You Judge A Society By

Once Upon A Time, When I Was Young, People Saw A Wedding As An Event That Determined The Rest Of Their Life. For A Rising Number Of People Today, It Is Quite Normal To "try And Err", Marry, Divorce, Marry Again.

Marcus Aurelius Appoints Personal Character And Conscience The Ultimate Refuge Of Happiness-seekers: The Only Place Where Dreams Of Happiness, Doomed To Die Childless And Intestate Anywhere Else, Are Not Bound To Be Frustrated.

The Woe Of Mortality Makes Humans God-like. It Is Because We Know That We Must Die That We Are So Busy Making Life. It Is Because We Are Aware Of Mortality That We Preserve The Past And Create The Future. Mortality Is Ours Without Asking--but Immortality Is Something We Must Build Ourselves. Immortality Is Not A Mere Absence Of Death; It Is Defiance And Denial Of Death. It Is 'meaningful' Only Because There Is Death, That Implacable Reality Which Is To Be Defied.

The Consumerist Culture Insists That Swearing Eternal Loyalty To Anything And Anybody Is Imprudent, Since In This World New Glittering Opportunities Crop Up Daily.

Life Purpose May Be Shifted From Achieving A 'steady State' (an Equilibrium Between Desires And Plausibilities) To The Excitement Of Running After Novelties. In Other Words, Be Guided By New Desires, Not By Extant Needs.