Blackmoor Vituperative

Hey there, fellow dudes. Let’s get out there and be good examples today.

• be kind
• be calm
• listen
• support women defending women
• speak up when someone attacks women, gay/trans folks, or the rest of the far-right’s traditional targets
• don’t escalate
• don’t make it about you

You won’t change anyone’s mind with words. No one does. But your behavior might change someone’s heart.

P. S. Pick large fights with your enemies, not small fights with your friends. Don’t demand perfection from people trying to help you. Perfection is a corrosive fantasy.

(As told to Erisen of Beth by Minathiel Avicenna.)

In a land there was a river, and in the river there was an island. On the island lived Frog, Mouse, and Scorpion. They avoided each other and made no effort to interact, so they made ideal neighbors.

One rainy season, there was a flood, and the lowest parts of the island were taken by the water. As the water rose, it was obvious that their little island would soon be swept away. Neither Mouse nor Scorpion could swim.

Scorpion said to Frog, “Friend and neighbor Frog, will you please carry me away to high ground? If I stay here, I will perish.”

“I would like to,” Frog replied. “But how can I trust you not to sting me?”

“I want to sting you,” Scorpion said. “Very much. But if I sting you, I will drown. So you can see, you have nothing to fear.”

Still, Frog was careful, because Scorpion had stung many of Frog’s friends.

“I will carry you,” Frog said, “if you agree to let Mouse hold your tail so that you can’t sting me. If Mouse keeps you from stinging me, we can all reach safety together.”

Scorpion did not like this, but agreed to it.

Frog called to Mouse, who was doing nothing a short distance away. “Mouse! Come hold Scorpion’s tail, and we will all escape to safety!”

But Mouse was too busy doing nothing, and refused the request.

“Besides,” said Mouse. “Either Scorpion will sting me or Frog will drown me. No, thank you! Leave me out of it: you are both the same.”

“I feel I must point out,” Scorpion said to Frog, as Mouse left in a huff, “that all our agreement required of me was to allow Mouse to hold my tail, which I have agreed to do. What Mouse actually does or does not do was never part of our agreement. It is not fair to penalize me for something beyond my control.”

Frog considered this.

“We had an agreement, and I will honor it,” Frog said. “I will carry you. No stinging.”

“I promise,” Scorpion vowed.

The flood waters made swimming difficult, but Frog was strong and determined. Frog and Scorpion were halfway to safety when Frog felt the burning stab of Scorpion’s stinger.

“Why?” cried Frog, writhing in pain and trying to stay afloat. “Now we will both perish!”

“I can’t help it,” Scorpion said sadly. “It’s my nature.”

This was no comfort to Frog.

“I am sorry that it has ended this way,” Scorpion said, tumbling into the water from dying Frog’s back. “Thank you for trusting me.”

“I would do it again, I think,” Frog said.

“Why?” Scorpion asked, arms thrashing uselessly in the water. “Look what it brought you.”

“I can’t help it,” Frog said sadly. “It’s my nature.”

As Frog perished from venom and Scorpion drowned, Mouse watched from the shrinking island, but did nothing.

“They were both the same,” Mouse declared in triumph. “And I am much too smart to fall for that.” Because that was their nature.

A pity that it ended with books. Most of the art and literature created in the past century will be lost forever within the next century. Not because it was written with vibrations in the air or painted with light, but because we have ceded our cultural heritage to a handful of sociopathic billionaires (Disney, Comcast, Sony, Warner Brothers), who would — and have, and will — destroy works of art rather than fail to make a profit from them.

It’s a shame, and it was avoidable.

Ah, well.

I wish Americans were a little less fixated on 18th century concepts of political science, civic engagement, and natural philosophy.

I celebrate Epicurus’ Birthday on the third Monday of February, in honor of the philosopher Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia — “peace and freedom from fear” — and aponia — “the absence of pain” — and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

(From Epicurus, Wikipedia)

If there’s not a blog called “Write Or Die”, there should be.

I have stopped sharing links to wildlife being cooked to death in the oceans, or catastrophic polar melting, or the fact we are in what future generations will regard as the early months of World War 3, etc. to Facebook. Even so, the slow-motion apocalypse (a phrase I coined and began using in 2013, although others independently did the same, some even earlier) continues its relentless approach.

I am a little surprised that World War 3 hasn’t officially started yet. My entire youth, the threat of Communist expansion was like a black cloud on the horizon, and the threat of nuclear war was ever-present. But Russia invades Ukraine, and the West can barely muster a strongly worded letter in response.

This does not bode well for Taiwan and Pakistan, but I have no input on any of it.

Meanwhile, sea life is being cooked to death in the oceans, and natural disasters and wet-bulb events are becoming more common on land. I assume the Republican death cult is still blaming homosexuals while simultaneously dismissing it as a hoax.

If Canada ever opens its borders to American refugees fleeing north from the climate crisis and the theofascist takeover of the South and the western flyover states, I think we should apply ASAP.

If I had it to do over again, I’d try to care less about what people think, and care more about what people feel.

I celebrate Epicurus’ Birthday on the third Monday of February, in honor of the philosopher Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia — “peace and freedom from fear” — and aponia — “the absence of pain” — and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

(From Epicurus, Wikipedia)

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