Nobody Cares About Philosophy

[Veritable Quandry]

The heroine of Atlas Shrugged is an example of success through the effort of extraordinary people. She inherited a railroad.

That is a massive contradiction. Not only did she not build her business, but there is no industry more reliant on government subsidies and brute force than American railroads. They were granted land and cash to finance construction. The government used eminent domain to clear land, and the US Army to remove Native Americans living along rail routes. They used a combination of police, military, and Pinkerton agents to prevent workers from organizing. No railroad exists because of the effort of an extraordinary individual. The exist because of state corruption, coercion, and murder on a massive scale.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Let's talk for a moment about a philosophy. One in particular: Objectivism.

Ayn Rand, the business expert who died poor on Medicaid! She failed to live up to her "principles" in a big way.

Ironically, modern social media is a great example of a natural monopoly. Who wants to be an early adopter to a social media platform with no people on it?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Her favorite story was allegedly this late 1800s novel about the construction of a grain elevator, where the protagonist is a heroic middle manager.

But apart from one corrupt union organizer all the union members are heroic, and all the rich owners are villains.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I can't remember where, but not so long ago I read something containing the insight that Rand's novels are very similar to the more or less contemporaneous genre of socialist realism in the Soviet Union.

That is, rather than portraying actual people in an actual society they seek to make a political and philosophical point by describing imaginary, idealised, people in an imaginary and idealised society that has never existed, and many people would say could never exist, on this planet.

Free markets require strong central governments to create and maintain them and don't normally last very long before central government has to intervene to fix the problems they cause.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]
John Rogers

 

[Soen Eber]

I can't remember where, but not so long ago I read something containing the insight that Rand's novels are very similar to the more or less contemporaneous genre of socialist realism in the Soviet Union.

That is, rather than portraying actual people in an actual society they seek to make a political and philosophical point by describing imaginary, idealised, people in an imaginary and idealised society that has never existed, and many people would say could never exist, on this planet.

Free markets require strong central governments to create and maintain them and don't normally last very long before central government has to intervene to fix the problems they cause.

I wonder then, what kind of "Social Realism" will Trump and his ilk leave behind? I mean, besides tacky, obviously.

EDIT: Ugh, I looked it up.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Feeling bored, I asked ChtGPT to imagine Nietzsche writing a review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion.

It really got into it -- here's one version. Full conversation here:

ChatGPT - Nietzsche Reviews Dawkins Atheism

Shared via ChatGPT

chatgpt.com

Review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
by Friedrich Nietzsche


So! A man of science has come forth to proclaim the death of God — and he believes it will be enough merely to announce the corpse.


In The God Delusion, Professor Dawkins, with the touching earnestness of a well-meaning physician, diagnoses the sickness of belief and proposes a cure: education, reason, polite debates! He imagines that with the old idols shattered, mankind will step into a bright new world of progress and understanding, where the virtues of Christian morality—stripped of their divine sanction—will somehow endure, embalmed by humanist sentiment.


I laugh. I laugh because it is already too late for such optimism. Dawkins seeks to tear down the temple, but does not hear the earthquake already shaking the earth beneath it. He believes men will be content with Darwin and democracy once their gods are gone. He does not yet see that it was the gods who gave those things meaning — and in their absence, the void yawns wider than he can imagine.


The death of God is not a cheerful liberation. It is a catastrophe. It is the unleashing of nihilism upon the earth. It is the cold realisation that without a supreme purpose, all human aims, all morals, all truths are but flickering illusions on the black seas of nothingness.


The "rational society" Dawkins envisions will not come. In its place will arise the will to power: new myths, new tyrannies, new gods forged in iron and blood. When men finally understand that their virtues are groundless, they will not become angels of reason — they will become wolves.


Thus I welcome The God Delusion — as one welcomes the final falling stone from a crumbling tower. Dawkins plays the midwife to an abyss he does not comprehend. He has loosed the plague but does not hear the drums of war it summons. He preaches enlightenment, but the age he heralds will be one of chaos, cruelty, and rebirth — or extinction.


