My observation for the New Year, left as a comment at The Atlantic. It’s plausible to me that my remarks will incite ugly displays of self-loathing, but that’s what I get for speaking up there.
Here is my note, a reaction to the obvious observation that there are many more stars than we can see with the naked eye:
I’m having a hard time discerning what your point might be. Are you celebrating your self-ascribed irrelevance? Absolving yourself of your undoubted sins? Masturbating in public?
You are as large as you want to be, as good as you choose to be.
You are what you are, regardless of what anything else is.
The remarkable thing about the stars is not them, but you. They are just an accident of physics, where you are the product of billions of self-initiated choices, most of them invisible to all other observers.
If you can’t be proud of this fact, it’s because you’re looking in the wrong direction.
The world is at war with your self, and this post at The Atlantic is just one paper bullet aimed at your mind, nothing more than a belch of undigested cultural presuppositions.
But the war is real. The bombs and bullets are erupting all around you, even if you have trained yourself not to notice them. If you want to learn how to defend your self, your mind and your humanity, my book Man Alive! is a good place to start.
Happy New Year!
