I'm not sure I care anymore

I'm not sure I care any longer about the distinction between malice and ignorance.

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Must be

Might be must be motivated by maybe.

Every form of suffering

Every form of suffering can be described as a lack, as an absence.

Choice

Choice is the solution to a great many problems that now seem intractable because of external restrictions on a) available or permitted choices and/or b) our ability to choose.

There is no autonomy

There is no autonomy if you cannot make unpopular choices for yourself.

I read other poets

I read other poets not for ideas or technique, but to remind myself that I have permission to write my poems however I want.

Is it freedom

Is it freedom to redefine "freedom" to coincide with your current condition?

The more we ask

The more we ask some people to think, the more violently they will rebel.

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What is more destructive

What is more destructive than a person with a mistaken assumption?

More easily distinguished

We are more easily distinguished through our irrationality than via our reason.

We must control

We must control those who wish to control others.

Mere production

Mere production is the measure of a drone.

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That subset of things

I am interested in that subset of things that are necessary or beneficial to human beings but not necessary or beneficial to society.

Everything

Everything theological is theoretical.

The biggest constraint on poetry

The biggest constraint on poetry is poets' ideas about poetry.

Parallelism

Parallelism is a fount of fertile assertion.

The more we endure

The more we endure a deathlike life,
the more we dream of a lifelike death.

What we do

What we do is based on what we've done.

On being idle

Idleness is not illness.

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Poetry is

Poetry is a struggle toward empathy.

Anti-human

The adoption of unfounded faith, blind faith, is a more anti-human—even a nihilistic—pose than the most ostentatiously evil posture.

Is it rational?

Is it rational to reject the irrational?

The illusion of a safe harbor

Are we to make of our lives the illusion of a safe harbor to hide in?

The optimal

The optimal is subverted, and enabled, by the adaptable.

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Is a mask

Truth is a mask that absurdity wears.

Is a mask

Absurdity is a mask that truth wears.

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Within the context

Utility only makes sense within the context of a goal.

A certain amount

We must tolerate—but never celebrate—a certain amount of mediocrity, both in ourselves and in others.

The world found out

In 2016, the world found out who Trump is.

In 2024, the world found out who Americans are.

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Author and finisher (Lincoln)

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?  I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.  It cannot come from abroad.  If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.  As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address

Little problem

I have little problem with any sin lacking in cruelty.

Never

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Circus

When a clown moves into a palace, he does not become king. The palace becomes a circus.

This is it.

VOTE!

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On magical thinking

I've started to use the analogy that magical thinking is like drunk driving. The person who engages in magical thinking says things like, "I'm perfectly capable of handling my liquor," "it makes me happy and doesn't hurt anyone," and "why do you have to be so rigid?"

Meanwhile, the rest of us suffer for their intellectual irresponsibility.

paxinfernum, on reddit

The one thing

The one thing money can't shield you from is the knowledge of what you had to do to get it.

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On poetry

Poetry:  brilliant writing by unhappy people.