July 29, 2024 • 28 mins
Strap in for another lively episode of The Gen X-istentialists! Bunny and Scot dive into the randomness of Mega Wheel the Magnificent and deliver insights, laughs, and a touch of philosophy:
🎨 How does art and literature foster community? Scot reminisces about his poetry collective days, while Bunny ponders art’s enduring impact.
🏠 Home decor inspirations: From horror movie sanctuaries to Star Wars memorabilia, hear how Bunny and Scot create their personal spaces.
🖌️ vs. ➕ Amazing painter or brilliant mathematician? Which legacy would you choose? The hosts reveal their surprising preferences.
⚖️ Absolute moral codes vs. situational ethics: The duo tackles this philosophical quagmire with references to the Ten Commandments, Kant’s categorical imperative, and, of course, Star Wars!
🥕 Carrot or stick? The debate gets playful and thought-provoking as the hosts dissect humanity’s need for guidance (or a good bop on the nose).
Have a question or topic for Mega Wheel? Send it in! Bunny and Scot love your spicy contributions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Generation X. In general terms, it was born between 1965 and 1980. Lachkinite. Independent.
(00:15):
Existentialism. Modern philosophy focusing on personal experience, human ability and
responsibility in an otherwise meaningless universe. We're the cause. This is the effect.
We're the Gen X existentialists.
(00:39):
Welcome in everybody to the Gen X existentialist podcast. My name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny.
And we are here to entertain via improvisation for the next 20 minutes or so, giving you a Gen X point of view on life, the universe and everything.
It's like, whose line is it anyway? Except it doesn't make you want to commit suicide afterwards.
(01:01):
Yeah. Yeah. Although some of those shows were really good. Some of them were fantastic.
Can't stand it.
Have you seen the one back when Drew Carey was hosting when Robin Williams guested?
I don't watch them. So I watched the British versions for a while and then I was like, alright, I'm done with this because improv makes me want to punch people in the throat.
(01:22):
I don't know, man. When they had Robin Williams as a guest on, it was just chaos.
Hot take. I'm not a fan of Robin Williams. I think he's a fine individual as human being goes and as an actor goes. Amazing.
Yeah. As a comedian, I don't like him. It's too much manic energy. It's this kind of it's that kind of energy that makes me want to like, alright, time to open Bedlam again.
(01:46):
Let's get this. Get these people in a padded cell. Makes me cuckoo. I don't know.
Well, what we typically do, folks, is we give a spin on Mega Wheel the Magnificent, our wonderful wheel that has 1300 some odd questions on it.
So everything here is completely at random. We're going to give her a spin and see what kind of question we come up with.
(02:10):
So you've added stuff. There's been things added as we get questions in.
Yeah, we've added almost 100 questions and that we've received from various places.
So and and possibly people. It's all anonymous.
OK, this this is actually a good one. How can art and literature foster a sense of community or belonging?
(02:32):
I mean, that's what it does. That's what it's meant to do.
I mean, this isn't going to get a really profound answer from me because I think that's the whole point of art and literature is that it.
I mean, besides your coffeehouse ass hats out there who just like, I'm doing this just so people know who I am.
(02:53):
I mean, art and literature in its own way is it's a reflection of the world around you.
And it's it's a collaboration between people, whether they realize it or not.
I mean, the people that have inspired artists of any kind, being writers, movie makers, sculptors, whatever musicians, someone has inspired them to do this.
(03:17):
So in a way, community itself contributes to the creation of art.
I tend to agree art and literature and a sense of community or belonging, it can be as part of a fandom.
If you are a fan of a particular author, poet, musician, what have you, but also just in the creative people themselves.
(03:43):
And I say this from experience in the late 90s, I was part of a poetry collective in greater Cincinnati.
It was it was basically three people that kind of were the nucleus of it myself, Lana Kingsbury and Greg Blankenship.
And we called ourselves Poets Anonymous and we ran monthly poetry readings at different places.
So there were there was a diner, there was a little performance space.
(04:08):
There was the Arnold's, the bar downtown that we did different things at and different festivals and stuff throughout the year.
And we had other people that came in and would read with us and we try to bring everybody in and made it a collective experience because it was just fun.
And it was always great to get up and try out a new poem that that I had just written.
(04:31):
But it was just as exciting to hear someone that had never been part of it before and hear what they brought to the table or to have Lana go up and read something new that she just put together.
It was just infinitely exciting, the amount of creativity that was there.
And to be surrounded by that, it made you more confident and made you want to do more to be part of that community.
(05:00):
So, you know, how can fostering that sense of community or belonging simply by existing, you know, go out and become part of a writer's group or go play D&D or go find a band and play music.
That's part of what it's all about.
Come and be a guest on our podcast.
Come and be a guest on our podcast.
If you're just a fan and you want to send your shipping fanfic or whatever sort of weird stuff you guys are up to, go ahead and send it to us at our Gmail, jenexistentialist.com or drop us a line at the place where you're listening to this.
(05:34):
There's plenty of places to leave comments and to rate.
See, there's my show moment.
Yeah.
I got that out of the way.
I am totally into it if somebody wants to do some fanfic for the Gen X.
No, absolutely do it.
We will dedicate an episode.
