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Post by Tamrin on Dec 14, 2013 6:35:52 GMT 10
By definition, the conventional wisdom of the day is widely accepted, continually reiterated and regarded not as ideology but as reality itself. Rebelling against "reality," even when its limitations are clearly perceived, is always difficult
The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one's ideas and beliefs are not merely idiosyncratic but speak to vital human needs, interests and desires, and therefore will be persuasive to many and ultimately most people. But this is a very different matter from deciding to put forward only those ideas presumed (accurately or not) to be compatible with what most people already believe
The crackpot rationalism of free-market economics merely relies on an abstract model of how people "must" behave
A triumphalist corporate capitalism, free at last of the specter of Communism, has mobilized its economic power to relentlessly marginalize all nonmarket values; to sub- ordinate every aspect of American life to corporate "efficiency" and the bottom line; to demonize not only government but the very idea of public service and public goods
Under present conditions, people are preoccupied with consumer goods not because they are brainwashed but because buying is the one pleasurable activity not only permitted but actively encouraged by our rulers. The pleasure of eating an ice cream cone may be minor compared to the pleasure of meaningful, autonomous work, but the former is easily available and the latter is not. A poor family would undoubtedly rather have a decent apartment than a new TV, but since they are unlikely to get the apartment, what is to be gained by not getting the TV?
I believe in the separation of sex and state. I also believe that social benefits like health insurance should not be privileges bestowed by marital status but should be available to all as individuals. Marriage, in the sense of a ceremonial commitment of people to merge their lives, is properly a social ritual reflecting religious or personal conviction, and should not have legal status. "Sanctity" is a religious category that is, or ought to be, irrelevant to secular law. The purpose of civil unions should be to establish parental rights and responsibilities, grant next-of-kin status for such purposes as medical decisions and insure equity in matters of property distribution and taxes. Such unions should be available to any two — or more — adults, regardless of gender
In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary." That conflation has been rein- forced by social theorists and advocates of identity politics who argue that there is no universal morality, only the value systems of particular cultures and power structuresEllen WillisAmerican essayist, critic and pro-sex feminist ( Redstockings) (Born this day 1941) A genuinely democratic society requires a secular ethos: one that does not equate morality with religion
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 14, 2013 6:36:41 GMT 10
Flags, rags, ferryboats, scimitars and scarves every precious dream and vision under- neath the stars — You climbed on the ladder with the wind in your sails you came like a comet blazing your trail too high, too far, too soon — You saw the whole of the moon!
I have heard the big music and I'll never be the same something so pure just called my name
She is everywhere and no place — Like a breath or like a wind she moves among men — They would seek to hold her as a prize — But she is in the shadows, the ocean and the sand
She is everywhere and no place — Her church not made with hands — Uncontained by man
I was grounded — while you filled the skies — I was dumbfounded by truth — you cut through lies
He's like a man you'd meet any place until you recognize that ancient Face —The Great God Pan is alive!
Come with me on a journey beneath the skin we will look together for the Pan withinMike ScottScottish musician (The Waterboys) (Born this day 1958) Once you were tethered — Now you are free — That was the river — This is the sea
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 14, 2013 6:37:43 GMT 10
In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs
It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most
The best servants of the people, like the best valets, must whisper unpleasant truths in the master's ear. It is the court fool, not the foolish courtier, whom the king can least afford to lose
A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so
No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people
When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute
When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanistsWalter LippmannUS journalist (One of Dynasty) (Died this day 1974) The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 14, 2013 6:39:38 GMT 10
We must make demands of reason and create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only dimly perceive
In 1947 I defended my thesis on nuclear physics, and in 1948 I was included in a group of research scientists whose task was to develop nuclear weapons
I worked under conditions of the highest security and under great pressure, first in Moscow and subsequently in a special secret research centre. At the time we were all convinced that this work was of vital significance for the balance of power in the world and we were fascinated by the grandeur of the task
For me, the moral difficulties lie in the continual pressure brought to bear on my friends and immediate family, pressure which is not directed against me personally but which at the same time is all around me
In and after 1964 when I began to concern myself with the biological issues, and particularly from 1967 onwards, the extent of the problems over which I felt uneasy increased to such a point that in 1968 I felt a compelling urge to make my views public
My public stand represented a turning point for me and my entire future. The article very quickly became known throughout the world. For a long time the Soviet press contained no mention of the Progress, and later references were either disapproving in the extreme or else ironic. A great many critics, even if sympathetically disposed towards me, regarded my reflections in this work as exceedingly naive and speculative
Our country, like every modern state, needs profound democratic reforms. It needs political and ideological pluralism, a mixed economy and protection of human rights and the opening up of societyAndrei D SakharovSoviet physicist, dissident and Nobel laureate (Peace, 1975) (Died this day 1989) Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:01:41 GMT 10
Sunday’s Quotes:It will be said, however, that protection tends to destroy commerce, the civilizer of mankind. Directly the reverse, however, is the fact
By adopting the 'free trade,' or British, system, we place ourselves side by side with the men who have ruined Ireland and India, and are now poisoning and enslaving the Chinese people
