Harsh Commentary

Prop. 1: Great men shape their world; ergo, their world does not shape them.

Cor. Prop. 1: The Greatest Men shape The World; ergo, The World does not shape Them.

Addend.: This is not a matter of degrees, but of completeness. Good men influence their world, and their world influences them. But great men completely shape their world; their world does not in any way shape them. And likewise with the Greatest Men and The World.

Comm.: Are you shaped by your world? By The World? Do you let your world shape you? Do you let The World shape you?

Concl. 1: If so, you are either blissfully content, incapably helpless, or inexplicably irrational. An oaf, a child, or an idiot. Harsh, eh?

Consider: Consider shaping your world first, then The World second, if you are permitted that grace at all.

Comm.: How does entertaining that thought feel?

Consider further: Shape the smallest things first, a potter glazing clay, then move on to those larger.

Addend.: If necessary, and if nothing else, determine the exact time you’ll get your lazy hide out of bed in the morning. Beat the sun! Determine what you will and what you won’t shove down your ravished, indiscriminating gullet every day. Be a man, not a pig! Determine that when you sit down to the task at hand, that is the only task you will work at. Seize the freedom contained in the will.

Addend. 2: Devote a few years to this, if necessary. It may very well be.

Addend. 3: Then, attempt this: Master what that 3.5 pound piece of meat inside your skull with entertain. If it is of little worth, discard it immediately. How? By inviting something fruitful inside. (What’s all this talk of meat and fruits? My ravenous indiscriminate gullet is getting hungry! – Grobes). Do this ceaselessly, mercilessly, savagely.

Concl. 2: And perhaps you will shape The World, even if in only some small secret way.