Maybe our meanings for the same word differ. You say principles are for losers. Principles are for losers who need their myths, their fictions, to sense the world beneath their feet. Principles are for losers who use them to play god, to starve people and bomb cities to punish the evil-doers of the earth. And I say, I see your point, but no, principles are not only for losers. And you respond, That's bunk. Bunk because you should rather understand each moment at that moment. If it's not pleasurable, don't do it. If it's pleasurable, do it and do it a lot. And yes, I see your point, but, no, I still think principles are not only for losers.

It's not enough to observe, yes, racism and sexism and nationalism and many other isms are all constructions, and that since you're quite well aware, smugly, that evil and good are constructions as well, you're quite exempt from them. Live only in the moment. No before-before, no consequence too.

But fictions are dangerous. We are not gods. Sometimes we play god, but we're often monsters. Long after any first and second and third understanding of the prison in my mind, these fictions still operate. They will outlast you and I. They will still starve and kill and shackle.

So, no, I still think principles are not only for losers. For me, having principles means becoming strategic. I need to think that there are many evils and many goods among which I navigate, carefully, often blindly. If I didn't, my blindness towards oppression--in all its forms--and my own complicity would annihilate me. I would be swallowed up, like Jonas, doomed to the complete and absolute silence outside of faith.