The male attraction to adolescence
And other STICKY CONTENT I'm sharing while on vaca in Europe.
I’m in Ibiza as part of a Euro-vacation, so I’m supplying you with some off-news cycle content I’m branding as STICKY THINGS — material I’ve consumed that has stuck with me that I felt worthy sharing.
Concise, easily edible, and nourishing material from all topic silos that is durable beyond the cable chyron or tweet screaming at you right now.
Simply stuff to make you think — which could become a reoccurring feature.
Let me know if you like it STICKY — or not. (davecatanese@gmail.com)
ARGUMENT: Use ChatGPT to find the holes in your argument. Consult Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Cornel West or Noam Chomsky’s line of reasoning by utilizing this prompt, via Aadit Sheth. “I will provide you with an argument or opinion of mine. I want you to criticize it as if you were <INSERT PERSON>” LINK
LOVE & LUST: Gore Vidal, on the history of natural physical attraction of older men to adolescent males, in Palimpsest: “[French philosopher] Montaigne is sharp about the Greek arrangement of young warrior and pubescent squire, the latter not enjoying — or supposed to enjoy — what the lustful other does with him. Although this relationship might produce excellent soldiers, it was not and could not be, in Montaigne’s eyes, true love because man and boy were not equals and the relationship was grounded solely upon the passion of the other and more experienced male for the beauty of the younger. Only in equality can there be love … After all, if the ideal is the other self, then that self would have to age along with me, and attraction would have become affection …” LINK
EVIL VS. STUPIDITY: “Evil can be guarded against. Stupidity cannot. And the world's few evil people have little power without the help of the world's many stupid people. Therefore, stupidity is a far greater threat than evil.” From Gurwinder.Substack.com LINK
THE GHOSTS OF RFK JR: “Kennedy maintains a mental list of everyone he’s known who has died. He told me that each morning he spends an hour having a quiet conversation with those people, usually while out hiking alone. He asks the deceased to help him be a good person, a good father, a good writer, a good attorney. He prays for his six children. He’s been doing this for 40 years. The list now holds more than 200 names,” writes The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson. LINK
END-OF-LIFE: “Aging is not a problem to be solved, my mother taught us. It is a meaning to be lived out.” — Historian Wilfred McClay to David Brooks on the value of one’s final years, even when bodily faculties are severely compromised or completely lost. Brooks writes, “Sometimes those whose choices have been limited can demonstrate that, by focusing on others and not on oneself, life is defined not by the options available to us but by the strength of our commitments.” LINK