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Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2014 7:16:46 GMT 10
The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking
Humanity has passed through a long history of one-sidedness and of a social condition that has always contained the potential of destruction, despite its creative achievements in technology. The great project of our time must be to open the other eye: to see all-sidedly and wholly, to heal and transcend the cleavage between humanity and nature that came with early wisdom
In our own time we have seen domination spread over the social landscape to a point where it is beyond all human control. Compared to this stupendous mobiliz- ation of materials, of wealth, of human intellect, of human labor for the single goal of domination, all other recent human achievements pale to almost trivial signific- ance. Our art, science, medicine, literature, music and "charitable" acts seem like mere droppings from a table on which gory feasts on the spoils of conquest have engaged the attention of a system whose appetite for rule is utterly unrestrained
To speak of 'limits to growth' under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multi- nationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be 'persuaded' to limit growth than a human being can be 'persuaded' to stop breathing. Attempts to 'green' capitalism, to make it 'ecological', are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth
Without changing the most molecular relationships in society — notably, those be- tween men and women, adults and children, whites and other ethnic groups, hetero- sexuals and gays (the list, in fact, is considerable) — society will be riddled by domin- ation even in a socialistic 'classless' and 'non-exploitative' form. It would be infused by hierarchy even as it celebrated the dubious virtues of 'people's democracies,' social- ism' and the 'public ownership' of 'natural resources,' And as long as hierarchy persists, as long as domination organises humanity around a system of elites, the project of dom- inating nature will continue to exist and inevitably lead our planet to ecological extinction
Nor do piecemeal steps however well intended, even partially resolve problems that have reached a universal, global and catastrophic character. If anything, partial `solutions' serve merely as cosmetics to conceal the deep seated nature of the ecological crisis. They thereby deflect public attention and theoretical insight from an adequate understanding of the depth and scope of the necessary changes
This pursuit of security in the past, this attempt to find a haven in a fixed dogma and an organizational hierarchy as substitutes for creative thought and praxis is bitter evidence of how little many revolutionaries are capable of 'revolutionizing themselves and things,' much less of revolutionizing society as a whole. The deep- rooted conservatism of the People's Labor Party 'revolutionaries' is almost painfully evident; the authoritarian leader and hierarchy replace the patriarch and the school bureaucracy; the discipline of the Movement replaces the discipline of bourgeois society; the authoritarian code of political obedience replaces the state; the credo of 'proletarian morality' replaces the mores of puritanism and the work ethic. The old substance of ex- ploitative society reappears in new forms, draped in a red flag, decorated by portraits of Mao (or Castro or Che) and adorned with the little 'Red Book' and other sacred litaniesMurray BookchinAmerican anarchist, libertarian socialist speaker and writer (Born this day 1921) Our Being is Becoming, not stasis. Our Science is Utopia, our Reality is Eros, our Desire is Revolution
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2014 7:20:26 GMT 10
I want to make a poem of my life
All my life I have been acutely aware of a contradiction in the very nature of my existence
Words are a medium that reduces reality to abstraction for transmission to our reason, and in their power to corrode reality inevitably lurks the danger that the words will be corroded too
I had long since insisted upon interpreting the things that Fate forced me to do as victories of my own will and intelligence, and now this bad habit had grown into a sort of frenzied arrogance
What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is
By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive the Truth
There is no virtue in curiosity. In fact, it might be the most immoral desire a man can possessYukio MishimaJapanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director (Born this day 1925) Is there not a sort of remorse that precedes sin? Was it remorse at the very fact that I existed?
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2014 7:21:14 GMT 10
As legal slavery passed, we entered into a permanent period of unemployment and underemployment from which we have yet to emerge
People who are poor who are living on the edge of poverty or who are living under poverty are tucked away someplace else. I don't see them; they don't see me; we don't interact; we have no relation one to the other; no physical relation
Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education
As skills and energy became more of a demand, people who didn't have skills just got left behind, got shuttled to the side. Education didn't keep up with their promise. Education didn't prepare them for this new world. Jobs went overseas
Many are attracted to social service — the rewards are immediate, the grat- ification quick. But if we have social justice, we won't need social service
There were relatively few women in public leadership roles ... So that small subset that becomes prominent in civil rights would tend to be men. But that doesn't excuse the way some women have just been written out of history
Black reporters are as capable of racism as anyone elseJulian BondUS civil rights leader, politician, professor and writer (Born this day 1940) There is a thin line between politics and theatricals
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2014 7:23:31 GMT 10
Humanity is my temple, and I am its worshiper. The disabled are my supreme God, and I am their grace seeker
What is to be seen in this fallen world, which is false and filled with vices, is full of disputes and is governed by the sins of deceitful and wicked humans? Only Rama is worth seeing, whose flocks of hair cover his lotus-like face, who is completely blissful, who has the form of a child, and who is the giver of liberation
O Rāma, the noble son of Kausalyā! The Sandhyā of the morning commences. O the lion amongst men! Arise, the Vedic daily tasks are to be performed
O the protector of the three worlds; O the remover of the mortal pleasures of the devotees of the Hari; O the one, the resplendence of whose waters win over the brilliance of hundreds of moons; O the one who makes the Nandanavana (forest of the deities) bow down with the majesty of its great trees; O the forest of best among the descendants of Rāghu, you shine forth like the dense treasure of abstention
The Bhṛṅgadūtam should be read, melodiously sung and contem- plated upon day in and day out by the devotees of Lord Rāma