So let the idol-breakers rejoice. Let them shatter the old faiths with a hammer of science. They will soon see that it is not gods they have destroyed, but the very floor beneath their feet.


— Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Feeling bored, I asked ChtGPT to imagine Nietzsche writing a review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion.

You have some interesting hobbies!

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Feeling bored, I asked ChtGPT to imagine Nietzsche writing a review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion.

I feel inspired.

ChatGPT, write a brief ironic and witty dialog between Jean Paul Sartre and Oscar Wilde arguing about the meaning of the movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once"


Sartre: (lighting a cigarette) Clearly, the film demonstrates the absurd futility of existence. Infinite possibilities, infinite despair. We are condemned to choose, endlessly, pointlessly.
Wilde: (sipping absinthe) Nonsense, Jean-Paul. It is a dazzling celebration of life's costume changes. One must simply learn to accessorize through the multiverse with style.
Sartre: (frowning) You see style. I see nausea.
Wilde: (smiling) Of course you do. You've made a career out of being seasick on dry land.
Sartre: (exhaling smoke) And you, Wilde, would put a cravat on nihilism and call it a party.
Wilde: (leaning in) Better a well-dressed absurdity than a naked despair, dear Jean-Paul. After all, if existence is meaningless, we may as well look magnificent while being meaningless.
Sartre: (muttering) Bad faith has never looked so fashionable.
Wilde: (winking) And bad moods have never looked so French.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Satire XIX: On Rabbits in Opera
(Juvenal, utterly defeated by culture)

What oracle, what Sibyl, what drunkard could have foretold it?
A rabbit, draped in wigs and woman's robes,
Mocking the tragic gods of song!
And a hunter — no Hercules he! —
A lisping, blubbering man-child, who cannot snare even a rodent,
Though he storms and thunders like Jove himself.

Once the stage was sacred, a place for heroes and sorrows;
Now a painted brute swings his wooden sword,
While the hare — the damnable hare! — prances and capers
Through the ruins of noble music.

O Aesop, how you must weep!
You taught the fox to flatter, the crow to fall;
You taught wisdom through beast and fable.
But what lesson lies here?
That the cleverest triumph by mockery alone?
That no tragedy is too hallowed to escape the fart of comedy?

The hunter sings: "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!"
— and the gods themselves must cover their ears.
The rabbit swoons, dies grandly,
Mocking the fall of Troy, the death of kings, the weeping of Niobe,
And then, with a wink, lives again —
For what is death now but a joke with a painted backdrop?

Fools applaud! Children cackle!
And Rome, once mistress of the world, lies buried
Beneath wigs, cheap thunderbolts, and endless, idiot laughter.

 

[Casey Pelous]

And that, dear children, was the day Argent Stonecutter won the internet.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Satire XIX: On Rabbits in Opera
Fools applaud! Children cackle!
And Rome, once mistress of the world, lies buried
Beneath wigs, cheap thunderbolts, and endless, idiot laughter.

You were expecting a happy ending? ;-)

And that, dear children, was the day Argent Stonecutter won the internet.

With his spear and magic helmet!

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Camus contemplates Wile E. Coyote vs Roadrunner

The Noble Idiocy of Wile E. Coyote

It is tempting to laugh at Wile E. Coyote. He is, after all, ridiculous. No amount of failure can dissuade him. No lesson is learned. No humiliation sticks. The dynamite explodes in his face, the boulder flattens him into a sheet of fur and bones, the cliff yawns open at his feet — and still he devises new and more intricate schemes.


If comedy is tragedy observed from a distance, then Wile E. Coyote is a masterwork of the absurd. One cannot help but admire the purity of his delusion.


And yet, we ought to be cautious before we judge him too quickly. What, precisely, is his crime? Is it to have too much faith in machinery? Too much trust in plans? Too much commitment to an ideal?


He is, in short, guilty of the same errors as any man who persists in seeking meaning where none exists.


