The real objective must always be the good life for all the people. International machinery will mean something to the common man throughout the world only when it is translated into terms that he can understand: peace, bread, housing, clothing, education, good health, and above all, the right to walk with dignity on the world's great boulevards.
Ralph J. Bunche, Mont Tremblant, Canada (1942)
Friday, March 03, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Voices in My Head
[W]hat a meditative poem contributes to the history of consciousness is a
reenactment in real time of the volatile inner life of a human being.
Such a poem does not present itself as plot or character portrayal or
argument, but rather ... as a hypothesis .... and include[s] waverings, self-contradictions,
repudiations, aspirations, and doubts; they are not offered as a
philosophical system.
Helen Vendler, The New York Review of Books (February 23, 2017)
Helen Vendler, The New York Review of Books (February 23, 2017)
Monday, January 16, 2017
The first step in dealing with the madness of the political world is not to let it make you crazy.... Fanaticism always seems foolish until it locks you up.
Adam Gopnik, Mixed Up: Montaigne On Trial (New Yorker, Jan 16, 2017)
Adam Gopnik, Mixed Up: Montaigne On Trial (New Yorker, Jan 16, 2017)
Sunday, December 11, 2016
During his later years he has often said—and many a man has had, and will have, to say the same—that he had learned these people too late.
Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome
Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome
Labels:
abroad,
Benin,
colonialism,
diplomacy,
international relations,
prudence
Saturday, November 05, 2016
All economies have winners and losers. It does not take a sophisticated
algorithm to figure out that the winners in the decades ahead are going
to be those who own the robots, for they will have vanquished labor with
their capital.
Sue Halpern, Our Driverless Future (New York Review of Noveber 24, 2016)
Sue Halpern, Our Driverless Future (New York Review of Noveber 24, 2016)
Labels:
change,
future,
inequality,
robots,
technology
Saturday, October 08, 2016
Modern media ... have always been based on the reselling of human attention to advertisers.
Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review (October 27, 2016)
Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review (October 27, 2016)
Labels:
advertisement,
capitalism,
civilization,
culture,
decline,
economy,
future,
history,
humanity,
illusion,
information,
internet,
media,
modernity
Monday, September 19, 2016
If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Labels:
decline,
democracy,
election 2016,
Shakespeare
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
The flight went really well and the only issue was when it landed.
From a spokesman for a airship with some problems (August 2016).
From a spokesman for a airship with some problems (August 2016).
Labels:
ambivalence,
boldness,
fortitude,
mistakes,
zen
Monday, August 22, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Gnostics.... We maintain that the world is an illusion. The unconscious self is
consubstantial with perfection, but because of a tragic fall it is
thrown into a foreign domain that is completely alien to its true being.
It’s always a fall, a tragic fall, and here we are. That’s it, in a
nutshell.
Stuff, Joy Williams (The New Yorker, July 25, 2016)
Stuff, Joy Williams (The New Yorker, July 25, 2016)
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
As we move up our space/time-line, what will be has been, what has been remains, now is just now.
An errant thought.
An errant thought.
Labels:
awareness,
being,
contemplation,
existence,
life,
reality,
reflection,
time
Saturday, April 02, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Who can fathom the soundless depths?
Jules Verne, riffing on the Book of Ecclesiastes in his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne, riffing on the Book of Ecclesiastes in his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Labels:
Bible,
Jules Verne,
life,
oceanic,
universe
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Capitalism is a partnership between governors and merchants that secures the power of both.... merchants grow rich because state power protects them or looks away when the time is right.
Martha Howell, The New York Review (April 7, 2016)
Martha Howell, The New York Review (April 7, 2016)
Thursday, February 11, 2016
In essence, the planet runs on a cycle of water-splitting by photosynthesis to form oxygen and the production of water by respiration.
Paul G. Falkowski in Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
Paul G. Falkowski in Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable
Sunday, February 07, 2016
Today, not carrying a smartphone indicates eccentricity, social marginalization, or old age.
Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review (February 55, 2016)
Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review (February 55, 2016)
Labels:
America,
change,
civilization,
modernity,
smartphone
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
It was impossible for any one to open his grief to a neighbor and to concert measures to defend himself, as he would have
had to speak either to one whom he did not know, or whom he knew but did
not trust.
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Love of country is what I do not feel when I am wronged, but what I felt
when secure in my rights as a citizen.... the true lover of his country
is not he who consents to lose it unjustly rather than attack it, but
he who longs for it so much that he will go all lengths to recover it.
Alcibiades, as quoted by Thucydides, (The History of the Peloponnesian War)
Alcibiades, as quoted by Thucydides, (The History of the Peloponnesian War)
Labels:
Alcibiades,
Athens,
democracy,
exile,
Greece,
imperialism,
patriotism,
Thucydides
Friday, January 22, 2016
It will be said, perhaps, that democracy is neither wise nor equitable,
but that the holders of property are also the best fitted to rule. I
say, on the contrary, first, that the word demos, or people, includes
the whole state, oligarchy only a part; next, that if the best guardians
of property are the rich, and the best counselors the wise, none can
hear and decide so well as the many; and that all these talents,
severally and collectively, have their just place in a democracy. But an
oligarchy gives the many their share of the danger, and not content
with the largest part takes and keeps the whole of the profit.
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Labels:
democracy,
oligarchy,
politics,
Thucydides
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Saturday, January 09, 2016
Try to do what you do without mockery of our heartbroken little era. To mock is easy.
Anne Carson, 1=1, New Yorker of January 11, 2016
Anne Carson, 1=1, New Yorker of January 11, 2016
Friday, January 01, 2016
Athenians: Aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both;
since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only
in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can
and the weak suffer what they must....
Melians: As we think, at any rate, it is expedient —we speak as we are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of interest— that you should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they can be got to pass current....
Athenians: Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can..... It is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
Thucydides (Book Five), The History of the Peloponnesian War
Melians: As we think, at any rate, it is expedient —we speak as we are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of interest— that you should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they can be got to pass current....
Athenians: Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can..... It is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
Thucydides (Book Five), The History of the Peloponnesian War
Labels:
Athens,
conflict,
diplomacy,
empire,
Greece,
imperialism,
international relations,
justice,
prudence,
Thucydides,
war
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