A Cold, Hard, Philosophical Truth
“All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.” - Baruch Spinoza
Sometimes it’s easy to feel like you are on your own little purposeful island watching from a plentiful beach as others zig-zag through the waters of life in search of a dry shore. I stumbled across a quote from someone named Katelyn Gleason yesterday that spoke to my own personal truth.
”A decade or so of unreasonably hard work is the barrier of entry to a rare life.”
I found it somewhat ironic that the quote came from a woman, although it absolutely applies every bit as much to her as it does to a man, but it is a truth that almost any guy with any sense at all learns and understands from his very first day of high school, the day when that truth presents a glass barrier before him which he will never pass through any other way than to work his way through it. Let me explain.
Women are attracted to success. Due to this they intrinsically prefer older, confident men, as she can more easily determine that man’s value to her and her potential children. Has he sacrificed those years between he and she, putting in the work to improve himself? Or has he sloughed those years away, complaining that life is too hard, and that others only succeed because of their better educations, or their better looks, or their higher stations in life, or even their race? You have to wonder if the people who say such things actually put in the work required to find that out, but you don’t have to wonder about it for long. Those types always choose the easiest, quickest routes to nowhere.
People who work hard for success loathe a whiner.
It is no secret that boys are visually attracted to girls. It is why, on the whole, women are more attractive than men are. And a boy learns hard and fast that the pretty girls his own age who showed him any interest in middle school lose that interest on the very first day of high school, those girls now having eyes for the juniors and seniors as they seek to up their reputations. I cannot tell you how many times I was blown off by that girl who, “has a boyfriend in college.” Sheesh! But that freshman boy also sees that those older guys who are successful at something, at anything really, be it football, debate, auto-shop, or science; those are the guys who attract the attentions of the most girls, and the prettiest girls. It is one of those “ah-ha” moments for our young man. “If I put in the work now to raise my status in their eyes, it might pay off for me later.” And so he sacrifices now for then. His life actually starts on that day when work becomes his motivation, rather than play.
Some guys do luck out, admittedly, and girls pay them attention from the very start… at least through school days. But sooner or later those dudes will also hit that glass barrier, and when he does, if he has any sense, he will pick it up a notch. It is rarely too late to begin your ten years of unreasonably hard work, and is always better late than never, as the saying goes.
After ten years of improving himself and learning to be a man the guy who put in
those “years of unreasonably hard work” will find himself competent, confident, with a good job, and in the enviable position of having his pick of younger women, women who crave his newly higher status. But strangely, during those years our man’s tastes have changed. He finds that he is no longer necessarily interested in the prettiest, cheerleader type girl, at least not as a life partner, although there still is that in the short term, but he finds himself drawn more to the ones who have also sacrificed, holding on to their own values, and to their good reputations. A man who has sacrificed and put in the work does not want a woman who will embarrass him, or worse, might be an embarrassment to his family later on. Having worked so hard on improving himself, he finds himself drawn now to a woman‘s character as much as he is to her beauty, so he seeks the woman who has both. Has she worked to improve herself?
Those out there who do not understand these truths, male and female, are doomed either to “settle” for someone who shirks their way through life, believing that success only comes to those who are lucky or privileged without ever having really given it a go. Or they wind up depressed and alone. Both are pretty poopy options.
So, I say 10 years is about right, Katelyn Gleason. Ten years of sacrificing is what it ultimately requires; ten years of working longer than your scheduled hours, of holding off on a family, of sleeping alone, of both mental and physical learning, growing, and achieving. It takes ten years to make a better man; a better decision maker, a better husband, and a better father.
Ten years… if he puts in that unreasonably hard work.
A Rejection Letter
From: WSQPA
To: Mr. Baruch/Benedictus Spinoza, philosopher
April 10, 2024
Dear Mr. Spinoza,
Stop.
Do not bother us again.
We, the Board of the World Status Quo Protection Agency, reject your unsolicited critique of our twenty-first century.
You were the seventeenth century’s problem. Not ours.
How dare you ask questions and seek to arrive at beliefs and truth individually through reason. Citizens today have banded together in groups to hear the truth and facts from sources that comport with their worldview. We have no need of philosophers in 2024.
Thus, our status quo is groupthink.
Yes, our groups clash and there are wars that are political, spiritual, and militaristic. But they are part of our status quo.
You are free in your ivory tower to sneer at our way, and claim we are pursuing false “knowledge from random experience.” It is no wonder that you were excommunicated for your radical ideas.
We know that you worked with lenses for microscopes and telescopes. But you have no right to put our status quo under your microscope.
Warmly,
WSQPA
The 24 Spinz
maybe Spinoza would 360
in the grave today...?
change his mind
split hairs
with God
for hygienic
distance
draw a blind
or a double,
hide his head
in the sands
of the glass
While tipping
upside down
refute existence
of either this or that
as all influx...
Ostrich like,
from China
to British Columbia
disputing
which way
is up...?
...and
humming
in the calcium
of eternal sleep
he would dream...
It's the Spin
it's the sPin
it's the spIn
it's the spiN...
04.09.2024
Spinoza turning in his grave challenge @Prose
Unselfish heart
In considering humanity in 2024, it doesn't have to be driven by ones desires or passion for doing something, but it has to be based on empathy. Doing unto other people as you would want them do unto you. In this way one can be selfless. Today
Having all these worldly crisis's, the interest is to better oneself and often times, it ends into selfishness. Spinoza would likely remind us that while our passions can lead to progress, they can also cloud our judgment and lead to conflict. But if one has it in them to do good unto others with just expecting that good will be done to them, this brings a good foundation for a harmonious society.
Kids In The Schoolyard
It doesn’t matter what religion you believe in: Buddhism, Catholicism, Taoism, Communism, Hinduism, Druidism.
It doesn’t matter if you have led armies, cleaned shoes, split the atom, influenced millions, rode in a rocket to the moon.
You are still that little kid running with all the other kids in a schoolyard. That’s always there, that’s you, that’s what humanity is, that’s what the world is, that’s existence, that’s what we all really are, working it all out because no one really knows everything. Everybody questions, why a bumblebee’s flight is scientifically impossible, but they do. Humanity is a sure bet at the end of the day, its real, it’s there, it’s the only thing that’s going to save this planet, and when you die don’t be afraid because you don’t know anything anyway, but you will always be loved and remembered here. That’s life, that’s what it’s all about, live now because you, me, them and others are all just human beings right here, right now. People are their own gods, terrible, beautiful, cruel, kind, powerful, omnipotent, everything, but mostly just little kids running around in that school yard that’s always there. Fingers crossed.
Lesson at the Cesspool
A teacher, a professor, and a student walked up to a cesspool. The student asked, "What do we do now?" The professor proclaimed, "you will have to jump in, do your best to learn to float, and hopefully if you paid close attention to my lectures then you can make it across and get out on the other side."
The student was about to reluctantly jump in. The teacher held the student back, but for good reason. "Wait" the teacher said, "Soon the season will change and it will freeze solid, then you can walk across it easily".
The moral to the story... It is better to help others walk on water than it is to make them feel like shit.