Member-only story
Kantian ethics are a stumbling block to thinking; block thinking. To universalize a good — an action — is to blow up the picture so large that you can no longer see it or comprehend it. Amoralism gets a bad rap; it’s really moral skepticism — a willingness to examine each moral action in its particularity and thus its peculiarity. We don’t do enough of that.
I’ve never like the idea of ‘enjoying’ life or ‘just’ enjoying your life — as if it were an amusement park ride… but the older I get, the more I think there’s something to it: enjoyment. Bitterness and dourness are sins. What I’ve realized is that there’s a distinction to be made between enjoyment in the capitalist sense (which is the amusement park) and the enjoyment in the vitalist sense (lightness of being).
Easier said then done, but —
There is an analogy between writing poetry and mining bitcoins.
Literature teaches us to talk to ourselves, social media teaches us to talk about ourselves.
Money should be used to pay for quality; there is nothing wrong with paying a premium for quality — for craft. The problem is, we rarely do.
Often, people come into Caffe X — my regular spot — having just come from a Broadway show (they think it’s classy to go to the village after seeing a show). You can really see the pride on people’s faces having spent a thousand bucks on a night at the theater with their family or friends — including dinner and desert etc. They really think it’s money well spent.
