Irrational Man profile picture

Irrational Man

About Me

"Everything in life proclaims that earthly happiness is destined to be frustrated, or recognized as an illusion... Life presents itself as a continual deception, in small matters as well as great. If it has promised, it does not keep its word, unless to show how little desirable the desired object was; hence we are deluded now by hope, now by what was hoped for... Accordingly happiness lies always in the future, or else in the past, and the present may be compared to a small dark cloud driven by the wind over the sunny plain; in front of and behind everything is bright, only it itself always casts a shadow. Consequently, the present is always inadequate, but the future is uncertain, and the past irrevocable..."We feel pain but not painlessness; care, but not freedom from care; fear, but not safety and security. We feel the desire as we feel hunger and thirst; but as soon as it has been satisfied, it is like the mouthful of food which has been taken, and which ceases to exist for our feelings the moment it is swallowed. We painfully feel the loss of pleasures and enjoyments, as soon as the fail to appear; but when pains cease even after being present for a long time, their absence is no directly felt, but at most they are thought of intentionally by means of reflection. For only pain and want can be felt positively; and therefore they proclaim themselves; well-being, on the contrary, is merely negative...We notice that certain days of our life were happy only after they have made room for unhappy ones. In proportion as enjoyments and pleasures increase, susceptibility to them decreases; that to which we are accustomed is no longer felt as pleasure. But in precisely the same way is the susceptibility to suffering increased; for the cessation of that to which we are accustomed is felt painfully. Thus the measure of what is necessary increases through possession, and thereby the capacity to feel pain...Great and animated delight can be positively conceived only as the consequence of great misery that has preceded it; for nothing can be added to a state of permanent contentment except some amusment or even the satisfaction of vanity. Therefore, all poets are obliged to bring their heroes into anxious and painful situations, in order to be able to liberate them therefrom again. Accordingly dramas and epics generally describe only fighting, suffering, tormented men and women, and every work of fiction is a peep-show in which we observe the spasms and convulsions of the agonized human heart..." From On the Vanity and Suffering of Life (in der Vorstellung)

