It is currently 1:33 AM. I will likely finish this piece around 3:00 AM. Reason informs me that I should go to bed, collect my thoughts, and complete this piece in the morning. In fact, it very well could be a better piece if I listen to reason, if I subscribe to the simple mathematics that twice-two makes four, as it always does, no matter how hard I try to make twice-two five, but onward I write into the witching hour despite basic math. Desire, not reason, has won out, as it always will. The desire to write this now, against the greater good, against my better interests, has prevailed against logic and reason. Why? Because “twice-two makes four is not life, gentleman.”
The common analogy you’ll hear is the cake sitting on the kitchen table. You have already had dinner, already had dessert, but there lies the left-over cake just waiting to be consumed. If you eat it, desire wins. Maybe because one doesn’t care about their health, but it doesn’t matter. Desire wins. Maybe you don’t eat it because reason has interjected itself, telling you that you will just have to work harder tomorrow or that it is simply unhealthy. You say to yourself that reason has prevailed. Twice-two has made four. In reality, one elected not to eat the cake because they have a desire to look as attractive as they possibly can be, or the desire to be healthy has triumphed over the desire to eat the cake. In either event, it is desire that wins, not reason. At best, our desire was in correspondence with our reason, and this may be the balancing act that every human wishes to achieve, but I ask you, reader, does reason even exist without desire?
A couple of days ago, I did something I despise. I asked [REDACTED] for advice. Advice! Such bullshit! What I really wanted, because I respect [REDACTED]’s opinions, obviously, for I would not ask somebody their opinion whom I did not respect, was a respected opinion to greenlight my stupid idea. There is no debate to be had about the idea being stupid, but I wanted, still want, to do it anyway. Even in my original pitch, I had issued a forewarning that there was an incoming stupid idea. Why do I still want to do it, then? An agreement has been made between me and a respected opinion that I have a stupid idea, yet reason is not prevailing. Why? Well, tell me, reader, is this not the free will that we so desperately wish to be reality? Is this not the freedom that we Americans, presuming nobody outside of the country reads wysb.me, verbally throw in each other’s faces on a regular basis? Is this not what we ourselves would die for? This free will that we say, and some of us agree, that God Himself has given us? What is this free will we speak of? This free will is that, as a stupid human being just like all of you (remember, I’ve included myself in with you), I have the right to exercise my stupidity whenever I please!
That is, of course, if our ideas are even stupid. Reason says that they are, but reason only knows what it knows based on past experiences, which contain valuable lessons in determining how to – sorry to interrupt, reader, but how to what exactly? How to avoid getting into trouble, how to avoid getting hurt in the future? Oh, do not tell me you are so naïve, reader. Would you not agree that people quite enjoy trouble, that people want to suffer? Women, sometimes, have a certain affinity for felons, for people that get in trouble. Without attributing that to only our female readers, who does one like more in the movie Training Day? Don’t you lie to me. Every one of us roots for Denzel, for Alonso, and not that reasonable, morally solvent Ethan Hawke. As for the other question, what is love, baby, don’t hurt me, but another opportunity to suffer? We love trouble, we love suffering, so why let reason attempt to deny me these possibilities, which are admittedly in direct opposition to my “interests,” although I believe we have come to an agreement that they are things we want in spite of that, but by which these things I want are obtained by operating on my most stupid whims and impulses? Besides, reason does not take into account unquantifiable things like chance, vibes, energies (or are young people suddenly going to deny those things now?), miracles, or the hand of God, if you are inclined to believe in the latter two. What it also does not consider is the fact, one which we can all agree, that life is not predictable. “Gentleman, twice-two makes four is not life.”
“He is suggesting that we do stupid things,” you sarcastically conclude, but “this is not the own you think it is,” as the kids on Twitter say. I am suggesting that, for it is your right to do so. How do you know an idea is indeed stupid until the idea is implemented? You might find out that it was indeed stupid after you act it out, but at least now you know that it was stupid, or even better, you know now that it wasn’t. “I have a stupid idea to murder somebody. Should I just do it?” Don’t be stupid, reader. Scratch that. Don’t be wrong, reader. Murder is wrong; murder is evil. Stupid is stupid. It can be wrong; it can be right. It cannot be evil; it can turn out to be good. This is the advantage of the human being, the free will that we are unwilling to relinquish. The opportunity or ability to be stupid. Some people live their entire lives doing little to no stupid things, which means, in my opinion, that they have gone through life risking little to nothing. No risk – and people call taking risks – stupid, no reward. Could you imagine being that boring? Hey, some people like boring. It’s comfortable. I suppose I am proposing the following question: Am I willing to be stupid and put myself at risk of humiliation, embarrassment, trouble, and suffering, which could be the things I want anyway, but with the slim chance of receiving the benefits of their adversaries: honor, order, and love, or do I want to be smart and live a life reduced to probability, predictability, mathematics, and twice-two making four? Which it does, reader, I concede that much, but that is not life. Boring anyway, if you ask me. I’m an idiot, and it is my God-given free will to be one. What I am going to do is hand a simpy letter to this cute, intriguing girl, because men and women have died for the right for us to be stupid people, carrying out their stupid ideas so that they may not be stupid.
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