Hmm, for a comedian your solemnity is impressive.
>But what moves you? What makes you weep? laugh?
Just about everything and in that order. You have no heart if the folly of the world doesn't make you cry and no brain if it doesn't then make you laugh.
>I don't recall ever reading a post by you that didn't drip with some
>element of contempt, however humorously put forth.
Left lists tend to gravitate toward pedantry, pomposity, pettiness and piety, none of which is particularly useful in advancing anything to do with the left. I think adding a little grit to the mechanism helps the analytical mill of the LBO list grind more finely.
>And while I concede that we live in contemptible times, there must be
>something in this samsara world that touches you without condition. Please,
>share.
Well, like PBS with its eternal fundraising pleas, I'd like to make a pitch yet again for my man Emerson. I don't think there's any question that whatever democratic potential the USA had has been corrupted -- that American individualism has devolved into a narcissism that has made Americans atomized, selfish and frightened. I think the only long-term solution to this problem is to abolish capitalism and whittle away differences in wealth and income among all citizens to virtually nothing. That change will require Americans to lose their solipsistic mindset. I think Emerson, uniquely among all American writers, points the way -- encouraging people to look deeply within themselves, not to cultivate further egotism but to recognize the profundity of their connection with all humankind.
Is that serious enough for you?
Carl