Somehow, 15 years passed since I had last considered factions and the argument concerning an effort to either stop them from arising or to control the more deleterious of their consequences.

Knowing that they are called the Federalist Papers helps. “The Feds are here, let the good times begin” said no one ever.

We can split the atom of freedom by . . . having two governments to whom we must answer for our shortcomings and from whom we receive the permissive injunction (you may!) and the admonishment to achieve (strive!). This. twinned combination of internalized directives caresses like a lash.

Still, the split atom seems more like the tears that muddle the spilt milk and less like a magic trick of semantic topology. You know, like how twisting propositional shapes can somehow carry more weight than their volume might reliably bear?

How soon we forget that a key instrumental function of the elected mediocracy is to tell us lies that gladden our hearts for having accepted them. But remembering this lesson is for treatises and twelve step programs. Unscrew the locks from the doors, slip the dogs loose from their leashes.

I should ask the man whether he was a tree frog. The man from the truth village would say, “No, I’m not a tree frog,” because he tells the truth. The man from the liars’ village would say, “Yes, I’m a tree frog,” because he would tell a lie. So I know where he comes from.

kaspar, on whom a study of stultifying logic was lost

Each man for himself . . And God against all.

How to talk about books you’ve never read is a skill, we might be smart to recognize now.

The future isn’t so much a a blank slate as a padded cell. Whether we recognize that now won’t depend on how smart we are, or on how much we deadlift. There will be pleasures that terrorize and torments that enliven, the experience of which will be passed off as the wilting plagiarism and the overreaching of sentimental education.

So act already. Dig for potatoes and brush off the dirt, bleed out a stag and walk off with its quarters in hand and its mount buried below the frost line. Sire or birth progeny, as the case may be, and grow prematurely old in the recognition that you will disappoint them in the incarnate flesh the sooner that they come in the grips of the maddening Entertainment. Distraction comes with a cost that is dearly but easily paid.