The Pragmatist

I consider myself a pragmatist. I wouldn’t say I’m in any way an immoral person, I mean, I’m not the kind of guy who would harm someone for the sake of it, I’m not a sadist. So I blackmailed a gullible politician. A crooked one at that. It’s not something my conscience is going to eat at me for because I don’t see it as a moral issue, it’s a matter of pragmatism. He had the power to get what I need, and he was foolish enough to believe I was capable of what I threatened, so a transaction took place. Do you have pangs of moral conscience buying something that will benefit you in a half price sale? Of course not! Why should you?

I have no use for God. Well, I’m not saying definitively that it’s impossible that the universe has a creator, it’s just that if it does he she or it is really rather unconcerned with my affairs. I have no use for him so I will spare you the other clichés alternatively proposing that he just has a weird sense of humour or is away on sabbatical. Maybe he’s just a pragmatist too. I have no time for philosophy.

I believe in science. Well, as far as anyone really believes in science, which is to say that I believe what suits me and interpret what happens to me in a way that supports that worldview while making a concerted effort to avoid evidence which contradicts my biases. See? I’m a pragmatist.

There’s a reason why Tories read the Telegraph and Lefties read the Guardian.

Maybe it’s fairer to say I believe in success. Look at me though, I’m successful!

The bottom line is, I’m not actually in the habit of stepping over people to get what I want. Most of the time all I do is sense what people expect and serve it up for them. I provide a service, like supply and demand. Yeah! It’s just like responding to market forces!

It just so happens that most people actually expect calamity, disaster, and, well, being fucked for a buck, if you’ll pardon the French. Who am I to judge? I’m just pointing out the chink in other peoples armour…
With the sword they put in my hand.

It’s not rocket science, you just need to pay attention. You see, most people are sleep walking - they talk when they should be listening – and they’re self absorbed, so they miss absolutely everything. I don’t miss anything. That’s why I’m a pragmatist.

It’s not a gift or a talent, it’s a discipline to be highly developed. If you’re busy thinking of what you’re going to say next time it’s your shot I guarantee you’re missing 99% of the information that is being communicated to you. People fail to use their eyes, so they stumble around bumping into on another until one of them falls off the edge of a cliff. And sometimes that’s where I come in. If it wasn’t me it would be someone else. Like I said, I’m a pragmatist.

Hymn for the Redemption of Humanity

May we cope with every struggle and find hope in every loss,

Lest the world that we’re creating die like Jesus on the cross,

May we dare to show our neighbour all the love we show a friend,

And may Gaia our sweet mother bloom in harmony again,

May all children of creation live as Buddhas and as Christs,
May we each be our own saviour and leave no one sacrificed,

May the road that reaches Heaven meet the road that leaves from Hell,

May we all find our salvation in the moment that we dwell.

She took me out of the city and lay me down with her next to the shrubs close to a ravine in what I could only imagine was a deer skin. She made it clear with her reactions that I was not to speak, and nor did she, but very soon we began to communicate with one another in images and all was understood between us, even without words.

She taught me the language of the forest.

The ground spoke to me of ancient times when they were covered in snow, but they were happier then because the soil was alive and the ravens still sung. I learned of ancient healers and medicine men who used to walk the lands when they were brown in Autumn.

The next night we were closer, as she naked next to me my hands felt invited to explore her body, whch was pleasing to her and wonderful to me. When I reached her sex with my fingers it was warm and moist but I knew there was fear in my heart over whether we should make love and when I touched her clitoris she reacted negatively after a moment, but perhaps only as a consequence of my trepidation. I know we slept together but did not make love.

how loving the creation is loving the creator

by Antony Sammeroff on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 at 20:28 ·

Most religions speak of serving God, but what God is there to speak of serving?
God should he exist is Omnipotent, naturally, and he being Omnipotent what service could a mortal then render unto the divine?
The natural conclusion of both the moral theist and the moral atheist alike then, is that any service worth being rendered is to be rendered unto ones fellow, for no one can do everything for themselves.
If God exists in everything then serving others is serving God,
as to be of service to the Creation is to be of service to the Creator.

And why else should each of us take such joy in our own work being appreciated?
Or should we ever have one, when a kindness is done unto our own child?
Because naturally it follows, that Loving the Creation is Loving the Creator
Loving the Creation is Loving the Creator

An Awesome Game conceived of in a most Interesting Dream

I had a dream last night that I was participating in a game. I guess you could say it was a role playing game. The game can take place in any area big enough, in my case it was a few buildings based on some of those of at my old high school and others created entirely by my unconscious like a castle tower. At a stretch you could maybe run it in a flat or house with several rooms, or you could expand it to a whole university campus or something like that if you were brave enough, didn't mind the walking, and wanted to make it a really big game. Naturally in these cases there will be all sorts of people who are "not playing" scattered through the game world, going about their business and most probably absolutely oblivious to what is going on with those participating. That helps add to the atmosphere. The game had a made up name which sounded Spanish, which I guess means the playing area represented the whole of Spain.

