{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} : Rage Against the Meat Grinder

Let us not forget the Will which our own animal bodies are a manifestation of.  Let us not forget the reptilian brain residing at the base of our necks. 

The subject of Schopenhauer's study was the world itself - as phenomena perceived, processed and filtered through animal sensory receptors, and as noumena which is the world-itself and the substance of our very own bodies as well as the fangs and venom of the snake.

When I wake up in the morning, I experience what can be described as "anger".  I become aware that I am more than just a disagreeable person.  Even if I think of myself as amiable, I am not pleasant.

The reason that I am not pleasant has nothing to do with any specific character traits.  It has nothing to do with "sin" or any "defects" or nueroses.  It has nothing to do with karma or any baggage being carried around from previous carnations. There is only one reason that I experience "my so-called self" as unpleasant upon awakening, and it is this.   Life is unpleasant.   It is the very nature and condition of being alive which is unpleasant, so I refuse to take it personally, not do I wish to remedy it via psychiatric medication, "positive feel-good thinking", or Zen meditation.

I'm sure that upon analysis, if pressed by a professional conversationalist, we might dredge up a great reserve of repressed pent-up resentment and bad feelings toward countless individuals.    I will not analyze myself too intensely, but let's just say that the line we draw between the Creature we are and the Man we think ourselves to be is wholly subjective.

I was thinking of the manifestations of the Will in the world, how it is everywhere, and how the media and the professional establishment pathologizes the Will similarly as religious and common folks demonize the Will.   

Don't pull weeds in Texas.

Holden, I have a very mean-streak in me, but I know that it is nothing personal or peculiar specifically to me.  I am the Will. I too am the decapitated head of the rattle snake.

Artists paint flowers and views of mountains and perhaps even imagined galaxies and milky ways.

The world as representation is purely a functional aspect of the world as will.

The real world is what we experience within ourselves.  It's not pretty.  I keep saying it again and again, that life is not pleasant.  Why should I be surprised when I feel like a miserable cantankerous bastard?   I can't view the television without hating those I see. 

If I have been judged harshly by society, so be it.  I have judged society equally as harsh, so the feelings of disdain are mutual.

Where do abstract ideas like "love" and "freedom" exist?

There are no chains heavier than those of biological necessity, the need to eat, the need to rest and sleep.   Where do ideas such as "duty" and "honor" exist?

For that matter, where might I find quadratic irrational numbers?

Lo and behold, when one is bitten by a rattlesnake, the entire cosmos is reduced to the pain experienced by the body in distress.

Thought experiment:  While studying math imagine being bitten by such a creature.

What is real in this life, Holden?   How can we get anywhere with words and mathematics?  Where does anything lead?   Into dust, into nothing we vanish ... and yet, here we are, still, for now, at least.