I'm just an individual American who practices Agnostic Cynicism as a guiding philosophy. Like most Cynics, I love puns and have a sometimes caustic sense of humor.
My hero Diogenes the Cynic once said, "Everything we are ever told is a lie." I think that might be true, but I demand proof before I will really believe it.
Ergo, I "believe" everything I'm told is true, but I keep my eyes open and fully expect to be guiled.
My other guiding philosophies are founded in science, and haven't been proven wrong yet:
- Archimedes on leverage, "Give me a long enough lever and a place to stand and I will move the world."
- Aristotle on nothing at all (or everything, depending on your outlook), "Nature abhors a vacuum."
- Einstein on coincidence, "God doesn't play dice with the Universe."
I also like baking, especially cookies, because they are hard to screw up. I'm a bit of a Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling fan, too. Like Rowling, I like Jessica Mitford, and like Mitford, I like Tom Paine:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. – Published on 23 December 1776