“The times, they are a-changing” or “You say you want a resolution”

It’s New Year’s Eve, 2008. It would be difficult, I suppose, to approach the advent of a new year without two things: some reflection on the passing year and speculation on what the new one holds.  For many, the process involves making resolutions — the past was insufficient/disappointing/difficult/? so I will make these _____ changes in an effort to amend.

Good luck with that!

I don’t make resolutions, but what I find myself considering is a noncomprehensive series of thoughts listed below. I get these ideas when I read too much philosophy, especially essays on post-modernism.

Here is a good piece from Philosophy Today, Winter, 1991, written by Gary Madison from a conference on post-modernism. I was shocked to find the article to be eighteen years old! It feels so contemporary.  I guess that’s my point.

in lieu of resolutions

1. People are more interested in coping than understanding.
2. The Biblical command not to steal only applies to individuals, not institutions such as governments, who do it routinely. You may have to pay for a service that my child or mother needs minus your consent.
3. It’s all personal.
4. It’s all personnel.
5. I have been disappointed with nearly everything I’ve bought on Ebay.
6. The U.S. Constitution is a slow read, but the audio isn’t bad. Entire Constitution of the United States [72 MB] the first web-based audio file from The University of Chicago School of Law.
7. Maybe it wasn’t so smart to pay off the mortgage early. How many other pieces of “wisdom” we followed were erroneous?
8. Flipping through the channels is no longer safe for children. Or most adults. Supervision or a V-chip is required.
9. The Coen Brothers show but do not direct toward the good.
10. In a Christmas emergency, I was scammed for $40.00 by a website. (I reasearched the site AFTER I hit Place My Order.  See #2.)
11. Live large on a small budget.
12. Many people live small on a large budget.
13. I am already tired of articles about economic doom and how I can make my money go farther. This usually involves a sponsor.
14. If times get harder (everyone I know has a cell phone, HDTV, a car, a home, a job, a computer, cable or similar,) what will be the last to go — excluding items of real significance such as people and faith? Transportation.
15. If times get harder economically, what thing will be first to go?  Cable TV. Not to include hi-speed Internet. I think. (It is instructive to list all the “nonessential” things we enjoy.)
16. I can’t think of anything of significance I learned this year! Gads. I’m sure it will come to me.
17. Lyotard insists that metanarratives are out and mininarratives are in. Too bad.
18. (from Madison’s essay) It’s now “not Socrates’ “Don’t tell a lie,” but Johnny Carson’s “Don’t be boring. ”  One tries.
19. As Kurt Vonnegut allegedly said once, we should not waste time worrying about the future. What we are worrying about probably won’t happen. Crises will come out of nowhere blindsiding us.
20. Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it has to be said.

21. And since to look at things in bloom,
       Fifty springs are little room,
       About the woodlands I will go,
       To see the cherry hung with snow.   A.E. Housman

Carpe diem and Happy New Year!