Maybe if you did a filk song or something, I'd be more into that.
Even better.
(05:55):
That would be even better.
Okay.
Should we give Megawheel another spin?
Yeah.
Here we go.
Spin it again.
Now I changed the picture on there for you.
And I'm very thankful for it.
Okay, yeah, we got rid of a corpulent woman that was on there before and now it's just
dull.
It was a little bit disturbing before.
Okay.
So where do you get most of the decorations or ideas for decor for your home?
(06:24):
Where do I get that?
I try to live in a museum.
This is my whole thing.
I like my spaces clean, uncluttered, and filled with art.
So the majority of the time where I go to find things, I go to flea markets, I go to
yard sales, I go to art galleries, I try to find original pieces of art or lithographs
(06:49):
or something to put up.
There's certain things.
I like zones in my house.
I have the community zone, which sort of reflects my wife and I and the surrounding of where
our house is.
Right now we live in a very rural area and we have a ton of pictures up that are all
(07:15):
kind of, it's a local artist, but he does animal prints.
So we do this, not Ruffin.
Then we have an area that it's a transition area to the bedrooms, which is all music stuff
that we like, like old music posters, like vintage music posters, silk screens, stuff
(07:37):
like that.
Now the bedrooms themselves are where nobody really goes in and sees them, but it's places,
it's personal places.
So I have a very different style that I like from my private room where I go to watch horror
movies and stuff.
I like stark white, sixties Swedish geometric blah, blah, blah.
(07:59):
It's like living in a space capsule.
Is that where the egg chair ended up?
That is where the egg chair ended up.
Awesome.
So yeah, that's my personal style now.
That's not my wife's style.
That's why we have separate spaces to decorate.
Everybody's calling it a man cave and a she shed.
Is that what they call them nowadays?
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, so that's that.
(08:20):
I don't know.
I just, I like to create environments.
That's one of the things that I'm big about because I spend a lot of time at home.
I work from home.
Yeah.
So I like my environments to be very different.
Like my office is filled with hobby stuff and old toys and goofy things that inspire
(08:44):
creativity with me.
Yeah.
And that is not in my living space because I want my living space to be a place like
a hearth.
It's all surrounding the fireplace.
It's a place where we come and we eat and we talk.
And then my private space is a place where I can really just bliss out and be me.
So how about you?
Decorations.
(09:06):
Definitely like color.
And that was actually one of the things about this house that my wife and I enjoyed when
we came in and looked at it is the previous owners had not painted everything white so
that, oh, whoever the new owner is can visualize whatever they want in the space.
No, it was a lot of blues and some dark earth tones and we haven't changed a bit of it.
(09:29):
It was literally perfect.
Now, as far as wall hangings, if you've gone to the morning pizza Facebook page, you might
have seen some partial visions of the studio where we're actually sitting right now.
And there are music pictures and posters and stuff up on every surface.
And that's just me.
I'm surrounded when I'm in here by bands and artists that I love.
(09:53):
So it's kind of like your space where you watch horror movies.
I can come in here and I look around and every picture I see, there are things I love about
the artwork.
There are things I love about the bands.
I'm surrounded by things that I dig out in the next area, which is kind of where I'm
living.
There are posters from each of the first three Star Wars films.
(10:15):
The original posters are up.
There are a lot of Star Wars action figures out because that's kind of what we do.
We're sci-fi fans.
It kind of goes with everything.
There are other music and Georgia O'Keeffe stuff and Jim Dine stuff upstairs that fill
the areas in our library.
There are obviously books.
(10:36):
So it really varies.
And between Tracy and I, we always look at stuff like, what do you think would go good
here?
We kind of figure out what would fit.
It's a little bit chaotic, but I think we both enjoy that too.
When things are too perfect, it tends to kind of set my teeth on edge a little bit.
(11:00):
I like things clean, but when everything is too perfect, it's not perfect.
When everything is ordered perfectly, I start to wonder why.
It almost seems like it's a trap.
See, I'll have to invite you to the horror movie room sometime because it's not at all
what you think.
It's not horror movie posters and what have you.
(11:22):
It's dark white and very few artifacts and everything is perfectly angled and draped
in white fur.
It looks like Barbarella set in there.
It's bizarre.
Like a milk bar from Clockwork Orange.
Yeah, if I could find a naked chick that served milk out of her breasts with a pull of a joystick.
(11:43):
That would be the perfect counterpart to my egg chair.
You know, they've got to be out there somewhere.
It's got to exist.
I know.
We've got to make our own.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay, should we give Megaheel another spin?
Sure.
And we will spin Megaheel.
Come up with another topic here.
(12:04):
Because this is what we do on Gen X existentialist.
Extemporaneous excitement.
And our next topic is...
Well, this is kind of interesting because you already are one of these.
So, it'll be interesting to hear your take.
Alright.
Would you rather be an amazing painter or a brilliant mathematician?
(12:28):
And why?
The question doesn't say why, I'm adding that myself.
Well, I think...
I can see both sides to why you would want to be both.
I think for endurance purposes...
This is about you.
Which would you rather be?
(12:49):
For me, I'd rather be a brilliant painter.
And that's because I would like something to live on long after I'm gone.
And folks, if you don't know Bunny at all, he is an amazing painter.
