h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is your own kingdom.

Jimi! Just dropped by to say hi, and you had all the nice sayings in your journal. They made me happy. Hope you're doing well...

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say:
What you own is a future gift.
Don't look at me like that, it's not SO idealistic.

Hey Fens! How was spring break? Since you go to school in paradise, do you go to a cold miserable place over spring break?

The lines are from a Rush song called 'Something for Nothing' and I was jamming out to it one late night on the road and thought it would make a good journal filler.

Have a good one!!

- X

btw: You are our overlord!

Hey Typolifi! Nothing wrong with optimism, as long at it is objective...

Hoping for the best in the midst of strife is fine as long as you have a reason for doing so (and I don't mean a blind faith that this is the best of all possible worlds and that all will be fine in the end). Read Candide for more information on this...

Thanks for stopping by!

- X

*trying to pronounce* C... c... cold? Well, it almost hit 60 F one night while I was in Catalina, and the waves sometimes sounded like rain...

Optimism is great. I like to look at myself as a brutal optimistic. To hell with objectivity. We could always go a philosophical step further and say that the future gift of our kingdom is the present (because when you think of the 'present' it is already past, thus all you *can* think of is the future) and we'd better enjoy it... . Brutal.

Sure, optimism is one of the rare things that remains us; which doesn't really mean we should be like Candide. If you read l'ingénu, you immediatly understand the limits of the otherwise quite genial Voltaire. I find Rousseau definitely more lucid on the situation. Problem is, Rousseau wasn't that much of an optimist.

Well, look at the poor guy's background! . And wasn't he a bit confused?... I agree with some of his points, though I think that he doesn't give man enough credit for the ability to overcome the evils of 'society'. That's not what's bad, it's just the few elements that hide in it. Which is why you'd much rather own your own kingdom than part of everyone else's society, eh?

On the preceding subject, I wondered if you English speaking persons weren't inconciously influenced in your vision of Voltaire's Candide by the meaning the word "candid" took in your language, where it is, if I'm not wrong, an equivalent of "frank", whereas it originaly meant in French "naive".

On Rouseau: I am really curious of what bad elements you find in the consequences of this part of his vision.