Survival is the Greatest
No, this is not related to it being my birthday in two days. But I was thinking that survival often has a bad reputation: it's often called "mere survival". If ever anything didn't deserve the adjective "mere", it's survival. Survival is very difficult. Most species are gone. Most living things which have ever lived on this earth are gone. Most civilizations are gone; most families and family names are gone; most businesses are gone; most languages are gone. The vast majority of everything which has ever existed is gone. A select, a very select bit of it remains. It has survived, whereas everything else hasn't. That's something.

Nietzsche defined life as that which strives always to exceed itself. Something is alive if it's always getting better. This applies not only to individuals, but also to species, to families, to industries, to civilizations, even to all terrestial life; as a system of life, it's gotten better and better.

In my freshman year of high school, there was this table I used to sit at during lunch. I remember a conversation we had once. The topic of living forever came up. Most of the people at the table believed it'd be a bad thing. Only me and one other guy disagreed -- he was a friend of mine briefly; I forget his name but I remember he used to come over my house and we used to wander around Paterson together occasionally, particularly I remember once by the Great Falls when it was snow-covered we walked over its dangerous bridge, fun times. Anyway, we two said we wanted to live forever. And the guys at the table were like: well what if the earth was blown up and you were floating around in space? You'd be pretty bored then! And he was like (and this is great): "Well it's better than being DEAD and BLOWN-UP like you guys! I'd be floating there in space chillin', playing Super Nintendo."

Now that is survival! I think my point in this entry is: even to exist is noble, because it shows that you are better off (and often better) than everything which used to exist but doesn't exist anymore. Existence itself is the greatest. Ever since that year of high school, I've had no respect for anyone who doesn't want to live forever. Absolutely none. If you don't want to live forever you're no friend of mine!