He can do this.
I can, but I just don't.
Yeah, because I look at museums and that's something that, for me personally,
(13:13):
museums are inspirational.
It's nice to go back and see, especially Renaissance paintings,
and paintings that are so well detailed.
Yeah.
And that actually shows you what was going on at a time that you can't even comprehend.
Yeah.
I think that, for me, would be something that I would like to leave behind more than...
(13:34):
Now, I know that brilliant mathematicians leave behind formula and solutions to things
and new methods for figuring out problems and all that.
And I know they're revered in their very niche world.
Yeah.
So I think what I would like to leave behind something that can be enjoyed by everyone
from the janitor all the way up to the brilliant scientist,
(14:00):
somebody they can look at that work and be like, wow, I get it.
That's really cool.
As opposed to, I think, a brilliant mathematician,
it's very hard for them to reach universal appreciation with their work.
Yeah.
So how about you?
Which would you guess for me?
I would guess mathematician.
Okay.
(14:21):
See, I would think that typically people would go, well, Scott, he's a poet.
He writes music.
He does all this stuff.
He'd want to be an amazing painter.
And that is a big gap in my creativity, is as far as visual arts,
I can literally barely handle a stick figure.
I always wished that I could do more visually and be more effusive and effective in a visual medium.
(14:48):
But I would rather be a brilliant mathematician because math has always been the bane of my existence.
It really is.
And it's one of those things that has bugged me my entire life.
And when I've tried to get better, I've just gotten more frustrated.
The thing that kills me about it is one of the things that really interests me is astronomy.
(15:13):
And I've never pursued it beyond just a kind of fanboy stage
because when you get into the nooks and crannies and the nuts and bolts of it,
so much of it is mathematical stuff that is just, I can go from standing on a beach
to suddenly I'm a million miles out in the ocean swimming against the current
(15:36):
because I don't understand the math and I don't understand those aspects of it.
And so I just stop.
So yeah, I would rather be a brilliant mathematician.
Even though I appreciate the art, the math I think would be more what I want.
All right. Interesting question.
Yeah, definitely.
(15:57):
Do you remember, is that something somebody,
it seems like something somebody would send in kind of directed at us?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We will give Megawheel Magnificent another spin.
I kind of like using this with the applause and everything at the end.
Okay.
As opposed to the other sound effect, this kind of works out.
(16:19):
But I think we did this one already.
What's one thing I don't already know about you?
Yeah.
I think we did that a few episodes ago.
So that has been deleted now.
We will spin again.
Yeah, go back and listen to some other episodes if you want to know the juicy dirt.
Our backlog is way more entertaining than other people's too.
(16:41):
Oh my goodness.
Well, ready?
Do you believe in an absolute moral code or are morals relative to the situation?
Yeah, that's a sticky one because I do believe in a basic absolute moral code.
(17:10):
I do believe that this is going to bring up a lot of ire, but I think it's very much like the Ten Commandments and stuff.
I think they're very good rules to live by.
The actual Ten Commandments in the Bible or the ones that people talk about that they want to get posted somewhere?
I think every religion has their own version of the Ten Commandments.
(17:32):
I'm not as familiar with Islam or Judaism or any of that stuff.
I'm not familiar with the Ferengi religion.
I'm not well versed in all these as I should be or as I want to be.
But I think there's a basic moral code that you should treat others as you wish to be treated.
(17:54):
That's a golden rule.
Not so much morals, but I do think that you shouldn't go around murdering people.
I think that's kind of a universal code.
I don't think you should cheat and steal.
I don't think you should fuck around on your partner.
I don't think you should just go around beating people because you feel like it.
(18:18):
There's a basic moral code I think that is instilled through our souls.
Is it relative to the situation?
It's second after the question.
It's not right to steal.
We would agree about that if you're starving.
Is it suddenly a little bit looser because there's survival at stake?
Or should you just die because your moral code says you don't steal?
(18:43):
I think a good example is the difference of thou shalt not murder.
Basically, there's a difference between killing and murdering.
If you're in a situation where you are going to be killed, if you are at war, and all that, do I consider soldiers murderers?
No, not necessarily.
(19:05):
Do I consider a serial killer a murderer?
Yes.
Do I consider someone who premeditatively wants to do harm to someone just because they feel like it?
That's pretty evil.
Do I think killing is evil?
No.
I think killing is a basic function.
Same with stealing.
I think if you're stealing to survive, it's a gray area.
(19:28):
If you're stealing because you covet something that somebody else has, gee, those speakers sure look good over there.
I wonder, he won't notice if they're missing.
I can turn to profit.
That's fucked up.
That's just being an ass.
If I'm like, boy, he won't notice if I steal a couple of cookies out of the cookie jar because I'm starving and having a glycemic reaction or something, then that's not quite as bad.
(19:53):
And on the other side of that, and this is, I think, where it gets really dicey.
We're saying it is potentially morally a gray enough area to steal.
If you're on the other side, if you're the shopkeeper with the loaf of bread and someone comes to you and they are starving and you could be the difference between life and death, is it morally the right thing to do to give that person the bread?
(20:21):
I mean, that's your moral code right there.
Is it going to break your business by giving them a loaf of bread?
Probably not.
