Comment:

As of this writing, I am 40 years old.

Forty is an absolutely ridiculous age to be. I'm really more of a "32" kind of guy, and I would say I've been a 32 kind of guy since my late teens.

I went through a lot of identities and self-concepts earlier in my life. It took a while for me to figure out who I am, and I'm not entirely certain that I've got it nailed down now. I'm definitely a lot more stable, though, which I'm savvy enough to know is probably related to the relative stability of my relationships and career at this point in my life.

Some dipshit online posted a meme recently that showed them remaining consistent in their political beliefs while the "left-wing" ran further and further to the left. It repulsed me. Imagine a) thinking that keeping your beliefs and attitudes and political positions unchanging over the course of the past decade was even possible, and b) believing that to be a good thing, a sign of intellectual honesty and steadfast ideological bravery, rather than a sign of mental stagnation and obstinate conservativism. Utter nonsense.

How often do you change the person you think you are? How consistent are your beliefs, your habits, your priorities, your personality traits? Knowing how you've changed in the past, how much do you think you're going to change in the future? How many of those inevitable changes will be good, and will future-you disagree with present-you about that goodness?

Human beings are, necessarily, changing, both on the individual level and at the societal level. We cannot freeze in place, we can only hope to angle ourselves in positive directions.

A lot has changed in the past forty years. I've seen it. A lot is going to change in the next forty years. Be flexible.

Transcript:

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0249 - 2167/07/06/18:51 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
LC: ...What the heck is "intrapersonal" intelligence, anyway?
Doc: "Intrapersonal intelligence" is defined as the awareness of oneself; one's knowledge and emotions, strengths and weaknesses, along with the ability to manage and control one's own internal state and to plan one's future actions.
Zoa: Ooh, "Know thyself"! We're back to our possibly-fictional friend Socrates again!
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CP: We are?
Zoa: Welllll, yes and no. The quote is also attributed to Plato, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Bias of Priene...
CP: Well, it's two words. P-probably a lot of people said it.
LC: ...S'bullshit. I know myself. I'm the person who knows the most about myself!
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Zoa: Ah, but if you didn't, you wouldn't know that you didn't, would you?
LC: I... that's... uh...
Doc: Lee, how many times in the past twenty-four fucking hours have you had some sort of "radical discovery" about your deep inner personal essence, and then immediately made foolish decisions based on this new self-concept?
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LC: Hey, that's proof that I have great intrapersonal intelligence! Discovering new things about myself means that I can make those discoveries! That's awareness! I have even more intrapersonal intelligence than I did yesterday!
Zoa: And at this rate of self-discovery, who knows who you'll be tomorrow!
LC: Exactly!
CP: Zoa, it is really w-weirding m-me out that I c-can't t-tell if you're c-capable of sarcasm or not.
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