628cbbd8   
   XPost: alt.atheism, alt.philosophy   
   From: TS@home.com   
      
   yjk wrote:   
   > --- What is your function?   
   > ---said;   
   > "There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.   
      
   That's as maybe, but should every member of this crew be pulling   
   in the same direction for us all to inch that single step forward?   
      
   The part played by any single member is too small for him to see   
   his effects on the whole. The individual functions the way a   
   cell functions within the host, with no comprehension of the host.   
   The cell simply does what it needs to do to be used and thus claim   
   energy. It has no thought for the whole, let alone the journey.   
   The cell will repeat itself and not care, it will contradict any   
   stated goal and never know it. What actually are your intentions,   
   does your singular function suit this intention?   
      
   Compared to the infinite, we have no memory. There is nothing as   
   persistent as a shared memory, accepting for a moment for those   
   older texts which modernity says we should now do without.   
      
   Then there is the composition of the crew, always renewing itself,   
   and thus always out of phase with the rest of time. Seeing only   
   what they need to believe, Believing only what they are capable   
   of seeing, controlled in so many different ways, on the level of   
   their most immediate perception, existing on the level of what   
   we claim to share.   
      
   Without memory, without perception of this ship or its journey,   
   we operate in the moment. Simple scripted responses guide us,   
   simple scripted responses in place of reasoned thought. Habits   
   are made to persist as the only guide to this thing we take to   
   as our ... function.   
      
   And then the question might be, what was the original intention   
   of our authors, when they, all those eons ago, first devised that   
   script? Do we still know, can we still tell? That script which   
   worked in a certain way, at a certain time, now out of phase with   
   the demands we are still called to make of it.   
      
      
   There is no flight manifesto to speak of, nothing so real. There   
   is just what we tell ourselves. The plausible will do in place of   
   truth. We can't function with this truth, and so we shade our minds   
   hide our eyes. We dare not look for too long at the sun, its light   
   scorching, blinding. The journey is long, and only suits those who   
   say they belong, evolving with no place for the truth, what will   
   we become.   
      
   On function.,   
      
   I make keys that is what i do. I make keys for doors no one should   
   open. In the same way others respond to the headline, to fashion   
   the next headline with no sense of their effects. Their function is   
   a mystery even unto themselves. My function is to be used, in the   
   same way we all used. I am the latest unwitting catalyst to galvanize   
   a tired industry, one which should long have retired. In this way   
   we serve.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)