If it's going to break your business by giving them free access to your entire pantry every time they need something, yeah, that's a problem.
Or if you need help cleaning up, you say, look, I'll give you the bread.
You clean up here every night.
You know, you find a way to use the compassion and empathy and help everybody at the same time.
(20:46):
That's the golden rule.
Yeah.
You treat others as you wish to be treated.
Yeah. And that's where I would go in answering the question for myself.
The absolute moral code.
I always go back to the categorical imperative principle of humanity, principle of universality.
You treat everyone in a way that you yourself would want to be treated.
Golden rule.
There's also the principle of universality, because if you only live by humanity, somebody might say, well, I'm fine if you try to kill me.
(21:13):
I want to take what you want.
That's fine.
That's the way I want to be treated, too.
Principle of universality says you have to treat everybody in a way that is universally accepted or democratically accepted.
Like most people wouldn't feel that way.
So, you know, it's kind of a check and balance on the golden rule.
Sure.
Because you can twist that.
(21:34):
And especially if you have more ill intent, you will twist others moral codes in a way to make them beneficial for yourself.
So that would be my take, too.
And morals can be relative to the situation.
I think most things in life are situational.
There is a baseline like you were talking about, whether you use the Ten Commandments, the categorical imperative, anything like that.
(21:59):
There is some base level.
I don't think you have to have religion of any kind to come up with that.
It's basic humanity.
I think it helps to have a framework for people because a lot of people need the stick more than they need the carrot.
A lot of people need somebody in the sky watching them.
Well, it's the reason I always choose the Empire.
(22:20):
I hate to say it.
I'm going to bring it back to Star Wars just for you, sir.
Just for you.
Because I think when you take a lot of diverse people with a lot of diverse ideas of things to get that universal code that you're talking about, sometimes you need the stick more than you need the carrot.
(22:42):
Some people are quite willing to follow for the carrot because they think, hey, you know, this is what's good for me.
It's good for everybody.
Hmm. Carrots.
Some people don't feel that way.
Some people are rogue idiots that will go out and do whatever they feel like doing because they feel like, well, I earned it or I deserve it because of past problems or something I didn't experience.
(23:03):
So I deserve this now.
Those people, they need a little bit of the stick to keep them in line.
There needs to be consequences to people stepping out of a universal code.
So it's more black and white than I think.
I think so. Yeah.
Only a Sith believes in absolutes.
That's true. Yeah, it's very true.
(23:24):
Are you on team Sith Bunny? Are you on team Jedi? Rebel scum, Scott.
Yeah, definitely. Leave us a note there because I don't think you necessarily need that.
There is a place.
I think here's a perfect example.
Do you need a choke hold on people or do you just need a line that is drawn?
(23:45):
No, you need a stick. You need to keep them in line.
That's like being a shepherd. You don't beat your flock to keep them in line, but you have a dog push them in the right direction.
You have a stick that you kind of knock them on the butt every once in a while.
When somebody gets that way out of line and on a left field, you don't just let them stray.
You keep them together.
And I think that's the way that you have to do to keep a lot of humanity together because humanity is wild and chaotic.
(24:11):
Now, if you want everybody, here's a perfect example.
This just happened like this week. Are you familiar with the super annoying, incredibly punchable Mr. Beast on YouTube?
No.
He is a multi-billion, million, billionaire YouTuber who makes all of his money by giving away money.
This is this great grift.
(24:33):
Well, he'll give out thousands and thousands of dollars and then YouTube will promote him and he makes millions and millions of dollars on the video.
And he just keeps doing this. It's this kind of reciprocity thing of him.
Well, he recently went and built free housing for people like millions of dollars worth of houses and did a whole video on it for people in Argentina, Ecuador and some other place.
(24:57):
I don't know. It's like, I'm building you all, all you homeless people. Here's houses for you. They're modern and blah, blah, blah.
Within three days, half of the houses were up for sale and more are going up for sale now immediately.
Yeah.
Because I think that's the weird sort of idea of like, well, everybody wants to do what's right and everybody knows what's right and wrong.
(25:20):
Not everybody thinks that way. Nobody's going to be on this utopian level of like, well, if we just give everybody what they need, they'll all be happy and accept it.
No, some of these people will take that free handout, turn around, make money off of it and go back to their ways of...
Well, you're talking about a completely different culture too.
I am.
(25:41):
How many of those people there...
That's the world. The world's full of different cultures.
Yeah.
Different religions have different cultures around them.
Hell, different religions can't talk amongst themselves and come to a consensus.
So taking it back to the moral code, is it an absolute or is it loosey goosey?
It's somewhere in between. There is a moral code. Do what's right. And what's right can be a little bit...
(26:09):
Can stand on sandy ground depending on where you're at and what the situation is.
But I think you can still break most situations down to right and wrong. Is it wrong of any of those people to be selling those houses?
No.
It's not. If I'm living down there and I'm kind of poor, I'm living in a shack and you give me this three-story basic townhome...
(26:35):
Man, I don't know if I can survive in that. It might be nice and everything, but are there property taxes I'm going to have to pay?
How much does electricity cost? Can I even afford to live in this awesome place?
Or can I sell it, take that money, go back to my little place outside the city and have everything I need?
(26:58):
I think that's the difference.
