Boring Stories and Philosophy
October 17th, 2006I promised to recount the story of my two friends who had to deal with the Secret Service and I will, but it isn’t very sexy. They knew the day before that they’d be talking to authorities as a notebook filled with nonsensical ways to kill people (celebrities and politicians, too) was found and had been given to the authorities, but then they were told that the Secret Service agent would be talking to them, too. Apparently he asked them nothing threatening aside from “Did you write this about the President because he’s the President or because he’s Bush?”
They said that the Secret Service Agent asked only three questions, and that none of them were memorable but for the cited one. Oh! They said he had a look of disbelief as he asked them if they really wanted to rip the President out of the White House and crucify him. They said no, obviously.
Tax dollars. You know?
We’ve been reading books like Brave New World of late in one of my courses and for an assignment I had to answer a few questions about what the government should do and should not do to ensure order. You know, “Where’s the line between individual freedom and society’s safety?” and through it, I decided to write something here that I’ve always believed: philosophy is overrated, that being philosophy as some big live-your-life-by-saying — like Hakuna Matata, or “Trust no one!” It goes by in politics, too. There’s nothing wrong with being flexible. I’m flexible intellectually, but you’ve got to have some backbone, too. Beyond that, it’s silly to go about with some fixed philosophy.
That’s all for tonight.