The Galactic Thinker — Beantown — Story 39 — Cowgirls Into the Wild — Idle Time (update2)
“Jane?”
“Yes, May?”
“How many more Galactic Thinker stories do you think our author will write?”
“Until he has explored and developed answers to every unexpectedly stupid question out there, or until everyone sees the sense in the philosophy.”
“That sounds like an endless task…”
“It is a task that is probably beyond his lifetime.”
“So he isn’t writing for fortune, fame, or love?”
“No. He learned a few lessons from a poem that he set to song, called The Slave of Ambition. Would you like to hear it?”
“Sure. Can I see the lyrics, too? What is it about?”
“It is about the pursuit of fortune, fame, and love in a clueless world, where a man asked the Devil to help him. The story is tragic throughout, and it doesn’t end well, though it offers lessons to learn. Our author wrote and recorded the song in 1988. Do you still want to hear it?”
“Did he write it in the style of the 1980's?”
“No, it is more timeless than that. Do you still want to hear it?”
“Sure…”
“OK. Here is the link to the music, along with the lyrics…”
He was the slave of ambition, and he vowed to the Gods above
To sell his soul to perdition for fortune, fame, and love.
“Three wishes!” he cried, and the Devil replied:
“Fortune is a fickle one, often wooed but seldom won,
Ever changing like the sun, still I think it can be done.
You have a friend, a rich one too,
Kill him, his wealth is willed to you!”
Ambition fled, he paused a while,
But daunted by the Devil’s smile,
He killed his friend to gain his aim,
Then bowed his head in grief and shame.
But the Devil cried, “It’s all in the game,
You wanted fortune, love, and fame, and so I came!
Three wishes through your life shall run,
Behold! I’ve given you number one!”
And the Gods on high
With a watchful eye
looked down on the ways of man,
With their hopes and fears
Through the weary years
Since the days of the world began;
And the man, he prayed,
For the soul betrayed,
Had breathed a parting call,
“Though the mills of the Gods grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceedingly small!”
Urged by the spur of ambition, with the Devil still as his guide,
He now sought social position, for wealth had brought him pride.
“Bring fame!” cried the man, so the Devil began:
“Fame is but an accident, often sought but seldom sent,
Still I think we’re on the scent.
You know a genius gone insane,
Go steal the product of his brain!”
The man obeyed, then cried, “Begone!
From crime to crime you lead me on,
To kill a friend whose smile was glad,
To rob a genius driven mad,
Through want, oh God, am I that bad?”
But the Devil cried, “What luck you’ve had, you’re famous, lad!
Three wishes run you’re whole life through,
Behold! I’ve given you number two!”
And the Gods looked down with an angry frown,
‘Till Satan fled their scorn;
For the Devil may play with the common clay,
But genius is heaven born.
And the man grew bold with his fame and gold,
And cried, “Well, after all,
The mills of the Gods grind slowly, if they ever grind at all!”
Men, good or bad, are but human, and he, like the rest, wanted love;
So the Devil soon brought him the woman as fair as an angel above.
“I love you!” he cried, but the woman replied,
“Love is such an empty word, fancy fleeting like a bird,
You have wealth and fame, I’ve heard,
Those are things to be preferred!”
He gave her both, the wealth she spent,
And then she betrayed him, so fame went.
But love came not in his despair,
She only smiled and left him there,
And he called her ‘the woman who didn’t care’;
But the Devil cried,”You’ve had your share, the game ends there.
Two of your wishes came through me,
But mighty God holds number three!”
And the Gods grew stern as the mills they turned
That grind before they kill;
‘Till, staggering blind with a wandering mind
And the glare of an imbecile,
From day to day he leads his way, and whines his piteous call,
“The mills of the Gods grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceedingly small!”
From “The Mills of the Gods” by Unknown
“by Unknown?”
“Yes, and I think the poem represents the accumulative wisdom of humans over the course of a few thousand years, since the first known use of ‘the mills of the gods grind slowly, yet they grind small’ was around one thousand eight hundred years ago in the third century by a Greek poet, when it was probably already common wisdom.”
“What about this poem?”
“I would say that it has been gradually tweaked over all of those centuries.”
“So the Devil has him killing a rich friend to gain wealth, then stealing the product of genius gone insane to gain fame, and asking the Devil to bring him love… all of which backfired…”
“Yes. Nice lessons, eh?”
“Do you have any new thoughts?”
“Sure. Daoism vaguely knew that humans needed a greater common path. What was offered was not the right path, however, since it would have us live our lives no better than mindless bugs, which leaves us still at the mercy of a harsh and deadly universe, which they knew nothing about back then.”
“Which they knew nothing about back then?”
“Correct. Also, when you hear things like ‘Eight-fold This’ and ‘The Four Noble That’, that was Eastern academia organizing things.”
“Any other thoughts?”
“Our philosophy satisfies Aristotle’s definition of ‘good’, which. according to him, is something that conforms to reason and contributes to human flourishing.”
“Our philosophy goes beyond that…”
“Go ahead, explain…”
“Rather than merely flourishing, where you are still ultimately clueless and suicidal with respect to surviving in this harsh and deadly universe, our ‘good’ consists of that which contributes to Broader Survival in this harsh and deadly universe. Any other thoughts?”
“Sure. If our philosophy is correct, then many delightful things will unexpectedly arise from it.”
“What about religions?”