I think what I was trying to get to with that example was the idea of the utopian world of the carrot versus the more realistic world of the stick.
But don't they go together?
They do. That's why you tie a carrot to the end of the stick.
And yet you are also using the stick to hit people and get them in line.
(27:20):
It's hard to hit people with a carrot.
It's better to bop them on the nose with a carrot. Come on, come on, come along.
And on that note, we thank you for joining us here on The Gen X Distantialist. My name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny.
We'll catch you next time. Have a good one.
(28:05):
Thank you.
Generation X. In general terms, it was born between 1965 and 1980. Lachkinite. Independent.
(00:15):
Existentialism. Modern philosophy focusing on personal experience, human ability and
responsibility in an otherwise meaningless universe. We're the cause. This is the effect.
We're the Gen X existentialists.
(00:39):
Welcome in everybody to the Gen X existentialist podcast. My name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny.
And we are here to entertain via improvisation for the next 20 minutes or so, giving you a Gen X point of view on life, the universe and everything.
It's like, whose line is it anyway? Except it doesn't make you want to commit suicide afterwards.
(01:01):
Yeah. Yeah. Although some of those shows were really good. Some of them were fantastic.
Can't stand it.
Have you seen the one back when Drew Carey was hosting when Robin Williams guested?
I don't watch them. So I watched the British versions for a while and then I was like, alright, I'm done with this because improv makes me want to punch people in the throat.
(01:22):
I don't know, man. When they had Robin Williams as a guest on, it was just chaos.
Hot take. I'm not a fan of Robin Williams. I think he's a fine individual as human being goes and as an actor goes. Amazing.
Yeah. As a comedian, I don't like him. It's too much manic energy. It's this kind of it's that kind of energy that makes me want to like, alright, time to open Bedlam again.
(01:46):
Let's get this. Get these people in a padded cell. Makes me cuckoo. I don't know.
Well, what we typically do, folks, is we give a spin on Mega Wheel the Magnificent, our wonderful wheel that has 1300 some odd questions on it.
So everything here is completely at random. We're going to give her a spin and see what kind of question we come up with.
(02:10):
So you've added stuff. There's been things added as we get questions in.
Yeah, we've added almost 100 questions and that we've received from various places.
So and and possibly people. It's all anonymous.
OK, this this is actually a good one. How can art and literature foster a sense of community or belonging?
(02:32):
I mean, that's what it does. That's what it's meant to do.
I mean, this isn't going to get a really profound answer from me because I think that's the whole point of art and literature is that it.
I mean, besides your coffeehouse ass hats out there who just like, I'm doing this just so people know who I am.
(02:53):
I mean, art and literature in its own way is it's a reflection of the world around you.
And it's it's a collaboration between people, whether they realize it or not.
I mean, the people that have inspired artists of any kind, being writers, movie makers, sculptors, whatever musicians, someone has inspired them to do this.
(03:17):
So in a way, community itself contributes to the creation of art.
I tend to agree art and literature and a sense of community or belonging, it can be as part of a fandom.
If you are a fan of a particular author, poet, musician, what have you, but also just in the creative people themselves.
(03:43):
And I say this from experience in the late 90s, I was part of a poetry collective in greater Cincinnati.
It was it was basically three people that kind of were the nucleus of it myself, Lana Kingsbury and Greg Blankenship.
And we called ourselves Poets Anonymous and we ran monthly poetry readings at different places.
So there were there was a diner, there was a little performance space.
(04:08):
There was the Arnold's, the bar downtown that we did different things at and different festivals and stuff throughout the year.
And we had other people that came in and would read with us and we try to bring everybody in and made it a collective experience because it was just fun.
And it was always great to get up and try out a new poem that that I had just written.
(04:31):
But it was just as exciting to hear someone that had never been part of it before and hear what they brought to the table or to have Lana go up and read something new that she just put together.
It was just infinitely exciting, the amount of creativity that was there.
And to be surrounded by that, it made you more confident and made you want to do more to be part of that community.
(05:00):
So, you know, how can fostering that sense of community or belonging simply by existing, you know, go out and become part of a writer's group or go play D&D or go find a band and play music.
That's part of what it's all about.
Come and be a guest on our podcast.
Come and be a guest on our podcast.
If you're just a fan and you want to send your shipping fanfic or whatever sort of weird stuff you guys are up to, go ahead and send it to us at our Gmail, jenexistentialist.com or drop us a line at the place where you're listening to this.
(05:34):
There's plenty of places to leave comments and to rate.
See, there's my show moment.
Yeah.
I got that out of the way.
I am totally into it if somebody wants to do some fanfic for the Gen X.
No, absolutely do it.
We will dedicate an episode.
Maybe if you did a filk song or something, I'd be more into that.
Even better.
(05:55):
That would be even better.
Okay.
Should we give Megawheel another spin?
Yeah.
Here we go.
Spin it again.
Now I changed the picture on there for you.
And I'm very thankful for it.
Okay, yeah, we got rid of a corpulent woman that was on there before and now it's just
dull.
It was a little bit disturbing before.
Okay.
So where do you get most of the decorations or ideas for decor for your home?
(06:24):
Where do I get that?
I try to live in a museum.
This is my whole thing.
