Maxims for the Road

I am unable to think about feminism ALL of the time, and I wish that every counter-feminist could be so lucky. Following is a list of philosophical one-liners, and two-liners, which have occurred to me over several years, and which I have jotted down in a notebook. Given that they shed light on how I think in general, they cannot do other than shed indirect light on how I think about feminism as well. Hopefully you will find something inspirational here.


• Idealistic imagination is our fire exit from the cheap hotel of actuality

• The FAST and the SHALLOW are a natural team.

• Those who search for "truth" must first seek clarity.

• Clarity, like charity, begins at home.

• Clarity and brevity are independent variables.

• Ignorance of history is like floating down the river of time with a box over your head.

• "Fun" is a state of mind and nothing more. Pleasure is merely that which pleases.

• The two prime engines of power in this world are brute force, and exclusion by mystification.

• A mind is like a parachute: Can't work if the wind blows through.

• Intuition is compiled observation.

• Self is a good thing, and so is expression. But self-expression is a questionable thing at best.

• Fashion slavery is a religious doctrine that equates salvation with the gaze of the Other.

• The average human being will not initiate a radical train of thought without some big voice or big event to set it in motion.

• Respect the dignity of honest labour.

• The real is always bigger than the actual.

• The world contains too many passive participants, and not enough active spectators.

• Action will make the world a better place only when it learns its own place. Until then, it will just make the world a busier place.

• Be suspicious of those who talk too fast. They are driving your soul out of your head through your ears.

• Two things to avoid: Killing it with silence, and talking it to death.

• Words mean different things to different people. This bears repeating.

• The devil is always hip.

• The term "amotivational" denotes a transcendentally refined distaste for bad choices.

• When an empty head follows a full heart, expect nothing good.

• Poverty is the trash can of society. Everything that goes into it -- good and bad alike -- becomes "garbage" by mere definition.

• Do not boast of your attainments, but speak of them quietly when it seems right to do so.

• Beauty makes life worth living. Duty, on the other hand, is our best excuse for getting out of bed in the morning.

• In the long run, the only struggle worth struggling is the struggle against struggle itself.

• If you don't know something, just say "I don't know", and don't take all day about it.

• You have heard it said, "don't count your chickens before they hatch." I would add: "Don't talk about the eggs."

• To expel productive silence with empty words is an wasteful bargain.

• Don't plow the same field twice.

• The routine and the non-essential don't bear endless repetition in the realm of daily converse.

• The worst part of being a neophyte is not knowing where you stand.

• Novelty is a very good smokescreen. It covers a multitude of sins.

• Silence can be just as full as words can be empty.

• Hell is other people's semiotics.

• Plan your talk before you start talking.

• Reality is crowded. Stepping on toes is hard to avoid.

• Fast car flings the most mud. Empty barrel makes the loudest noise.

• Walk your talk, and be aware that talk itself can be your walk.

• A fool announces his folly. A wise man keeps it under his hat.

• Fire in the belly , ice between the ears.

• In our day, you will find no square corner anywhere in the house of common dialogue.

• To rise above the dreck and dross of life through excellence of speech -- truly this is a spiritual path!

• The collective mind, no less than the individual, seeks to avoid self-knowledge.

• A collective mind may be composed of other collective minds.

• Never forget that you are on the inside looking out.

• When everyone shouts to be heard, the silence is profound. Use this silence to advantage, as a background for true speech

• Combine wealth of thought with economy of words.

• The words "tropical" and "paradise" have no inherent need for each other.

• A religion is ANY system of belief, behavior or shared knowledge that binds people together in a pattern of common life.

• God: A painted curtain in front of a black hole. Goddess: The aforesaid curtain bearing a female image.

• Certain things are what they are, inherently. Others are simply made so by the way that people talk about them. Cultivate a keen eye for this distinction.

• Life is a race...between those who think life is a race, and those who think it should be otherwise.

• Boasting on your own account is seldom a good policy. Just do what you do, do it well, and let others do your boasting for you.

• Any event, though seemingly small, can be classified as big if it makes a radical impression at a key juncture.

• There is nothing which the world hates more than unworldliness.

• The sooner your get the point, the sooner you can swing the counterpoint into action.

• Climb as many mountains as you wish; your self-congratulation will ever be short-lived.

• The fool opposes speech to silence. The sage knows that silence too is a part of speech.

• Don't ever take "fun" seriously; it is more fun to make fun of it.

• Some people say imagination is greater than knowledge. But...how do they know this?

• If you wish to do what others cannot, start by doing what they will not.

• It is impossible to say the right thing in the wrong conversation.

• When you form the habit of clipping your wings, you eventually forget how to fly.

• It is a common error to confuse disorientation with stupidity. Likewise, to equate high learning speed with intelligence.

• If you wish to have an honest conversation, you must start the world over again.

• Pointless lust for innovation bespeaks an empty soul.

• Popularity is everything. You may write words of gold upon a silver page, but people won't like it if they don't like you.

• Separation of the personal from the political keeps outside forces from meddling in your inner world.

• Any reflective person will note something peculiar about the phrase "entertainment industry."

• Every culture, or society, is a conspiracy to prevent certain forms of awareness.

• A collective mind cannot walk backwards out of a wrong road.

• Streamline your pride. Be as proud as ever you please, but do so compactly.

• Unshakeable conviction of righteousness carries the same worldly force as actual righteousness

• Wisdom is not a state of knowledge, but rather a system of knowing defined by a system of parameters.

• Valuation of style over substance is a characteristic of youth, and is akin to building a house from the roof down.

• Two prime pedagogical mistakes: Assuming what the learner knows, and assuming what the learner doesn't know.

• You should take a professional interest in the world around you, even if it holds no charms for you. The profession is survival.

• I reserve the right to start the world over again in the realm of conversation. By that means I reserve the possibility of doing so in fact.

• "Talk is cheap" is a menticidal phrase mandating a false polarity between apathetic silence and mindless activity.

• Americans: A nation of people busily pretending to enjoy life while remaining profoundly ignorant of how to do so truly.

• A collective mind will continually edit language so that words don't mean anything that it doesn't want to think about.

• To separate your personal identity from your objective situation is a great power in itself. Furthermore, it is the base on which subsequent powers may assemble themselves in logical array.

• The French word "esprit" is the finest contribution that France has made to world civilization.

• Superstition is when you insert a seed of wishful thinking, or fear, into any gap of any size that separates the known from the known.

• The world as we presently know it is a vast conspiracy to perpetuate a state of rationalized hyperactivity.