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

They're all dead anyway, so what does it matter?Fine then: Adorno, Aristotle, Bacon, Baudelaire, Camus, Chekhov, Diderot, Diogenes of Sinope, Dirac, Dostoyevsky, Epicurus, Erdos, Escher, Feynmann, Flaubert, Foucault, Goethe, Gogol, Goya, Guevara, Hardy, Hilbert, Husserl, Hume, Ibsen, Jaspers, Joyce, Jung, Walter Kaufmann, Kierkegaard, Kolmogorov, Lenin, Malcolm X, Maxwell, Miller, Minkowski, Huey Newton, Nietzsche, Oppenheimer, Orwell, Plato, Poincare, Quine, Rabelais, Rosa, Russell, Sade, Schiller, Schopenhauer, Socrates, Tolstoy, Tupac, Ulysses, Van Gogh, Voltaire, Wittgenstein, Xenophanes of Colophon, Yeats, Zeno of Citium, Zwicky...At least those...
Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion |||||||||||| 43%
Stability |||||||||||||||||| 73%
Orderliness |||||||||||||||| 70%
Accommodation |||||||||||| 43%
Interdependence |||||| 23%
Intellectual |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Mystical |||||||||||||||| 70%
Artistic |||||| 30%
Religious || 10%
Hedonism |||||||||||| 50%
Materialism || 10%
Narcissism |||||||||||||||| 70%
Adventurousness |||||| 30%
Work ethic |||||||||||| 43%
Self absorbed |||||||||||| 43%
Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 43%
Need to dominate |||||||||| 36%
Romantic || 10%
Avoidant |||||||||||||||| 70%
Anti-authority |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Wealth || 10%
Dependency || 10%
Change averse |||||| 30%
Cautiousness |||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Individuality |||||||||||||||| 63%
Sexuality |||| 16%
Peter pan complex |||| 16%
Physical security |||||||||||||||||| 76%
Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||||||| 84%
Histrionic || 10%
Paranoia |||||||||||||||| 63%
Vanity |||||||||||| 43%
Hypersensitivity |||| 16%
Female cliche |||| 16%
TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name: Call me whatever you wish
Birthday: 36th Anniversary of both VE Day and the Setif Massacre.
Birthplace: Kamloops (never lived there though)
Current Location: Edmonton
Eye Color: I've had conflicting reports.
Hair Color: Usually brun
Height: 6'4
Right Handed or Left Handed: Righto
Your Heritage: Scottish, English, German, Irish
The Shoes You Wore Today: Pair o black shoes that are falling apart because I'm too lazy to buy another pair
Your Weakness: My overbearing conscience
Your Fears: That the human race is on a downward spiral
Your Perfect Pizza: Not too fussed really
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: Catch up on my reading
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger: I tend to say 'heh heh' and 'ah well' a lot, but I try to be grammatically correct
Thoughts First Waking Up: How did my thoughts get so out of hand last night... Am I going mad?
Your Best Physical Feature: Dunno
Your Bedtime: Whenever I feel like turning in
Your Most Missed Memory: If I could live the hostel life in Oxford all over again I would
Pepsi or Coke: Coke
MacDonalds or Burger King: Neither, but if I had to, BK by elimination
Single or Group Dates: Not too fussed
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Not a big iced tea fan
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee: Don't drink either
Do you Smoke: Nup
Do you Swear: I have been known to use the odd expletive
Do you Sing: Only when no one is around or when Im parodying a friend's rap/hip hop song
Do you Shower Daily: Not really. What does that say?
Have you Been in Love: Nup
Do you want to go to College: I am there already
Do you want to get Married: Who knows?
Do you belive in yourself: More than I believe in anyone else
Do you get Motion Sickness: Nup
Do you think you are Attractive: I have some good points I guess
Are you a Health Freak: Nup
Do you get along with your Parents: Sure
Do you like Thunderstorms: Yeah, there is something both ascetic and soothing about the power of nature
Do you play an Instrument: Nup, but I would like to learn to play harpsichord
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: Probably
In the past month have you Smoked: Nup
In the past month have you been on Drugs: Doubt it
In the past month have you gone on a Date: Nup
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: Don't think so
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: Nah, I stick to the cheaper brands
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: Nup
In the past month have you been on Stage: All the world's a stage (is that too cliche?)
In the past month have you been Dumped: Nup
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: Nup
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: I probably take more than my share of mints from Earl's
Ever been Drunk: Ever come to in a hospital?
Ever been called a Tease: Nup
Ever been Beaten up: Probably
Ever Shoplifted: I think there might have been instances where I took a few pistachios from the bins at a grocery store
How do you want to Die: Knowing that I tried my best to do some good
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: Philosopher king
What country would you most like to Visit: At the moment, I'll say Denmark
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color: Doesn't really matter
Favourite Hair Color: Uh, I dunno.
Short or Long Hair: Preference would be long
Height: Over 5'10 would be nice, but not too tall
Weight: Depends
Best Clothing Style: Nothing fancy... Comfortable?
Number of Drugs I have taken: Ganja once or twice a year maybe, mushrooms a few times in my life
Number of CDs I own: Probably not more than about 80
Number of Piercings: Zip
Number of Tattoos: Zero
Number of things in my Past I Regret: 'Never regret the things you do, only regret the things you don't do'. Personally, nothing really.


I edited my profile with solero !

Music:

Caviar and Meths Judas Priest

My Blog

Excerpt from 'The Idiot'

Rogozhin suddenly stopped looking at the painting and walked ahead. No doubt his distraction and the strangely irritable mood that had come over him so suddenly might explain this abruptness; neverthe...
Posted by Irrational Man on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:43:00 PST