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Necropsy: pathological dissection of a corpse, belonging to any life form; particularly to determine cause of death. A dissection is a minute and detailed examination.
Autopsy, from Ancient Greek αὐτοψία ("the quality of being seen for oneself"): dissection performed on a cadaver to find possible cause(s) of death. A cadaver is a dead body, a human corpse. By extension to human artefacts and activities: an after-the-fact examination, especially of the causes of a failure (more common term in this context: post-mortem).
In my experience, and that of others I've spoken with, reading Ayn Rand's works has often elicited a feeling of recognition -- yes, this is how the world works, this is how I've been operating -- but with the tremendous addition of a whole system, integrated principles, knife-sharp definitions, and vivid descriptions. Of course, it felt like coming home, being welcomed on Earth by a benevolent, far-seeing mind that would not preach self-sacrifice or mysticism; reading ideas towards which one had groped but never quite found the right words for; and understanding thoughts one didn't know had been developed, illustrated, and presented with such a degree of rationality. She was a towering giant, and the only reason we are close to her is that we had what it took to approach her, something in common before we even heard about her.
A post-modern scientist is determined to test the sensitivity of a frog's response to the spoken command "jump."
Continue reading Of deafness and frogs.
How would a foray end, when the sudden invasion of private property reveals that there is nothing left to loot? that the attack, the quest for the spoils of private pension funds, for example, is left empty-handed because the last decades have already been spent destroying wealth and undermining capital accumulation?
What happens when the promise of wealth distribution fails because what wealth there was has already been silently stolen and distributed? who takes the fall? what's the next promise?
His zealous supporters, filled with blank eagerness, have been maniacs expressing fervor with strictly no specific object. There is no plan of action to be enthusiastic for. There is no actual ideology to be dedicated to. What banners, signs, effigies, and propaganda posters will stand the test of reality?
We're not in the Soviet Union. Millions can't be starved or murdered when they don't implement the idiotic orders of the supreme leadership. A whole people can't have its liberties stolen at the point of a gun. So, how will the Marxists run the country now that they have obtained comfortable majorities? They have 2, maybe 4, years at their disposal.
So many are excited to have supported and chosen a footless fool. That he as a person, as a thinker, as a doer, is not substantial -- has been irrelevant. That his beliefs, as ideology, as plans, as solutions, are without support -- has been hidden.
His good luck has been to show up when the one seemingly in charge was an illiterate unable to formulate coherent sentences, let alone paragraphs, and to face an opponent who mainly believes that physical suffering, mindless duty, and rejection of principles are marks of honor.
As usual, the Republic gets the leaders its people deserve. It hasn't been a pretty sight for a long, long time.
So, he lacked in social experience. His demeanor abhorred grace. His words weren't tactful. His goals were crude. You could have said he was gauche, but knowing how much money he was grabbing, you had to see he was merely ill-mannered, coarse, and contemptible. His cloak of culture was what always threw people. As a maggot, he'd have qualified as gauche. As it were, he was an opportunist. Radical leftist when it pleased the girls, reformed maoist when the wind turned, always on the side of pleasurable expediency.
Silently they link us to our dear cousins --birds, trees, dolphins, carrots, worms, fungi.
Former holders of eminent positions on the planet, they never knew who and how we would be.
Without office or title, they arose from stardust, sustained themselves, begot, and always returned to the same dust.
For billions of years, they each became successful predecessors in turn. Ancestors, forebears, forefathers, they gave each new generation the genes and context needed for more successors.
From time to time, remember them, be grateful, and think of what legacy you shall leave.
Molded by what they hear, reshaped by the notions of passing strangers, their opinions are like clay, easy to use for beginners but without spine when life, liberty, and happiness are the crux.
Confused by their own sarcasm, muddled by their rejection of logic, their rotten mind releases the putrid vapors of stale ideologies. Are they dumb? are they fooled? no. They choose to evade facts, they embrace emotionalism, they wallow in irrationalism. Often, liquor and drugs have helped them stultify their brain. When they talk, they piss on your leg. When they smile, liquid filth oozes out. Their eggs are rotten, empty, vain, idle, unsound, of the wind.