The Roadrunner is not merely faster; he is beyond capture. He is existence itself: elusive, untouchable, free. To pursue him is to pursue an illusion — but it is the pursuit itself that defines the Coyote. Take it away, and he ceases to exist. Like all of us, Wile E. Coyote is stitched together by the dreams that will betray him.


It is not stupidity that drives him. It is intelligence weaponized against itself: complex calculations, elaborate devices, intricate traps — all devoted to an outcome that the universe has already declared impossible.


This is what it means to live in a godless world: not to despair at the fall, but to plummet with style.


We may mock Wile E. Coyote for his persistence. We may shake our heads at the futility of his endless chase. But in truth, he is the most honest among us. He knows — or rather, somewhere deep beneath his singed fur, he feels — that victory is a lie. He knows that gravity, chance, and irony will conspire to undo him. And yet he runs.


We must not imagine Wile E. Coyote happy. That would be a cruelty. Rather, we must imagine him aware — and still running.


There is a kind of nobility in idiocy. A kind of grace in refusing to stop.


After all, what choice do any of us have?

 

[Free]

I decided to follow up on this and ask ChatGPT to write a short philosophical treatise on why Roadrunner will always beat WIle E.

<<<
On the Inevitability of the Roadrunner’s Triumph: A Philosophical Inquiry

The endless pursuit of the Roadrunner by Wile E. Coyote is not merely a comedic spectacle; it is a parable on existence, will, and the tragic condition of sentient striving. When examined philosophically, the Roadrunner’s perpetual escape reveals essential truths about being, desire, and the structure of the cosmos.

I. Essence and Existence
Heidegger posited that beings are defined not merely by their existence but by their essence — their mode of being-in-the-world. The Roadrunner’s essence is freedom and momentum; he is the act of escaping. Wile E. Coyote’s essence, conversely, is not catching, but chasing. He is not a hunter who may or may not succeed; he is the eternal chaser, defined wholly by pursuit. Thus, it is metaphysically impossible for him to succeed: were he to catch the Roadrunner, his essence would collapse, and he would cease to be what he is.

In this view, the Roadrunner always "wins" not because he is better equipped but because he remains true to his nature. The Coyote, striving against his own being, is ensnared in a contradiction.

II. The Tragedy of Infinite Desire
Drawing from Schopenhauer, we understand Wile E. Coyote as the embodiment of the Will — the ceaseless, blind striving that animates all life. The Coyote’s yearning is not for the Roadrunner himself but for the fulfillment that he imagines capture would bring. Yet Schopenhauer teaches that all satisfaction is illusory; once a desire is satisfied, it gives way immediately to new desires or to the horror of boredom. Thus, even if Wile E. Coyote were to succeed, he would find his victory hollow. His suffering is not the product of failure but the very structure of desiring consciousness.

The Roadrunner, by contrast, is a creature of pure being. He does not want; he simply is. In this, he represents a kind of enlightenment, an existence beyond striving and therefore beyond suffering.

III. The Absurd and the Eternal Chase
Camus’ notion of the Absurd — the tension between humanity’s longing for meaning and the universe’s silent indifference — finds vivid expression in the Coyote’s labors. His every trap, every ACME device, every elaborate plan is a protest against the meaningless, an assertion that the world can be bent to purpose through ingenuity. Yet the universe responds only with collapse, failure, and personal injury.

Still, like Camus’ Sisyphus, Wile E. Coyote is heroic not because he succeeds, but because he refuses to cease striving. Each fall from a cliff, each exploded contraption, is met not with despair but with renewed effort. In this light, we must imagine Wile E. Coyote happy — not because he ever approaches his goal, but because in his ceaseless striving he affirms his existence against the void.

