with one face I laugh, with the other I weep
June 25, 2006
Janus: With one face I laugh, and with the other I weep!
Sisyphus: So laughing and weeping are the same thing?
Janus: Of course they're opposite, but in a way they're also the same.
Sisyphus: How so?
Janus: Aren't all of our emotions simply distractions from the matter at hand? We love or hate, feel happy or sad, but in the end these are just a kind of self-delusion. Because our minds are spinning in circles, we feel like we're accomplishing something.
Sisyphus: When in reality….?
Janus: When in reality we're just deluding ourselves that what we're doing really matters. That's why I can laugh and cry at the same time. It's really just the same thing.
Dog: You're not the only ones who try to keep busy. I love chasing my tail!
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June 26, 2006 at 9:59 am
Love your blog and your conversations.
ken
January 2, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Ignoring the fact that it’s been a few months since this was posted, I feel a need to say this:
Maybe one could argue that emotion is a distraction, but I feel that’s a harsh understatement in regards to the impact it has had upon humanity. Emotion and self-awareness are big components in what separates mankind from animals. Emotion goes hand in hand with intelligence. The smarter, more self-aware species are the ones with the ability to cry out of grief: Gorillas. Elephants. Humans. Humans, obviously, are on the more emotional end of the spectrum.
We wouldn’t really move forward without emotion. A distraction it may be, but a distraction that has resulted in a great deal of beauty and innovation.
The existence of emotion, it seems to me, is due to more than a desire to deny death. It’s also part of a desire to move humanity forward in its search for happiness. Once we’re gone, everyone else will continue with this after us.
Is emotion a distraction, or is emotion everything?
So says Carna (who probably knows too little of philosophy to have much validity.)
June 28, 2008 at 4:42 pm
i like it
thnks
February 2, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Amazing.
But the dog is almost certainly closer to “the matter at hand”! (And spinning in circles at the same time.)
@Carna, the author doesn’t go into it in detail, but Janus seems to be denying the existence of “moving forward” by saying that our minds are spinning in circles.
March 5, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I like the title of your blog. Why not commit suicide? Well, you are gonna die anyways.