Oh wow, the year 2025 flew by and so far I have not written an entry in this blog. I've had a lot of thoughts about this year, but we won't get into those right now. Instead, I'd like to share a quote by the poet Fanny Howe, and a crude take on my personal philosophy trying to live up to it. Her quote is as follows:
Philosophy should only be written as poetry.
I love this. If you've got something to say, say it in a poem.
There's a joke that everyone hates moral philosophers. If you haven't yet seen the TV series The Good Place, I highly recommend it, but try not to get spoiled beforehand. The show expands on this joke and makes moral philosophy approachable. Moral philosophers often write dense, erudite books that no one reads but other moral philosophers. Shouldn't we try to make philosophy, especially philosophies of life, more approachable? Shouldn't people have some guidance in otherwise depraved times? Shouldn't there be an option that doesn't require blind faith in chatbots and zombies?
Well, I won't judge "the times" too harshly in prose right now. But here is my take on a moral compass as poetry:
Soul rot stinks and everyone smells it
You put up with it for the chance to get away from it
The only soul of your concern is the one animating you
What are you doing with your days?
How big is the check, and what's that really paying for?
The mania for shiny objects and the methods to justify hatred
proliferate the more we look at glass instead of air and earth
Glass is amazing and unnatural
They tell us fresh air stinks
What really stinks?
Gutters and stars and so on