tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post5640926982321259214..comments2023-08-10T04:26:09.048-04:00Comments on Wise Man's Heart: You're cooler than you thinkHermeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15048343595688010664noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-82957646107272354682012-03-22T19:54:50.663-04:002012-03-22T19:54:50.663-04:00Still here, just haven't had time (or ideas, t...Still here, just haven't had time (or ideas, thanks to residency taking up all my brain power) to blog. Samson, I see your blog has been made private. Any other way to get in touch with you? You can always email me at the address listed in the sidebar.Hermeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15048343595688010664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-91911753923175568602012-01-30T13:09:54.719-05:002012-01-30T13:09:54.719-05:00Earth to Hermes! Is there anyone out there?Earth to Hermes! Is there anyone out there?Samson J.http://samsonsjawbone.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-22851165582236187792011-08-11T18:28:18.303-04:002011-08-11T18:28:18.303-04:00I am sure you aren't half the nerd, and nerd-l...I am sure you aren't half the nerd, and nerd-look-like you think you are.<br /><br />And some people have read Plato's Republic. Including women... :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-38192513428766412202011-02-19T12:39:56.102-05:002011-02-19T12:39:56.102-05:00"As a commenter at Thursday's said recent..."As a commenter at Thursday's said recently, the right is anti-intellectual and the left is anti-Western. My med school friends' idea of intellectual stimulation is The Daily Show, and my church friends' is the Ohio State game."<br /><br />That was me, and this is something of interest to me, as I'm about to leave NY for parts Red. I kind of wonder if you should try looking around on the college side of your med school campus or something. Maybe a cute classicist or something. I hate to see the Western tradition disappear.<br /><br />Maybe after you get out of residency (or if you go into psych or derm or something with short hours) you could volunteer with your local Republican party. I'm sure there are at least some political junkies in there. Whether they've read Kirk and Oakeshott I don't know.SFGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-81206886255810952682010-09-29T19:21:33.154-04:002010-09-29T19:21:33.154-04:00Presumptuous sorry but I transformed myself with &...Presumptuous sorry but I transformed myself with 'sexual transmutation'. I don't care how religious a dude is he still empties his sack.<br /><br />Check out this thread.<br /><br />http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=20053&page=99<br /><br />A bit puerile but at least someones discussing it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-39550286932768001372010-09-29T13:26:46.818-04:002010-09-29T13:26:46.818-04:00Just stumbled across this post. OP, good on you, t...Just stumbled across this post. OP, good on you, this is a great insight to have. The fact is that with your intellectual depth you can now enter the social world and contribute something real and substantial to it. I don't mean preaching about Plato to coeds. It's more a case of becoming fully comfortable in society, studying it intimately, and identifying those pressure points or vulnerabilities where you can really improve people's lives. This might occur in silence, or might not. Anyway, keep practicing flexibility of mind and get out there. Drink deep of life as it flows on. And if you need a little boost, image search "Courage Wolf". Take care brother.gruffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-5940684898247034562010-09-15T12:59:08.327-04:002010-09-15T12:59:08.327-04:00"I know NO ONE in my personal life who is at ..."I know NO ONE in my personal life who is at all interested in such things."<br /><br />Neither do I. Then there's the problem that different nerds tend to be interested in different things. However, the Internet does help with that - there are people on it interested in almost anything.Glossyhttp://lazyglossophiliac.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-39398127619131062952010-09-14T18:29:01.476-04:002010-09-14T18:29:01.476-04:00I know NO ONE in my personal life who is at all in...<i>I know NO ONE in my personal life who is at all interested in such things. As a commenter at Thursday's said recently, the right is anti-intellectual and the left is anti-Western. My med school friends' idea of intellectual stimulation is The Daily Show, and my church friends' is the Ohio State game.</i><br /><br />Quite. You and I are what I call "Lost Souls" - seeming to belong nowhere and with no one; longing for the company of other minds that share our mode of thought, but finding that nobody ever, ever meets all the necessary criteria for true, meaningful trust and fulfillment.<br /><br />I still do mean to email you, Hermes; give me another week or so.Samsonhttp://samsonsjawbone.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-2184656451143937552010-09-14T18:05:13.141-04:002010-09-14T18:05:13.141-04:00Well, as I'm sure you know without me having t...<i>Well, as I'm sure you know without me having to tell you, it almost doesn't matter what exactly that guy said to those girls. The tone of voice, the posture, the eye contact are usually more important than text in such situations. Most of that non-verbal stuff is governed subconsciously.</i><br />True, but what struck me about this interaction was how ordinary the guy seemed. He did not come across as particularly alpha to me. He looked and acted like a pretty average guy.<br /><br /><i>Can't talk for you, but for me refusing to go always seemed and always will seem like the most effective way to preserve some dignity.</i><br />I know what you're saying, but for me, there have been cases when I went, "loosened up" as the more social are always exhorting us to do, and actually made a decent impression on people. It's just that those instances were never frequent enough to become the norm and break out of my overall pattern of socially avoidant behavior. <br /><br /><i>But satisfying curiosity can be so much fun.