I like my spaces clean, uncluttered, and filled with art.
So the majority of the time where I go to find things, I go to flea markets, I go to
yard sales, I go to art galleries, I try to find original pieces of art or lithographs
(06:49):
or something to put up.
There's certain things.
I like zones in my house.
I have the community zone, which sort of reflects my wife and I and the surrounding of where
our house is.
Right now we live in a very rural area and we have a ton of pictures up that are all
(07:15):
kind of, it's a local artist, but he does animal prints.
So we do this, not Ruffin.
Then we have an area that it's a transition area to the bedrooms, which is all music stuff
that we like, like old music posters, like vintage music posters, silk screens, stuff
(07:37):
like that.
Now the bedrooms themselves are where nobody really goes in and sees them, but it's places,
it's personal places.
So I have a very different style that I like from my private room where I go to watch horror
movies and stuff.
I like stark white, sixties Swedish geometric blah, blah, blah.
(07:59):
It's like living in a space capsule.
Is that where the egg chair ended up?
That is where the egg chair ended up.
Awesome.
So yeah, that's my personal style now.
That's not my wife's style.
That's why we have separate spaces to decorate.
Everybody's calling it a man cave and a she shed.
Is that what they call them nowadays?
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, so that's that.
(08:20):
I don't know.
I just, I like to create environments.
That's one of the things that I'm big about because I spend a lot of time at home.
I work from home.
Yeah.
So I like my environments to be very different.
Like my office is filled with hobby stuff and old toys and goofy things that inspire
(08:44):
creativity with me.
Yeah.
And that is not in my living space because I want my living space to be a place like
a hearth.
It's all surrounding the fireplace.
It's a place where we come and we eat and we talk.
And then my private space is a place where I can really just bliss out and be me.
So how about you?
Decorations.
(09:06):
Definitely like color.
And that was actually one of the things about this house that my wife and I enjoyed when
we came in and looked at it is the previous owners had not painted everything white so
that, oh, whoever the new owner is can visualize whatever they want in the space.
No, it was a lot of blues and some dark earth tones and we haven't changed a bit of it.
(09:29):
It was literally perfect.
Now, as far as wall hangings, if you've gone to the morning pizza Facebook page, you might
have seen some partial visions of the studio where we're actually sitting right now.
And there are music pictures and posters and stuff up on every surface.
And that's just me.
I'm surrounded when I'm in here by bands and artists that I love.
(09:53):
So it's kind of like your space where you watch horror movies.
I can come in here and I look around and every picture I see, there are things I love about
the artwork.
There are things I love about the bands.
I'm surrounded by things that I dig out in the next area, which is kind of where I'm
living.
There are posters from each of the first three Star Wars films.
(10:15):
The original posters are up.
There are a lot of Star Wars action figures out because that's kind of what we do.
We're sci-fi fans.
It kind of goes with everything.
There are other music and Georgia O'Keeffe stuff and Jim Dine stuff upstairs that fill
the areas in our library.
There are obviously books.
(10:36):
So it really varies.
And between Tracy and I, we always look at stuff like, what do you think would go good
here?
We kind of figure out what would fit.
It's a little bit chaotic, but I think we both enjoy that too.
When things are too perfect, it tends to kind of set my teeth on edge a little bit.
(11:00):
I like things clean, but when everything is too perfect, it's not perfect.
When everything is ordered perfectly, I start to wonder why.
It almost seems like it's a trap.
See, I'll have to invite you to the horror movie room sometime because it's not at all
what you think.
It's not horror movie posters and what have you.
(11:22):
It's dark white and very few artifacts and everything is perfectly angled and draped
in white fur.
It looks like Barbarella set in there.
It's bizarre.
Like a milk bar from Clockwork Orange.
Yeah, if I could find a naked chick that served milk out of her breasts with a pull of a joystick.
(11:43):
That would be the perfect counterpart to my egg chair.
You know, they've got to be out there somewhere.
It's got to exist.
I know.
We've got to make our own.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay, should we give Megaheel another spin?
Sure.
And we will spin Megaheel.
Come up with another topic here.
(12:04):
Because this is what we do on Gen X existentialist.
Extemporaneous excitement.
And our next topic is...
Well, this is kind of interesting because you already are one of these.
So, it'll be interesting to hear your take.
Alright.
Would you rather be an amazing painter or a brilliant mathematician?
(12:28):
And why?
The question doesn't say why, I'm adding that myself.
Well, I think...
I can see both sides to why you would want to be both.
I think for endurance purposes...
This is about you.
Which would you rather be?
(12:49):
For me, I'd rather be a brilliant painter.
And that's because I would like something to live on long after I'm gone.
And folks, if you don't know Bunny at all, he is an amazing painter.
He can do this.
I can, but I just don't.
Yeah, because I look at museums and that's something that, for me personally,
(13:13):
museums are inspirational.
It's nice to go back and see, especially Renaissance paintings,
and paintings that are so well detailed.
Yeah.
And that actually shows you what was going on at a time that you can't even comprehend.
Yeah.
I think that, for me, would be something that I would like to leave behind more than...
(13:34):
Now, I know that brilliant mathematicians leave behind formula and solutions to things
and new methods for figuring out problems and all that.
And I know they're revered in their very niche world.