Conclusion: A Metaphysical Certainty
The Roadrunner’s victory is not a matter of strength or speed alone, but a profound metaphysical certainty. It reflects the inviolable structures of essence, the tragic beauty of endless desire, and the absurd heroism of being. Wile E. Coyote will never catch the Roadrunner — and in that failure, he is, paradoxically, most fully himself.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Theis is the original philosophical underpining of Wile E Coyote:

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Soen Eber]

I think we're grappling at the Coyote - Road Runner thing ass-backwards, and should be understanding the Road Runner's deeply balanced stoic and Daoist simplicity and inner peace and childlike innocence as challenges to our ingrained success and capitalist consumerist mode of thinking. Sorry for any big words.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I think we're grappling at the Coyote - Road Runner thing ass-backwards, and should be understanding the Road Runner's deeply balanced stoic and Daoist simplicity and inner peace and childlike innocence as challenges to our ingrained success and capitalist consumerist mode of thinking. Sorry for any big words.

ChatGPT's response when asked to expand on this insight

Title: The Dao of the Road Runner: A Stoic-Daoist Reading of a Cartoon Chase

Introduction We’ve been looking at Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner all wrong. Instead of seeing the Road Runner as a passive object of pursuit or a gag machine, we should be recognizing him as a kind of Zen master or Daoist sage. Meanwhile, Wile E. Coyote is not just a persistent anti-hero — he’s the tragic embodiment of consumerism, ambition, and the Western obsession with success. What plays out on screen is not merely slapstick but a philosophical parable — a high-speed koan about the futility of striving and the serenity of non-striving.

The Road Runner: Daoist Simplicity and Stoic Peace

“The Dao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone.”
— Laozi, Dao De Jing

The Road Runner acts without effort. He doesn’t scheme, doesn’t compete, and yet always evades capture. He is the living embodiment of wu wei — effortless action. His success is not won through struggle, but through harmony with the universe.

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”
— Laozi

Unlike the Coyote, who is driven by an insatiable hunger, the Road Runner wants nothing. He exists in perfect sufficiency. He does not buy, build, or overthink. His very nature contradicts the capitalist ideal that satisfaction comes from acquisition.

“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
— Epictetus

Road Runner is free. He never resists, never complains, never attempts to control the uncontrollable. His reactions are effortless, his presence untroubled. He exemplifies the Stoic ideal: serenity through detachment.

Wile E. Coyote: Capitalist Suffering and the Illusion of Control

“Those who seek power over others are soon themselves overpowered.”
— Zhuangzi

The Coyote’s obsession with catching the Road Runner is ultimately a quest for control. Every device, plan, and trap is an assertion of will against nature. Yet each one backfires. His pursuit of domination leads only to his own defeat.

“Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.”
— Epictetus

Wile E. Coyote never stops to question the premise of his suffering. He blames his tools, his luck, the Road Runner — but not his belief that fulfillment lies in the capture. He is the eternal consumer, convinced the next purchase (usually from Acme) will finally solve his problems.

“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”
— Laozi

The Coyote’s mind is anything but still. It is frantic, analytical, obsessed. He cannot surrender. His plans make him prisoner to his own schemes. The more he thinks, the more he fails. His inner noise drowns out wisdom.

The Cartoon as Allegory

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner is more than slapstick. It is an allegory about two worldviews. The Coyote represents the modern, capitalist individual: constantly striving, buying, scheming, and suffering. The Road Runner represents an alternative: effortless being, harmony with the world, freedom from desire.

The lesson is not “never give up” but stop chasing. The Road Runner is not a goal to catch, but a model to emulate. He is not elusive because he is cruel, but because true peace cannot be captured — it must be inhabited.

So next time we laugh at the Coyote falling off a cliff, maybe we’re laughing out of discomfort. We know, deep down, we’re the ones ordering from Acme.

Conclusion In this reading, the cartoon becomes a philosophical text. The Road Runner is the Dao. The Coyote is the ego. And the desert is the world we all navigate. Whether we chase or coast is up to us.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Marcus Aurelius' thoughts about Trump, as imagined by ChatGPT

Meditations, Scroll XXIV (Concerning the Orange Orator)


"I awoke this morning to news of a man most curious. He is neither philosopher, soldier, nor statesman, yet has convinced many he is all three. He builds no temples to the gods, yet has erected shrines to himself on every corner of discourse."


