Piero della Francesca, The Nativity (1470–75). National Gallery, London.
“You either have to be part of the solution or you’re going to be part of the problem.”
—Eldridge Cleaver
The world is a monad—think of it as an infinitely large atom. It is indivisible and cannot be split, or "solved."
But I want to be part of the solution!
As we've seen, there is no solution. But, as you say, every problem must have a solution—so, logically speaking, there's no problem!
I want to be part of the solution though.
Science tells us that space and time are illusions. But the world wants, therefore it exists. Yóu want, therefore you exist. Wanting can thus broadly be viewed as some kind of solution. Does that help?
No, really, I just want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem!
The field of volology, or "want-ology"—volo is Latin for "I want"—is making tremendous strides these days! We're learning more about wanting all the time! Maybe we'll have it figured out before the Singularity.
Epilogue
I wanted to write a poem
that you would understand.
For what good is it to me
if you can’t understand it?
But you gotta try hard—
William Carlos Williams, “January Morning,” XV
Postscript
I'll be no more wanting by the light of the moon—
Pack in provoking the Global Monsoon!
If the world's a great monad and there is no Solution
(Likely one cause of the French Revolution)
And the Problem moreover has taken a powder,
Henceforth I'll privilege champagne and chowder.
No muss, no fuss, no crap: Pétrus or Châteauneuf-du-Pape—
A Nebuchadnezzar!* Don't mind the gap.
*A twenty-bottle Moët & Chandon Nebuchadnezzar of Châteauneuf-du-Pape might set you back $1,600—but as my old Ayatollah Omar says, "I often wonder what the vintners buy / One half so precious as the Goods they sell" (Edward FitzGerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám [1859], st. 71; "the stuff they sell" in 4th ed. [1879], st. 95).
February 2024