thoughtsformtheuniverse

[thoughtsformtheuniverse]

🔥de Saint-Just, or the justness of saints (which would be theodicy I guess?)

My takes on theodicey are boring and conventional (i.e. reconciling omnipotence and omnibenevolence is impossible in a world such as ours), I okay to combine these two questions - you know how Orwell has that very idiosyncratic definition of 'saint' he uses mostly as an insult? e.g.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals. No double alcohol, tobacco, and so forth, are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.

A large part of why St. Just and Robinspierre so interested a teenage me was, I think, precisely that they seemed at the time to be saints in this sense - morally pure, not in the sense of 'good'' but as in wholly dedicated to their ideals, come what may. I found (and find) the whole psychology of dedication and incorruptibility endlessly compelling, in large part because it seems so very inhuman.

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fuck. im having more thoughts about kelvin!verse star trek. 

okay so, there’s no like. continuity between the three movies, which is fine; that’s a stylistic choice.  buuuuuuut I had a thought, unfortunately.

“I do not speak for the empire,” Nero said in the first movie.  “We stand apart.”

there is no examination of the political fallout of Romulans completely obliterating Vulcan, one of the founding members of the Federation.  Romulans, as in, Romulus, one of the three major powers in a cold-war-standoff in known space. 

Yeah, Nero disavowed the Romulan Empire, but also…if you were an operative of the Romulans working on the Romulan Empire’s orders, that’s exactly what you’d do anyway.  you can’t tell me that after the destruction of seven constitution-class vessels, most of the graduating class of starfleet academy and an entire fucking planet that people in starfleet command, and the federation at large, did not go like.  full american-government-post-9/11-in-the-middle-east.

So I’d have loved a trilogy where they have that discussion.  where pike and the crew of the enterprise are waging an ideological war within starfleet against a more warlike faction within starfleet, led by admiral marcus.

a trilogy where scotty’s rant in into darkness about starfleet not being a military organization has some heft, some real meaning.

a trilogy where maybe Khan escapes onto Romulus; where Marcus is using his attack to try and start a war with Romulus; where his Super Weapon Ship or whatever makes a little more sense.

a trilogy where like.  Balthazar Edison, a relic from the bygone era before starfleet and a “product of the romulan wars,” doesn’t come back to just randomly kill people in the federation, because that makes no sense.  (I love beyond to pieces, but the plot was…lacking)  instead, he’s trying to use the biological weapon to destroy romulus, the old enemy that the Federation has made peace with since the last movie, endangering the very peace the crew of the enterprise has been putting a shit ton of diplomatic effort into building.

anyway.  this is my life now, having thoughts about these movies.

fuck.

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I become consumed with jealousy every time I look at mudlarking instagram pages.

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computer security is really funny because it's like. "well. if the wrong pattern of electrons appears on the end of this cable, the machine will spontaneously tell someone my bank account details."

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every so often i'll try some interesting new Boxed Food Product at the gocey store that's a little towards the edge of my price range but with way better ingredients and nutrition facts than my usual grub, and i'll be reading the back of the box as i'm cooking, and i think, yknow, i really agree with your mission of making vitamin enriched mac and cheese or whatever, but why the hell do you talk like that? and then it says We Are Proudly Based In California

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Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California by Chuck Hilliard

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x

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Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass formed when lava high in silica cools quickly preventing crystal growth.

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My pet unicorn

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Ok but Zuko using the knowledge he acquired during his banishment to help him as the Fire Lord. Like making small talk with Earth Kingdom dignitaries about their local foods that he enjoyed and even misses. Like having in-depth conversations with his captains about sea currents and navigation. Like, in the middle of a meeting with several high-ranking naval officials, pointing out flails in security, like how a person can cling to a Fire Nation ship for hours at a time, or climb aboard using hatches on the upper decks, or disguise themselves as a lower ranking guard with easily accessible spare armour….

Though none of his experiences can prepare Zuko for the long, awkward silence that comes after he admits to doing or at least knowing something illegal and/or completely buck wild

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Antique is chic Antique porcelain match holders. Especially popular in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries - Art, Design and Craftsmanship. . @ chto.to.iz.gliny

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more Reddit funny signs

nice

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Customer: :3 DMV: SILLY Verdict: DENIED

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actually funny thing related to destiel memes. it might be gone now but for a good while tumblr had a specific link documenting the Nov 5 meltdown going chronologically i think? I don't know if it was ever used for anything, I don't really see people talking about it, but it's stuck in my mind just because of how weird it is to just. add that to your ostensibly normal social media site

ok I checked and it still works.

if you're curious

Sorry for taking 2 weeks to answer this but oh my god it's glorious. tyvm.

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Guy who has wandered through the halls and corridors of your body not with any special kind of love but with the untold intimacy of a contractor assessing the damages and potentials voice: right, so the main issue here is that the body is currently a temple, okay, and what we want is for it to be a home, cause temples are pretty and all and occasionally nice to be in if you're into that sort of thing but very few people would actually want to live in one. So what we're gonna do first is you're gonna take a look at what's here, the carrying walls and windows and all that, and you're going to come up with something you'd actually like to be alive inside of, and it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to feel strange and stupid and embarrassing but you're still gonna do it, because otherwise this construction site is fucked. And maybe what you want to live in is a skatepark or an anime-themed cat cafe or an esoteric library that has a dildo section for some reason, so it might feel like it's a downgrade from a temple, but it's actually the opposite cause the main customer for a body is you and the main customer for a temple are templegoers and maybe higher powers of some kind, - i wouldn't know about those, they never hired me, - not the temple itself, which is what you are, right, cause the body/mind/soul separation doesn't actually do anything, so what you're gonna do is look at the current layout and dig out whatever hope and ability to want you have and come up with a blueprint, and then my boys can actually get to work. Oh, and you have got to change the windows, it's drafty as fuck in here.

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i think maggie would be the only person in the leverage universe who DOES notice the leverage team members occasionally becoming famous. like she’d tune into the world news and then have to call the team to check if sophie really died in a small european country during a turbulent election. "no but wasn’t my funeral so poignant? they put my face on the $20 note!" okay great glad to know you’re not dead. she watches a game of baseball on TV and just sighs deeply when the camera pans to eliot. next time she sees the team, she compliments his baseball skills. for some reason he mutters something about a sandwich while looking wistfully into the distance.

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Welcome to Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, a new podcast on the works of our favorite author! Our first season will consist of eight episodes on the DWJ books of the seventies, released weekly:

1. Eight Days of Luke 2. Wilkin's Tooth/The Ogre Downstairs 3. Dogsbody 4. Cart & Cwidder 5. Power of Three 6. Charmed Life 7. Drowned Ammett 8. Spellcoats

Our inaugural episode, on Eight Days of Luke, will be out this Saturday, but you can subscribe now via our RSS feed or by searching anywhere that podcasts are found (unless you can't, in which case please do tell us).