Yeah.
So I think what I would like to leave behind something that can be enjoyed by everyone
from the janitor all the way up to the brilliant scientist,
(14:00):
somebody they can look at that work and be like, wow, I get it.
That's really cool.
As opposed to, I think, a brilliant mathematician,
it's very hard for them to reach universal appreciation with their work.
Yeah.
So how about you?
Which would you guess for me?
I would guess mathematician.
Okay.
(14:21):
See, I would think that typically people would go, well, Scott, he's a poet.
He writes music.
He does all this stuff.
He'd want to be an amazing painter.
And that is a big gap in my creativity, is as far as visual arts,
I can literally barely handle a stick figure.
I always wished that I could do more visually and be more effusive and effective in a visual medium.
(14:48):
But I would rather be a brilliant mathematician because math has always been the bane of my existence.
It really is.
And it's one of those things that has bugged me my entire life.
And when I've tried to get better, I've just gotten more frustrated.
The thing that kills me about it is one of the things that really interests me is astronomy.
(15:13):
And I've never pursued it beyond just a kind of fanboy stage
because when you get into the nooks and crannies and the nuts and bolts of it,
so much of it is mathematical stuff that is just, I can go from standing on a beach
to suddenly I'm a million miles out in the ocean swimming against the current
(15:36):
because I don't understand the math and I don't understand those aspects of it.
And so I just stop.
So yeah, I would rather be a brilliant mathematician.
Even though I appreciate the art, the math I think would be more what I want.
All right. Interesting question.
Yeah, definitely.
(15:57):
Do you remember, is that something somebody,
it seems like something somebody would send in kind of directed at us?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We will give Megawheel Magnificent another spin.
I kind of like using this with the applause and everything at the end.
Okay.
As opposed to the other sound effect, this kind of works out.
(16:19):
But I think we did this one already.
What's one thing I don't already know about you?
Yeah.
I think we did that a few episodes ago.
So that has been deleted now.
We will spin again.
Yeah, go back and listen to some other episodes if you want to know the juicy dirt.
Our backlog is way more entertaining than other people's too.
(16:41):
Oh my goodness.
Well, ready?
Do you believe in an absolute moral code or are morals relative to the situation?
Yeah, that's a sticky one because I do believe in a basic absolute moral code.
(17:10):
I do believe that this is going to bring up a lot of ire, but I think it's very much like the Ten Commandments and stuff.
I think they're very good rules to live by.
The actual Ten Commandments in the Bible or the ones that people talk about that they want to get posted somewhere?
I think every religion has their own version of the Ten Commandments.
(17:32):
I'm not as familiar with Islam or Judaism or any of that stuff.
I'm not familiar with the Ferengi religion.
I'm not well versed in all these as I should be or as I want to be.
But I think there's a basic moral code that you should treat others as you wish to be treated.
(17:54):
That's a golden rule.
Not so much morals, but I do think that you shouldn't go around murdering people.
I think that's kind of a universal code.
I don't think you should cheat and steal.
I don't think you should fuck around on your partner.
I don't think you should just go around beating people because you feel like it.
(18:18):
There's a basic moral code I think that is instilled through our souls.
Is it relative to the situation?
It's second after the question.
It's not right to steal.
We would agree about that if you're starving.
Is it suddenly a little bit looser because there's survival at stake?
Or should you just die because your moral code says you don't steal?
(18:43):
I think a good example is the difference of thou shalt not murder.
Basically, there's a difference between killing and murdering.
If you're in a situation where you are going to be killed, if you are at war, and all that, do I consider soldiers murderers?
No, not necessarily.
(19:05):
Do I consider a serial killer a murderer?
Yes.
Do I consider someone who premeditatively wants to do harm to someone just because they feel like it?
That's pretty evil.
Do I think killing is evil?
No.
I think killing is a basic function.
Same with stealing.
I think if you're stealing to survive, it's a gray area.
(19:28):
If you're stealing because you covet something that somebody else has, gee, those speakers sure look good over there.
I wonder, he won't notice if they're missing.
I can turn to profit.
That's fucked up.
That's just being an ass.
If I'm like, boy, he won't notice if I steal a couple of cookies out of the cookie jar because I'm starving and having a glycemic reaction or something, then that's not quite as bad.
(19:53):
And on the other side of that, and this is, I think, where it gets really dicey.
We're saying it is potentially morally a gray enough area to steal.
If you're on the other side, if you're the shopkeeper with the loaf of bread and someone comes to you and they are starving and you could be the difference between life and death, is it morally the right thing to do to give that person the bread?
(20:21):
I mean, that's your moral code right there.
Is it going to break your business by giving them a loaf of bread?
Probably not.
If it's going to break your business by giving them free access to your entire pantry every time they need something, yeah, that's a problem.
Or if you need help cleaning up, you say, look, I'll give you the bread.
You clean up here every night.
You know, you find a way to use the compassion and empathy and help everybody at the same time.
(20:46):
That's the golden rule.
Yeah.
You treat others as you wish to be treated.
Yeah. And that's where I would go in answering the question for myself.
The absolute moral code.
I always go back to the categorical imperative principle of humanity, principle of universality.
You treat everyone in a way that you yourself would want to be treated.
Golden rule.
