Every generation ponders the meaning of being.

The blue pill or the red pill? (Morpheus, The Matrix)	We're not in Kansas anymore (Dorothy)
To be or not to be, that is the question (Hamlet)	There is nothing new under the sun (Koheleth, author of Ecclesiastes)

Let’s not get so full of ourselves that we think we’re confronting our mortality afresh just because by some happenstance we joined the lucky sperm club of survivors (paraphrasing Richard Dawkins).

Not sure what in particular motivated this thought, but I do recall recently seeing a lot of hand-wringing on TV over old questions as if they were new. I suppose that gives us a sense of importance, and it goes largely unchallenged, since those that answered the questions before us are all dead.

[2013-03-04]

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