</i><br />When I was younger and more optimistic, during my last 2 years of high school, I thought that it was. But that's because I thought that there awaited for me a whole world out there that 1) supported satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, and 2) provided companions with whom to share said satisfaction. I thought that was the whole point of college. Life turned out to be drastically different. There's scant time to get lost in a book the way I used to when I was 10 years old, and even if I could find the time and peace of mind to read and drink deep of, say, Plato's Republic, how could I feel that it was at all relevant to my life? I know NO ONE in my personal life who is at all interested in such things. As a commenter at Thursday's said recently, the right is anti-intellectual and the left is anti-Western. My med school friends' idea of intellectual stimulation is The Daily Show, and my church friends' is the Ohio State game.<br /><br /><i>We must apply discipline to go out, while staying home is what comes natural.</i><br />That is a very good point. When it gets late in the week (provided I have a free weekend coming up--curse you, med school) and my thoughts naturally turn to how much I'm looking forward to Friday night when I will get home, scarf down some leftovers for dinner, recline on the couch and watch a movie I downloaded earlier in the week (alone), pop some Benadryl, and go to bed at 8, I often reflect upon how weird those thoughts would seem to those for whom that would seem like torture, for whom heading out to the bars/clubs is as natural as breathing. I think of how nervous and awkward I felt last Friday evening when I texted one of my friends to see if the regulars were meeting at the pub that night because I was just that starved for social interaction. Then I thought, "why should I feel weird about this? THEY don't think it's a big deal. I'm the only one who does."Hermeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15048343595688010664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-74605068735377414092010-09-14T05:17:46.838-04:002010-09-14T05:17:46.838-04:00It's all about paths of least resistance. For...It's all about paths of least resistance. For the true socially mainstream person, going out on Friday night is the path of least resistance. If (for some reason) they consciously decided to become nerds, they'd have to devote discipline and effort to stay home Friday night. But for you and I, it's reversed. We must apply discipline to go out, while staying home is what comes natural.Xamuelhttp://www.xamuel.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-68280239141657123782010-09-12T19:57:41.079-04:002010-09-12T19:57:41.079-04:00"Why can't I be that kind of guy? Why doe..."Why can't I be that kind of guy? Why doesn't anything like that ever happen to me?"<br /><br />Well, as I'm sure you know without me having to tell you, it almost doesn't matter what exactly that guy said to those girls. The tone of voice, the posture, the eye contact are usually more important than text in such situations. Most of that non-verbal stuff is governed subconsciously.<br /><br />"But they didn't think I was a low-social-status nerd who couldn't roll with them. I created that persona in my own mind by acting that way."<br /><br />In such cases I was always sure that people only invited me to parties, clubs, etc. because they didn't know the real me. Which they didn't. If they knew the entire extent of my nerdiness, the idea of inviting me would have sounded comical to them. Moreover, I knew then and know now that I wouldn't have enjoyed going. It would have inevitably turned into an embarrassment - a collection of awkward moments that everyone would have recounted for years afterwards behind my back. Can't talk for you, but for me refusing to go always seemed and always will seem like the most effective way to preserve some dignity.<br /><br />"...and from there it's a choice to act the part."<br /><br />Not in everyone's case. Certainly not in mine. <br /><br />Again, can't talk for you, but whenever I want to feel better about being a nerd, I imagine how boring my life would have been if I lacked the capacity to be intensely interested by anything complex or abstract, by anything that lay outside of everyday experiences. The average normal doesn't appear to be curious about much. But satisfying curiosity can be so much fun. Overall, I'm happy with the trade-offs. <br /><br />Perhaps you simply take your mental life for granted. Imagine life without it for a moment. <br /><br />"I was just sitting in my room playing computer games."<br /><br />Yes, but all the while you had the capacity to become interested in something more complex. A lot of those stoners didn't and never will.Glossyhttp://lazyglossophiliac.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-31830849755247140062010-09-07T23:17:04.478-04:002010-09-07T23:17:04.478-04:00There are two possible answers to that question.
...There are two possible answers to that question.<br /><br />1. Of course not, but knowing that it in fact would have been possible, that mainstream society was a lot more willing to accept men than I thought, would have greatly improved the way I thought about the world and interacted with it.<br /><br />2. Not really. When I first started college, the very thought horrified me. But now I'm more ambivalent about it. I mean, it's not like I didn't have time to go to parties because I was too busy reading Plato, Thomas Aquinas, and Shakespeare, which is what I thought I wanted at the time and which I believed would provide me with a formative intellectual experience that would guarantee me a happy and successful life. I was just sitting in my room playing computer games.Hermeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15048343595688010664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905922288517555692.post-55097647378167167762010-09-06T03:28:03.446-04:002010-09-06T03:28:03.446-04:00"Stoners...keg stand or bumping and grinding ..."Stoners...keg stand or bumping and grinding with some drunk chick"<br /><br />Question is thought, is that what you really want?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com