“Religions have no role in surviving against a harsh and deadly universe, since they contribute nothing toward our increasing understanding of it. In fact, most of them prohibit new understanding in favor of their own primitive make-believe notions or modern fashionable fantasies or weak speculations that were based on a feeble knowledge base. Therefore you would be imprudent to rely on religions when it comes to survival against a harsh and deadly universe. Surviving among clueless humans is another matter, however, where you may need to don a facade of conformity in order to socially survive.”
“What about Plato’s perfect forms, where everything in the world is imperfections of them?”
“Realizing that they are really basic definitions, you will then realize that everything is a variation of the basic definition, and not an imperfection of a perfect form.”
“What about Anselm’s argument for the proof that God exists?”
“You mean his argument where you have an idea of the greatest being, and, if that being exists, it would be greater than your mere idea, meaning your idea is not the greatest thing, since, if the being existed, IT would be the greatest thing, hence that being must exist since the being existing is greater than your mere notion of the greatest being. Do you follow?”
“Yes. If I have a notion of a greatest being, it is not the greatest thing if the greatest being actually existed, which would really be great. It is a clever argument…”
“But false.”
“How so?”
“There is no guarantee that such a being exists, so your notion would still be the greatest thing if the being did not exist. Second, if such a being did exist, it would remain to be determined if that being were not a scoundrel just posing as the greatest being.”
“Who would you dedicate your next book to?”
“To all those who have improved the quality of our lives, and who protected freedom and individual independence, which made my innovative thinking possible.”
“Would our philosophy fix Russia?”
“Yes, from above. Far, far above, since our philosophy is an overarching philosophy, even over government systems, politics, and international relations, all of which our philosophy guides, affects, and even organizes.”
Any other thoughts before we continue?”
“Sure. Cluelessness can be depicted by awareness bubbles.”
“Awareness bubbles?”
“Yes. The most clueless person has an awareness bubble that only extends outward only as far as himself.”
“Or herself?”
“Don’t make me waste breath.”
“You should speak gender-free.”
“OK. The most clueless people have bubbles of awareness that barely extend beyond themselves. Larger clueless bubbles of awareness extend out to their local social environment or region. Larger clueless bubbles of awareness extend out to one’s nation, then one’s world, then one’s solar system, then one’s galaxy.”
“What about the universe?”
“Now you are enlightened as far as Broader Survival is concerned.”
“But what about local/immediate concerns?”
“Take care of them, but do not lose sight of the larger picture, that of continued existence against the harsh and deadly universe which, incredibly, many people and cultures haven’t even awakened to yet.”
“Rendering them clueless…”
“Yes.”
“Any other thoughts?”
“Our author just had an experience waking from a dream that few, if any, have ever experienced.”
“Do tell…”
“In the dream, he was at an outdoor festival that was being set up by college students, rows of folding chairs and the like, and his daughter and her wife were among them as they were in their college days. Well, one student was reciting a poem at the mic, just for practice, when another student went to a grand piano that was set up and began to play background music to the poem. Well, our author noted how beautiful the girl was playing, and with one hand, no less. Our author wished that he could play that beautifully, but he despaired, knowing that it would take far too much official college training to reach that level of beauty. Well, just then he woke up, and he discovered that he had fallen asleep with his own piano improvisations playing.”
“So the ‘beautiful, unattainable piano playing’ by the girl in the dream was really his own music?”
“Yes! Can you imagine that?”
“No. Can I hear the piece that was playing?”
“Yes, but note that the passages that were playing were well into the piece, around six minutes in… here it is…”
“Pedestrian name for a beautiful piece… any more thoughts?”
“I had one more, but it eludes me at the moment… I’ll create a word instead. Ready?”
“Ready…”
“Most people live in a biassphere.”
“Bias?”
“Yes.”
“Clever, and at least partial truth.”
“Ah yes! My other thought was on partial truths.”
“Go ahead, get it off of your chest…”
“Well, we know, due to our original thinking, that all objects are composed of an infinite number of partial truths, and the best that you can do when describing an object is to present a set of partial truths about it, and that is what most people argue over, their different sets of partial truths…”
“But you can also be wrong…”
“Yes, that is the worst that you can do. Well, I just realized that partial truths have attributes, and not all partial truths have the same importance or weight…”
“So you are refining your notion of partial truths…”
“Yes. Now one attribute is how common the partial truth is, i.e. how many other people see that partial truth. Another attribute is how important that partial truth is. Is it trivial or critical? Another attribute is how useful it is to your current endeavor. Most partial truths will be useless to your current endeavor.”
“So you have to select which partial truths are most useful and applicable…”
“Yes.”
“Can you ever describe the entire object?”
“No. There are too many partial truths, which includes those from your unique perspective, which is another attribute. Needless to say, your unique perspectives will be those that no one else has, since your perspective are unique to you.”
“But the perspectives of others are also partial truths…”
“Yes.”
“Interesting body of thought. It may need more exploration… so what is our story today?”
“Cowgirls being idle in the wild. They are resting before they venture out and explore the planet, which will be our next story, which will be based on a set of images that our author had forgotten about.”
“I’m looking forward to it… so let’s get into our idle wild cowgirls in the wild…”
“No comments on the images?”
“Not this time. We will let the images speak for themselves…”
“They do not have the most attractive faces, do they?”
“No, and the test is, can you love them regardless?”
“Or are they lovable regardless, and why…”
“Do you think that our philosophy would play a part there?”
“It would be at the core.”
