1
Every night, we’re all having multiple metaphysical experiences, wholly constructed by our subconscious. Almost one-third of our lives happens inside surreal mental projections we create without trying. A handful of highly specific dreams, such as slowly losing one’s teeth, are experienced unilaterally by unrelated people in unconnected cultures. But these events are so personal and inscrutable that we’ve stopped trying to figure out what they mean. .Chuck Klosterman
2
....the increasingly common ideology that assures people they’re right about what they believe.... is, however, socially detrimental . It hijacks conversation and aborts ideas. It engenders a delusion of simplicity that benefits people with inflexible minds. It makes the experience of living in a society slightly worse than it should be.Chuck Klosterman
3
The ultimate failure of the United States will probably not derive from the problems we see or the conflicts we wage. It will more likely derive from our uncompromising belief in the things we consider unimpeachable and idealized and beautiful. Because every strength is a weakness, if given enough time.Chuck Klosterman
4
Sometimes I fantasize about the US head of state as a super-lazy, super-moral libertarian despot and think, “That would certainly make everything easier, ” even though I can’t think of one person who’d qualify, except maybe Willie Nelson.Chuck Klosterman
5
It's nice to think that the weirdos get to decide what matters about the past, since it's the weirdos who care the most.Chuck Klosterman
6
History is defined by people who don’t really understand what they are defining.Chuck Klosterman
7
... the future is a teenage crackhead who makes shit up as he goes along.Chuck Klosterman
8
There is not, in a material sense, any benefit to being right about a future you will not experience. But there are intrinsic benefits to constantly probing the possibility that our assumptions about the future might be wrong: humility and wonder.Chuck Klosterman
9
We spend our lives learning many things, only to discover (again and again) that most of what we've learned is either wrong or irrelevant. A big part of our mind can handle this; a smaller, deeper part cannot. And it's that smaller part that matters more, because that part of our mind is who we really are (whether we like it or not).Chuck Klosterman
10
If a problem is irreversible, is there still an ethical obligation to try to reverse it?Chuck Klosterman
11
The first moment someone calls for a revolution is usually the last moment I take them seriously.Chuck Klosterman