Category Archives: Questions by Alex P
Is there a grammar to everthing?
Grammar is a funny one. We can stickle for it, but its the play that makes it exciting. In that sense, perhaps the rules of the universe are like a grammar. I realise I’m losing a lot of people by … Continue reading
Should I hold my peace?
It depends, do you think it will be more useful to you later on? There’s so many different situations in which one can choose to remain quiet, and stay out of things. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. And it’s … Continue reading
What can change the nature of humanity?
This is a very different question to the similarly phrased one here, but the answer is roughly (and perhaps oddly) the same. The nature of humanity, like the nature of the universe, and like the nature of any individual, is … Continue reading
“No-one has ever lived in the past. No-one will ever live in the future. The present is the form of all life. ” Discuss.
We’ve been here before. But not here. Not now. Now is unique; but it stretches into infinity. Constantly changing. Constantly renewed. The moment in which things happen. Until now. Nothing can have an impact. But now is the sum of … Continue reading
Posted in Illustrations by Henry, Questions by Alex P
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What is the privilege of the dead?
We don’t know the dead. We can’t know the dead. Even if there is anything experiential that happens after we die, we can’t see it when we live. So from one perspective, the privilege of the dead may be to … Continue reading
“Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication. But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world.” Discuss.
I’ve written on this subject before. Or at least, another form of it. Legend and Myth aren’t the same. History and reality aren’t the same. There’s some similar structures though. And I’m curious as to what I’ll write in a … Continue reading
To what extent does someone’s personality depend on their surroundings?
I would say very much so, and for a number of different reasons. I’m not sure that personality is as fixed as people like to claim it is. Normally people who say ‘it’s just the way I am and there’s … Continue reading
Will there be anything left of our social democracy by the time this government loses an election? [apologies, this is an academic sounding question but still a good one]
I’m guessing you mean the welfare state? In which case, kind of. I mean, even if the Minority Conservative administration manage to push through all of its plans, we’ll be left with a shadow welfare state. Not run by the … Continue reading
Why on earth did anyone believe that the wealth would trickle down?
That’s the power of a good metaphor. Trickling down instantly implies rain filtering through rocks or rivers or such like. The indirect implication is that financial redistribution of this sort is generated by something as natural and pervasive as gravity. … Continue reading
What is this spirituality I’ve heard so much about and how do I get in on it?
I spent a long time using the term ‘spirituality’ as a way of saying that I wasn’t religious, but I still believed in the possibility of weirdness. Now, that weirdness could take many forms, and I’m not sure that believing … Continue reading
