Almost a musing: 12/5/2022
Distance, AI, cigarettes, sanity, prohibition, society
Happy December!
Quick read
Sasha Chapin on Distance
Inevitably, if you’re honest, you find out that you’re not exactly who you aspire to be. There is some distance between you and your exemplars.
Maybe it’s a short distance, or maybe you’re way off to the side. Maybe you thought you were a clear-eyed rational pragmatist, and you discover that you’re a rover with the soul of a poet. Or perhaps the opposite. That can be painful.
But it’s ultimately easier to take this pain than persist in a false, lonely place, conducting a masquerade that, even if it fools others, can’t fool you.
If you can’t even be frank about who you are in a room alone, I find it hard to believe that you can do it with the people in your life.
Visual
I didn’t take any cool pictures this week so posting this one from circa one year ago.
Fact
As of 2021, 16% of Americans reported smoking a cigarette in the past week, down from 45% in the 1960s.
This day in history
89 years ago today, on December 5th, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America.
Tune
According to Spotify, this was my #1 song of the year. Here are the other 99.
Quote
“The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane.” // Erich Fromm
Something to ponder
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Jiddu Krishnamurti
Honorable mention
Personal update
Back in Manhattan for the week.
It’s pretty cold.
Until next time,