Arquivo de Notes | Page 268 of 286

About the Pest

As usual, the contingency exposing the fragility of man, baring him completely. Its natural reflexes: fear and despair. So, nothing new: corpses have always scared. However, perhaps the new pest has exposed a fresh mass phenomenon: the dependence on work. I say this because I see those who, forcibly cloistered, scream when they see their lives emptied of meaning, i.e., if there is no work, what remains of man?

We talk here about a class that at least has some purpose in life… But here is what the pest illuminates, despite the obvious modern economic and social fragilities: the profession-oriented life involves an obvious risk, aggravated gradually by time, of converting into a fatal disease the emptiness of the hands that watch the work flow through their fingers.. Hands that, retired, can find on a rope their only relief.

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Sarcasm, Sarcasm…

You will eventually conclude that I am unable to get attached: very well, very well… almost there! And the day will come — that seems evident to me — when I will no longer endure myself. For the conclusion is obvious: I see in everything ill… and I do not think I am too special… Yet I like my own cynicism, and that gives me strength, distinguishes me from the world around me. I wonder for how long… But what options would I have to my exotic nature? I say, I am already contaminated. Could I, today, in this state, say words of hope? Would I believe myself an exception? Make my mind a theater (how do I do with my relationships)? There is no way… my cynicism would never allow. I see in the others just what dwells and throbs in myself, so I undoubtedly head my list of the damned. With the difference, however, of conscience and sarcastic smile on his face…

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The Best of All Times

“At what time would you have lived if you could choose?” — someone throw the question at me. Unprepared, I cannot answer immediately. Not even after reflection. I am facing the question again. My first impulse is to think, “It would be better not to have lived ever…” — but I refuse the idea, it does not suits my profile… So I think about the various times and inevitably I am led to think of the various places. Where would I like to be born? I think and, incredibly, everything loses its luster: I see only what would be unbearable to me at all times and everywhere. The precariousness of cleaning forces me to cut all the centuries before the 19th century. I find myself with the horizon crassly reduced. Then the mind forces me to cut everything that is between the tropics: rather the gallows that heat twelve months a year…. Then I see my big intolerance exterminate time and space. Am I that hard to please? so adefied to customs? I think about America. Great America… But even America presents me with a big problem: the American; as well as France, the French and Germany, the German. I travel from north to south, travel in mind the 360 degrees of the globe and go back two centuries in time. I do not smile, and I come to the incredible conclusion that of all times, everywhere, it is best to be where I am: alone, in silence, seeing enter through the window the cool breeze of rain that falls outside…

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It Is Meritorious To Be Evangelical

Here I am mocking pastors, but the truth is, in general, I have more respect for evangelicals than for atheists. I mean: in general, I find much more atheistic than evangelical activism, and I consider the guy who thinks he is intelligent or superior for being an atheist a beautiful idiot. Being evangelical is meritorious: it involves an active effort that induces spiritual conflict. Someone is an atheist without reading anything at all; the evangelical, at the very least, reads the Bible. This says a lot: the average atheist does not reflect, does not know and does not seek to know what is going on in his life; the Bible, however, obliges the Evangelical to reflect. A dog, by definition, does not reflect and is an atheist. Most evangelicals, on the other side, undoubtedly worship the faith in silence and again and again. Comparing the common evangelical to the common atheist the conclusion is clear: this is an atheist by inertia, the other strives for faith. That is why I respect the evangelical. Moreover, the evangelical gaze before life is a courageous look. The ordinary atheist, however, is devoid of any depth of mind, existential anguish and is characterized briefly by not thinking. The common atheist buys an iPhone and concludes that man does not need God.

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