THE WAY IT IS (February 18) — Optimism* is the root of all evil.
Optimists tend to start wars.
Pessimists, accepting they could face defeat,
do not advance. Though they often retreat.
Optimists think “higher, faster”.
They believe, “It can be done!”
Pessimists ponder, “Four balls? A walk?”
Optimists think, “I'll hit a homerun.”
The optimist knows if you can conceive it, there is no reason you cannot achieve it.
The pessimist reasons existence is cursed;
despite intentions you might make things worse.
Had pessimists “won” we’d be still in the trees,
swinging and free from most modern unease.
To be candid, Candide’s can-do att-i-tude
had to win out. We are so screwed.
———————
*Hitler was the most unabashed doe-eyed optimist of the last hundred years. That’s why he was the biggest monster....[E]very morning, Adolf Hitler woke up, made himself a cup of coffee, and asked himself how to make the world a better place....Mao? Optimist. Stalin? Optimist. Pol Pot? Optimist....[N]o matter where you happen to live or when you happen to be born, when someone rises up and promises that things are going to be better, run. Hide. Pessimists don’t build gas chambers.
— Shalom Auslander, Hope: A Tragedy
END TIMES (February 18) — If John Wilkes Booth had had a trial, it would not have been fair. then, as now, FAKE NEWS with truth plays fast and loose demanding the noose . . . I say all's fair in love and warfare. Booth did what I did with Soleimani, what Putin does with most anybody, what MBS did with Khashoggi what REAL LEADERS do. (Somebody told me.) Therefore, here, in the Trump White House Garden, I, hereby and herewith, issue this pardon. I do this not only because I am considerate, but also because Booth was a Confederate. A hero to whom someone should raise a statue. (To my friends in THE SOUTH, “Right back at you.”)
Probably not, but the idea is just crazy enough to be worth taking seriously.
MAYBE (February 17) —
If ALL THIS is is a simulation and nothing REALLY exists, why care at all about Donald J. Trump? (Or any other toxic prognosis?) Why care at all about border walls? Whether he rises, whether he falls? Is divinelyinspired or devil's spawn? A beginning, THE END, or denouement? Were Donnie to vanish, as if by magic, if the gods hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, if the system rebooted, would it better suit us if Donnie were turned into dead meat? Some “winners” would “lose”, some “losers” would “win” as LIFE requires. (Even for viruses.)
