Isolationism. I exist in the world of isolationism most of the time. Positively, I look at it as a way to enjoy nice and quiet time to get things done. Negatively, I'm bored and about to snap. I channel those energies into my art. Creativity is the only thing that has ever saved me. If I were not a creative person, if I were not able to make things out of nothing, things that please me, that please others, I'm not sure how well I'd be today. Hell, I'm not sure how well I am anyway, but I'm better off with my creativity than without.

I saw No Country For Old Men today - an exquisitely crafted film (yes I'm a fan of the Coen brothers, don't get me started on how great The Big Lebowski and Barton Fink is). But it begs for a deeper look at psychopathic behavior. When a 19 year old in the midwest "snaps" and takes out a bunch of people with him in a shopping mall, he's a sick psycho loser and deserves no fame. When an early 30-something man with a dead serious demeanor kills at will as, basically, a lifestyle of some twisted sort and (seemingly) gets away with it time and time again as if he's a ghost a monster, operating in a different world with different rules, he's operating out of self-proclaimed "principles". He lives in an isolated world. Friends? Forget it. Talk about no social life. But he has principles! Hmmm.....

What are principles? What determines the concept of abiding by them? What behavior is acceptable within the confines of the word and theories of having principles?