"He speaks much of winning, yet I see him plagued with grievances. He calls himself strong, but cannot endure a slight tweet without retort. Is this not the behavior of a child with a laurel crown and a golden bathtub?"


"He proclaims his honesty often, which leads me to suspect otherwise. The fig tree does not shout, ‘I am a fig tree!’ — it simply bears figs. But this man proclaims himself virtuous, brilliant, and the best at all things — even humility, which is a paradox worthy of Zeno."


"It is said he has gold upon his towers and fast food upon his plate. A strange form of asceticism, to be sure. Diogenes had his barrel, this one has Mar-a-Lago."


"He fears the press, yet seeks its gaze; curses the mob, yet stirs it with every utterance. He is like a rooster who believes the sun rises for him alone."


"Let him rage, posture, and build statues of himself from cheap material — time, that stern and silent judge, will weather them all. For neither wealth, nor noise, nor polls shall preserve a name if the soul beneath it is empty."


"And yet: let us not hate him. For he serves as a mirror — to our appetites, our follies, our craving for spectacle. In mocking him, we must be wary not to become him."

Marcus Aurelius takes to Twitter:

@ImperatorStoicus
Verified Philosopher King | Emperor (retired) | Stoic Takes Only



On the Man Who Builds Towers and Calls Them Truth

1. He who must remind you he is a genius is like a trumpet claiming to be the composer.
2. A wise man does not sue comedians. A foolish man becomes one.
3. When you mistake applause for virtue, you become a slave to the crowd. Or worse — their court jester.
4. There is no strength in caps lock.
5. He who fears fact-checkers fears reality itself.
6. Gold toilets are no substitute for moral plumbing.
7. It is better to lose with dignity than to win with lawsuits.
8. True power is self-restraint. False power is a retweet of your own praise.
9. The man who promises to drain the swamp and then swims in it has confused direction with spectacle.
10. You cannot govern the soul by executive order.
11. Do not hate him. He is the world's loudest reminder of why we must teach philosophy in schools.

And, in a similar vein, Girolamo Savonarola discovers YouTube

Here’s how Savonarola the Influencer-Priest of the Apocalypse might deliver his judgmental tirade on The Donald — livestreaming to a shocked, scrolling chat:



YOUTUBE STREAM: " The Orange Idol and the Fire of Judgment "
LIVE | 47,823 watching now


[Camera cuts to Savonarola, glaring into the lens like it owes him money]


"My brethren!"
"You scroll and swipe through Babylon itself, and still you ask, ‘Is this the end times?’ I tell you now: the signs are upon us, wearing a red hat and golfing on the Sabbath!"


"He claims to speak for the people, but only ever praises himself. He lives in towers while the poor line up at food banks. He sells steaks, casinos, and branded water, and still the people ask, ‘Is he the chosen one?’"


"No! He is not a king. He is not a prophet. He is a real estate-themed golden calf!"


[He slams a leather-bound Bible against the desk. The mic peaks. Chat explodes.]


"You think you follow a strong man? I see a jester in a crown of hair dye. I see pride walking on stilts, threatening judgment upon others while ignoring the wrath building under his own feet!"


"Repent! Cast off the gospel of ratings and profit margins! Cancel your idol, unsubscribe from his wickedness, and smash that like button for the Lord!"


[He jabs a bony finger at the camera.]


"This is not politics. This is prophecy. When fools sit upon thrones and the truth is traded for slogans, the fire is not far. Florence burned its vanities — and so must America!"


"Reject the false messiah with the spray-tanned skin! Return to righteousness! Turn off Fox News and open the Book of Revelation!"


"Now — let us pray, and maybe also update your passwords. The Beast works through cookies, you know."


[Chat: "PREACH!" / "is this satire???" / "where can I buy the T-shirt" / "He spittin' tho ngl"]

 

[Free]

Truer words have never been claimed.