There's also the principle of universality, because if you only live by humanity, somebody might say, well, I'm fine if you try to kill me.
(21:13):
I want to take what you want.
That's fine.
That's the way I want to be treated, too.
Principle of universality says you have to treat everybody in a way that is universally accepted or democratically accepted.
Like most people wouldn't feel that way.
So, you know, it's kind of a check and balance on the golden rule.
Sure.
Because you can twist that.
(21:34):
And especially if you have more ill intent, you will twist others moral codes in a way to make them beneficial for yourself.
So that would be my take, too.
And morals can be relative to the situation.
I think most things in life are situational.
There is a baseline like you were talking about, whether you use the Ten Commandments, the categorical imperative, anything like that.
(21:59):
There is some base level.
I don't think you have to have religion of any kind to come up with that.
It's basic humanity.
I think it helps to have a framework for people because a lot of people need the stick more than they need the carrot.
A lot of people need somebody in the sky watching them.
Well, it's the reason I always choose the Empire.
(22:20):
I hate to say it.
I'm going to bring it back to Star Wars just for you, sir.
Just for you.
Because I think when you take a lot of diverse people with a lot of diverse ideas of things to get that universal code that you're talking about, sometimes you need the stick more than you need the carrot.
(22:42):
Some people are quite willing to follow for the carrot because they think, hey, you know, this is what's good for me.
It's good for everybody.
Hmm. Carrots.
Some people don't feel that way.
Some people are rogue idiots that will go out and do whatever they feel like doing because they feel like, well, I earned it or I deserve it because of past problems or something I didn't experience.
(23:03):
So I deserve this now.
Those people, they need a little bit of the stick to keep them in line.
There needs to be consequences to people stepping out of a universal code.
So it's more black and white than I think.
I think so. Yeah.
Only a Sith believes in absolutes.
That's true. Yeah, it's very true.
(23:24):
Are you on team Sith Bunny? Are you on team Jedi? Rebel scum, Scott.
Yeah, definitely. Leave us a note there because I don't think you necessarily need that.
There is a place.
I think here's a perfect example.
Do you need a choke hold on people or do you just need a line that is drawn?
(23:45):
No, you need a stick. You need to keep them in line.
That's like being a shepherd. You don't beat your flock to keep them in line, but you have a dog push them in the right direction.
You have a stick that you kind of knock them on the butt every once in a while.
When somebody gets that way out of line and on a left field, you don't just let them stray.
You keep them together.
And I think that's the way that you have to do to keep a lot of humanity together because humanity is wild and chaotic.
(24:11):
Now, if you want everybody, here's a perfect example.
This just happened like this week. Are you familiar with the super annoying, incredibly punchable Mr. Beast on YouTube?
No.
He is a multi-billion, million, billionaire YouTuber who makes all of his money by giving away money.
This is this great grift.
(24:33):
Well, he'll give out thousands and thousands of dollars and then YouTube will promote him and he makes millions and millions of dollars on the video.
And he just keeps doing this. It's this kind of reciprocity thing of him.
Well, he recently went and built free housing for people like millions of dollars worth of houses and did a whole video on it for people in Argentina, Ecuador and some other place.
(24:57):
I don't know. It's like, I'm building you all, all you homeless people. Here's houses for you. They're modern and blah, blah, blah.
Within three days, half of the houses were up for sale and more are going up for sale now immediately.
Yeah.
Because I think that's the weird sort of idea of like, well, everybody wants to do what's right and everybody knows what's right and wrong.
(25:20):
Not everybody thinks that way. Nobody's going to be on this utopian level of like, well, if we just give everybody what they need, they'll all be happy and accept it.
No, some of these people will take that free handout, turn around, make money off of it and go back to their ways of...
Well, you're talking about a completely different culture too.
I am.
(25:41):
How many of those people there...
That's the world. The world's full of different cultures.
Yeah.
Different religions have different cultures around them.
Hell, different religions can't talk amongst themselves and come to a consensus.
So taking it back to the moral code, is it an absolute or is it loosey goosey?
It's somewhere in between. There is a moral code. Do what's right. And what's right can be a little bit...
(26:09):
Can stand on sandy ground depending on where you're at and what the situation is.
But I think you can still break most situations down to right and wrong. Is it wrong of any of those people to be selling those houses?
No.
It's not. If I'm living down there and I'm kind of poor, I'm living in a shack and you give me this three-story basic townhome...
(26:35):
Man, I don't know if I can survive in that. It might be nice and everything, but are there property taxes I'm going to have to pay?
How much does electricity cost? Can I even afford to live in this awesome place?
Or can I sell it, take that money, go back to my little place outside the city and have everything I need?
(26:58):
I think that's the difference.
I think what I was trying to get to with that example was the idea of the utopian world of the carrot versus the more realistic world of the stick.
But don't they go together?
They do. That's why you tie a carrot to the end of the stick.
And yet you are also using the stick to hit people and get them in line.
(27:20):
It's hard to hit people with a carrot.
It's better to bop them on the nose with a carrot. Come on, come on, come along.
And on that note, we thank you for joining us here on The Gen X Distantialist. My name is Scott.
And I'm Bunny.
We'll catch you next time. Have a good one.
(28:05):
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.