I am the same person who was considered to be inauspicious for accompany- ing a marriage party ... I am the same person who currently inaugurates the biggest of marriage parties or welfare ceremonies. What is all this? It is all due to the grace of God which turns a straw into a vajra and a vajra into a straw
O the one who is as dear as life to Rāma, O the delightful one, O the power of Rāma, O the one with eyes like lotuses, O queen, O Sītā, grant me the most beautiful devotion towards RāmaJagadguru RāmabhadrācāryaIndian polyglot and Hindu religious leader (Born this day 1950) O the omnipotent Lord, the remover of the distress of your worshippers! Protect me, who is being consumed by the extremely dreadful fire of sorrows, who is helplessly falling in the ocean of the mundane world, who is without any protector, who is ignorant, and who is bonded by the shackles of delusion
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2014 7:24:17 GMT 10
The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed
I wish to say that we Anarchists have never changed our position. We are Anarchists as of old and still pursue the same ideals
But we must create in each person a sense of responsibility in order that each one of us can have the right to enjoy all his rights
Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller
Men are as we have always known them, neither better nor worse from the hearts of rogues there springs a latent honesty, from the depths of honest men there emerges a brutish appetite — a thirst for extermination, a desire for blood
In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship
The people themselves, and only the people, determine the rhythm of our fightFederica MontsenySpanish anarchist Minister of Health (1936) (Died this day 1994) We need no messiah and no sterile conception of a god menacing us with hell and purgatory
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 15, 2014 7:30:25 GMT 10
Wednesday’s Quotes:I prefer an interesting vice to a virtue that bores
Things only have the value that we give them
One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable
Don't appear so scholarly, pray. Humanize your talk, and speak to be understood
I assure you that a learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool
It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm rightMolièreFrench dramatist ( Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope) (Baptized this day 1622) We die only once, and for such a long time
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 15, 2014 7:31:27 GMT 10
When deeds speak, words are nothing
If I had to answer the following question: — What is slavery? — and if in a single word I were to reply: it is murder, my thought would have been understood right from the start. I would not need to speak for long, to demonstrate that the power to deprive a man of thought, will, and personality, is a power of life and death, and that to enslave a man is to murder him. Why then to that other question: — What is property? — could I not answer likewise: — it is theft —, without the certainty of being misunderstood, though this second proposition be but the first, transformed?
Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government
All parties without exception, when they seek for power, are varieties of absolutism
To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is it's justice; that is it's morality
Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak
The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!Pierre-Joseph ProudhonFrench politician (libertarian socialist / anarchist) (Born this day 1809) All men are equal and free: society by nature, and destination, is therefore auto- nomous and ungovernable. If the sphere of activity of each citizen is determined by the natural division of work and by the choice he makes of a profession, if the social functions are combined in such a way as to produce a harmonious effect, order results from the free activity of all men; there is no government. Whoever puts a hand on me to govern me is an usurper and a tyrant; I declare him my enemy
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 15, 2014 7:32:58 GMT 10
Remember we are but travellers here
We must teach more by example than by word
Do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God
Courage, courage, trust in God who helps you in all things
We feel our crosses hard at times, but our courage should rise with them
Let God’s Spirit guide you in your choice
God gives me strength for what is necessaryMary MacKillopAustralia’s first native-born Catholic Saint (Born this day 1842) Never see a need without doing something about it(Mary’s motto in life)
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 15, 2014 7:33:54 GMT 10
The science of today is the technology of tomorrow
A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective
Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction
Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible
Laboratory work was my first challenge ... I still carry the scars of my first discovery — that test-tubes are fragile
My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually winEdward TellerHungarian-American nuclear physicist (Born this day 1908) In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning[The next two revolutions occurred ... in the early part of the twentieth century: the theory of relativity and the science of quantum mechanics ...]
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 15, 2014 7:34:46 GMT 10
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains
Being human means throwing your whole life on the scales of destiny when need be, all the while rejoicing in every sunny day and every beautiful cloud
Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently
The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening
Without general elections, without freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, without the free battle of opinions, life in every public institution withers away, becomes a caricature of itself, and bureaucracy rises as the only deciding factor
The modern proletarian class doesn't carry out its struggle according to a plan set out in some book or theory; the modern workers' struggle is a part of history, a part of social progress, and in the middle of history, in the middle of progress, in the middle of the fight, we learn how we must fight... That's exactly what is laudable about it, that's exactly why this colossal piece of culture, within the modern workers' movement, is epoch-defining: that the great masses of the working people first forge from their own consciousness, from their own belief, and even from their own understanding
Tomorrow the revolution will 'rise up again, clashing its weapons, and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!Rosa LuxemburgPolish-born German Marxist philosopher and revolutionary (Executed with Karl Liebknecht this day 1919) Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelations. Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength
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