Inspired by a post by LB Lee

[feotakahari]

As much as I don’t want to die, I love the fact that I live in a world where Saddam Hussein was not capable of living forever. That which is petty and selfish and cruel may outlast me, or I may outlast it, but when both of us are dead, there will be people who are alive and free of us.

There are people who approach this in a different way: that which lives forever is not conceptualized as petty and selfish and cruel, even if it acts that way. This can be a religious thing, but it doesn’t have to be, like when a fantasy author assumes that elves or dragons will automatically impress readers with their long-lived magnificence. The elves or dragons don’t actually do anything that would cause me to have any respect for them. If anything, they’re much more selfish than the humans I’m supposed to think are insignificant by comparison. It’s just treated as tautological: they’re magnificent because they’re magnificent.

(The other concept I am very, very glad not to believe in is karma, but that’s a completely different rant.)

Comments

[lb_lee]

That which is petty and selfish and cruel may outlast me, or I may outlast it, but when both of us are dead, there will be people who are alive and free of us.

FOR REAL. I find this concept hugely comforting. No matter how big and important some tyrant makes himself out to be, it all turns to dust in the end, and all of their misdeeds are eventually smoothed away by the inexorable power of time.

that which lives forever is not conceptualized as petty and selfish and cruel, even if it acts that way.

THE MOST MAGNIFICENT BEING



That tree is almost 10,000 years old. SUCH DIGNITY. SUCH GRACE! It's like 16 feet tall.

--Mori