I don’t know any Bad Faith songs, but this is my favorite from Blind Faith:
The gun-grabbing-gets-an-immediate-reward video was utterly satisfying. Reminds me of the video of the female rioter who gets clocked by a man (here). Sorry, no gallantry on my part when you’ve chosen to be part of a fucking mob.
The “mauvaise foi” video was good. “Existence precedes essence” is a central concept in post-WW2 French existentialism. The idea is that your life is ultimately building towards its final form: you’re a work in progress until you die, so from this perspective, you exist first, but your essence—the totality of who you are, that toward which you are building—can’t be known until you’re dead (and when you’re dead, you’re not there to appreciate that essence… oh, well). Basically, people like Camus and Sartre were saying that the cosmos is absurd and fundamentally meaningless, so it’s up to you to live an authentic life, making your own choices and following your own élan wherever it leads.
A lot of “intersectional” people (which would include most of the current rioters) really ought to watch the video you embedded: they’re all about claiming victimization and lack of alternatives because of The Man, or because Orange Man Bad, or because of some other whites-related bullshit—bullshit that has nothing to do with the fact that any one of these dumb, lazy cunts could make a goddamn effort and pull him- or herself out of his or her situation. Grrr.
Ah, some Berkely punch for breakfast. Sweet!
I don’t tend to overthink things (obviously) and existentialism probably never entered my mind until I saw the Sartre video. I doubt I’ll spend much thought on the subject in the future, other than to keep on keeping on.
You know, I have no issues the folks who are sincerely protesting about what they perceive as racism even though I agree with your premise that it is not as black and white as they believe. Rioters and looters should be shown no mercy. Their objectives are very clearly NOT about racial healing.
Just a quick note that the gun-grabber video was filmed in France, not the US. For a fraction of a second, you can see a street sign that is obviously French. The gun-grabber might still be an Antifa guy, but he’s likely a Frenchie.
Ah, good catch! Funny in any language though!