that true ugliness

[sergebroom]

There're some who find joy
When they can destroy.
Easier to break
Than it is to make.
That true ugliness
Is the world's sadness.

(Inspired by something posted by my buddy Fragano on his own blog, but all blame for the above rests with me.)

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Not a bad epigram.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[scorbybird.livejournal.com]

My favorite quote of all time, and perhaps apt to your post:

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. And the worst flaw is that we're just plain dumb. Admit it! You think Auschwitz was intelligent?"

Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus

-scorby

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I have very mixed feelings about Vonnegut. Not about his judgment of Auschwitz, mind you. As for Humanity being just plain dumb, not all of it is, but, as the smart ones come up with technology that's more and more powerful, the damage that the dumb ones can cause becomes greater and greater, especially when the average IQ of our species isn't keeping up.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

My apologies if that sounds elitist. I don't consider myself to be one of the aforementionned smart ones. I'm simply a mediocre person, from the Latin word for 'in between'.

[scorbybird.livejournal.com]

Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

My knowledge of Latin is slipping away as I age further and further from 1970. In other words - the above menas?

[scorbybird.livejournal.com]

Roughly - "Brothers and sisters, while we have time, let us do good."

I read that when I was much younger in a book I picked up while visiting a runaway friend at a Covenant House (covenanthouseny.org) in New York. It left a lasting impression on me.

It's a philosophy that I'd be willing to have tattooed on the inside of my eyelids, as a reminder to separate the good from the shit, and as an override for another (albeit unfortunate) philosophy that I've adopted, "Never underestimate the stupidity of the general population."

Both have served me well, for the most part. I'm working hard on improving my outlook, and hope to phase out the latter, as the pessimism is certainly exhausting.

[scorbybird.livejournal.com]

Well put, and point taken. I think he’s a marvelous writer, but I have issues of my own with him, particularly with trying to swallow some of his political ramblings.