By adopting the other trade [protection], we place ourselves by the side of those whose measures tend not only to the improvement of their own subjects, but to the emancipation of the slave everywhere
In this country [USA] protection has always, to some extent, existed; but at some times it has been efficient, and at others not; and our tendency toward freedom or slavery has always been in the direct ratio of its efficiency or inefficiency
The commerce of India does not grow, nor does that of Portugal, or of Turkey; that but that of the protected countries does increase, as has been shown in the case of Spain, and can now be shown in that of Germany
The [free trade] system has for its object an increase of persons that are to intervene between the producer and the consumer, living on the product of the land and labour of others, diminishing the power of the first, and increasing the number of the last
The natural consequence of our submission, even in part, to the [free trade] system that looks to compelling the export of raw products, the exhaustion of the land, the cheapening of labour, and the export of the labourerHenry Charles CareyUS economist ( Principles of Political Economy) (Born this day 1793) The first of all commodities to be exchanged is labour, and the freedom of man consists only in the exercise of the right to determine for himself in what manner his labour shall be employed, and how he will dispose of its products
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:02:43 GMT 10
What price Glory?
He was a god, such as men might be, if men were gods
There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime
If you practice an art, be proud of it and make it proud of you It may break your heart, but it will fill your heart before it breaks it; it will make you a person in your own right
Everybody thought the newspaper would end the discussions around the hearth, or that radio would end the newspaper, or that TV would end radio ... Everybody always fears this and yet we always make more psychic room for all of these media
It's a great time to be an artist ... because a lot of the sacred cows are no longer in evidence
The gods of men are sillier than their kings and queens, and emptier and more powerlessMaxwell AndersonAmerican playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist (Born this day 1888) This liberty will look easy by and by when nobody dies to get it
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:04:11 GMT 10
I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief
It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land
The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it
They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse
Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children
If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children's mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean
If we must die, we die defending our rightsTatanka Yotanka (Chief Sitting Bull)Sioux holy man (Little Big Horn, Ghost Dance) (Murdered this day 1890) Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:05:12 GMT 10
People always think that happiness is a faraway thing … something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up
Dear God, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry... have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere -- be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost
I want to live for something. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back to get more charity food
There are very few bad people. There are just a lot of people that are unlucky
The difference between rich and poor is that the poor do everything with their own hands and the rich hire hands to do things
The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret
Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with gloryBetty SmithGerman-US novelist ( A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) (Born this day 1906) There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:08:13 GMT 10
I have always accepted and respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill and elemental structures of Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and the country of my origin
Architecture was my way of expressing my ideals: to be simple, to create a world equal to everyone, to look at people with optimism, that everyone has a gift. I don’t want anything but general happiness. Why is that bad?
First were the thick stone walls, the arches, then the domes and vaults — of the architect, searching out for wider spaces
Now it is concrete-reinforced that gives our imagination flight with its soaring spans and uncommon cantilevers. Concrete, to which architecture is integrated, through which it is able to discard the foregone conclusions of rationalism, with its monotony and repetitious solutions
A concern for beauty, a zest for fantasy, and an ever-present element of surprise bear witness that today's architecture is not a minor craft bound to straight-edge rules, but an architecture imbued with technology: light, creative and unfettered, seeking out its architectural scene
I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced con- crete … This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women
I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of EinsteinOscar NiemeyerBrazilian architect (“Pampulha Project”) (Born this day 1907) Here, then, is what I wanted to tell you of my architecture. I created it with courage and idealism, but also with an awareness of the fact that what is important is life, friends and attempting to make this unjust world a better place in which to live
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 15, 2013 6:09:34 GMT 10
Belief has its structures, and its symbols change. Its tradition changes. All the relationships within these forms are inter-dependent
In time of crisis, we summon up our strength. Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quick- ening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: it depends on the long preparation of the self to be used
If there is a feeling that something has been lost, it may be because much has not yet been used, much is still to be found and begun
To stand against the idea of the fallen world, a powerful and destructive idea over- shadowing Western poetry. In that sense, there is no lost Eden, and God is the future. The child walled-up in our life can be given his growth. In this growth is our security
However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole
O for God's sake they are connected underneath
How shall we venture home? How shall we tell each other of the poet?Muriel RukeyserAmerican poet ( The Book of the Dead) (Born this day 1913) The universe is made of stories, not of atoms
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