The premise of the game is that you and one other player are long lost brothers and need to search the game world for clues as to how to find the other, each of you follows the "treasure hunt" in the reverse order from one another and it's actually sort of a race or competition to see who gets most fastest and figures it out first, at which the time you both succeed when you meet. The clues are generally dispensed by other characters in the game in various locations, although the actions of characters and choices they make throughout the game may affect things such as where these characters will be found, whether they move to other locations or not, and their willingness to help one or each of these two players. 

The default location, order and nature of the clues, as well as the dispositions of those who deliver them, are randomised from game to game by means which were not explained by the dream. N.B. Only one game took place throughout the entire dream and it took hours to play!

The two "main characters" may bump into one another throughout the course of play - but the rub is it if their characters aren't aware that the other is their macguffin "in game" - it doesn't count at all! They may even interact with one another obliviously! (Although in my case we only passed in corridors.) This is supposed to add to the humour an quirkiness of the concept as well as the challenge. 

Towards the end of the dream when it was reaching a climax I remember getting very angry at the other player for watching which direction I went off in after we passed, which I claimed to be "cheating."


When I was explaining what happened in the dream to Suzy I suddenly went "fuck... I know what the dream was about..." ... "It's actually about finding myself, isn't it?"

Stuart Wilde speaks of a mirror world in which the inner you, associated with your feelings, resides. He claims that this in not a figure of speach or a metaphor as he and thousands of others have looked through into this mirror world and seen their authentic selves. This is the imprint of you which supposedly allows you to survive your death and transcend into whatever it is that comes next.

If my interpretation is right and that's what the "long lost brother" in the game represents then the people milling around who "weren't playing" represent those who have no interest in, or don't believe in spirituality. Those who dispensed clues? I don't know, guides or something?... And perhaps at the end, where the other player (whom I recognised as we both set off from one another at the beginning of the game but didn't really seem to know well in person) was watching where I went, it was perhaps because he already knew "in game" that I was who he was looking for, he'd beat me to the punch, but didn't say. In fact I don't remember him saying much if anything...

An Awesome Game conceived of in a most Interesting Dream

I had a dream last night that I was participating in a game. I guess you could say it was a role playing game. The game can take place in any area big enough, in my case it was a few buildings based on some of those of at my old high school and others created entirely by my unconscious like a castle tower. At a stretch you could maybe run it in a flat or house with several rooms, or you could expand it to a whole university campus or something like that if you were brave enough, didn't mind the walking, and wanted to make it a really big game. Natuarally in these cases there will be all sorts of people who are "not playing" scattered through the game world, going about their business and most probably absolutely oblivious to what is going on with those participating. That helps add to the atmosphere. The game had a made up name which sounded spanish, which I guess means the playing area reprisented the whole of Spain.
The premise of the game is that you and one other player are long lost brothers and need to search the game world for clues as to how to find the other, each of you follows the "treasure hunt" in the reverse order from one another and it's actually sort of a race or competition to see who gets most fastest and figures it out first, at which the time you both succeed when you meet. The clues are generally dispensed by other characters in the game in various locations, although the actions of characters and choices they make throughout the game may affect things such as where these characters will be found, whether they move to other locations or not, and their willingness to help one or each of these two players.
The default location, order and nature of the clues, as well as the dispositions of those who deliver them, are randomised from game to game by means which were not explained by the dream. N.B. Only one game took place throughout the entire dream and it took hours to play!
The two "main characters" may bump into one another throughout the course of play - but the rub is it if their characters aren't aware that the other is their macguffin "in game" - it doesn't count at all! They may even interact with one another obliviously! (Although in my case we only passed in corridors.) This is supposed to add to the humour an quirkiness of the concept as well as the challenge.
Towards the end of the dream when it was reaching a climax I remember getting very angry at the other player for watching which direction I went off in after we passed, which I claimed to be "cheating."


When I was explaining what happened in the dream to Suzy I suddenly went "fuck... I know what the dream was about..." ... "It's actually about finding myself, isn't it?"

I wanted to possesses you

but no one should belong to anyone else

it's not right

to own a person

true love says to another

feel free to follow your inclinations

feel free to be as you are

for I love you

but not "don't do this or that for it will hurt my tender heart"

that is only love of self, not of another

or rather lack of love for self it should be said

because if one one truly loves oneself they would feel no need to possess another