"I can say from the era in which I grew up, I don't give a rats ass what you say to me, ok? Unless you are between me and some goal then I have to navigate that in some way. I'd there is a racist person, or sexist person, or a person with some kind ofcultural bias, I want to know that actually. I don't want them to hide that, I want you to say everything that you want to say. I'll say ok that's who you are, that's how you're thinking so now what do I need to do because you're in my way. Do I dig under you, go around you, leap over you or do I go this way and then come out the other side.
Yeah it's longer, it's more effort, it's more energy but on some level it's still the same shit different day."
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thoughts will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.
-- Anwar Sadat
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thoughts will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.
-- Anwar Sadat
Sadat was an interesting person and a great politician and negotiator. I've read his wife's autobiography, which was fascinating and gave many insights into the political development of the region.
Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.
Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.
- Søren Kierkegaard
I don't intend to discuss with a philosopher unless it's at least 3 am and there's some beer involved, but I wonder if Kierkegaard was religious? Or how did he think you could still feel regret after hanging yourself?
Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.
- Søren Kierkegaard
I don't intend to discuss with a philosopher unless it's at least 3 am and there's some beer involved, but I wonder if Kierkegaard was religious? Or how did he think you could still feel regret after hanging yourself?
Well you have a few moments before unconsciousness...
"There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice." -Montesquieu
Which reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy":
We then spoke of the great beauty and importance of Democracy, and were at much trouble in impressing the Count with a due sense of the advantages we enjoyed in living where there was suffrage ad libitum, and no king.
He listened with marked interest, and in fact seemed not a little amused. When we had done, he said that, a great while ago, there had occurred something of a very similar sort. Thirteen Egyptian provinces determined all at once to be free, and to set a magnificent example to the rest of mankind. They assembled their wise men, and concocted the most ingenious constitution it is possible to conceive. For a while they managed remarkably well; only their habit of bragging was prodigious. The thing ended, however, in the consolidation of the thirteen states, with some fifteen or twenty others, in the most odious and insupportable despotism that was ever heard of upon the face of the Earth.
In the words of Thomas Hubert ("The Southern Element in Poe's Fiction"), that line can only be characterized as an "aristocratic scorn for the masses", coupled with "a scorn for democracy and egalitarianism".
To which I answer by quoting Bertolt Brecht, Questions From a Worker Who Reads:
Who built Thebes of the 7 gates?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished,
Who raised it up so many times?
In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live?
Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?
Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them?
Over whom did the Caesars triumph?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants?
Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it,
The drowning still cried out for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War.
Who else won it?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
James Fenimore Cooper
Sorry, yeah two in a row from the same person. It is relevant though right? And honestly, Last of the Mohicans is my second favorite movie of all time.
Second favorite because... Well guys will watch it with me and never complain that it is a love story. So I get to watch one of the greatest movies ever, and guys think it is about violence or polotics. Kay, knowing James Fenimore Cooper it probably was about politics, but it seriously came off as a love story.
Epic story, epic music, epic scenery, and it is a love story. Sorry, shameless plug there. It is an old enough movie that I don't feel guilty though.
Comments
“The future is there... looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.”
― William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses
Yes
Meatloaf
Did you try tuning it off and on again?
-- Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)
Michelle
Yeah it's longer, it's more effort, it's more energy but on some level it's still the same shit different day."
Neil deGrasse Tyson
-Mario Bunge
-- Lord Slim
-George Burns
Hunter S. Thompson
You’re the only that knows
Tell me when you hear my silence
There’s a possibility I wouldn’t know
Lykke Li, Possibility
-- Anwar Sadat
Sadat was an interesting person and a great politician and negotiator. I've read his wife's autobiography, which was fascinating and gave many insights into the political development of the region.
-My wife
*She looked at me immiediately after and said "my brain did a dumb."
-- Solomon Short
-Paul Simon
- Søren Kierkegaard
I don't intend to discuss with a philosopher unless it's at least 3 am and there's some beer involved, but I wonder if Kierkegaard was religious? Or how did he think you could still feel regret after hanging yourself?
Well you have a few moments before unconsciousness...
Which reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy":
We then spoke of the great beauty and importance of Democracy, and were at much trouble in impressing the Count with a due sense of the advantages we enjoyed in living where there was suffrage ad libitum, and no king.
He listened with marked interest, and in fact seemed not a little amused. When we had done, he said that, a great while ago, there had occurred something of a very similar sort. Thirteen Egyptian provinces determined all at once to be free, and to set a magnificent example to the rest of mankind. They assembled their wise men, and concocted the most ingenious constitution it is possible to conceive. For a while they managed remarkably well; only their habit of bragging was prodigious. The thing ended, however, in the consolidation of the thirteen states, with some fifteen or twenty others, in the most odious and insupportable despotism that was ever heard of upon the face of the Earth.
I asked what was the name of the usurping tyrant.
As well as the Count could recollect, it was Mob.
In the words of Thomas Hubert ("The Southern Element in Poe's Fiction"), that line can only be characterized as an "aristocratic scorn for the masses", coupled with "a scorn for democracy and egalitarianism".
To which I answer by quoting Bertolt Brecht, Questions From a Worker Who Reads:
Who built Thebes of the 7 gates?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished,
Who raised it up so many times?
In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live?
Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?
Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them?
Over whom did the Caesars triumph?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants?
Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it,
The drowning still cried out for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War.
Who else won it?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every 10 years a great man.
Who paid the bill?
So many reports.
So many questions.
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
Sorry, yeah two in a row from the same person. It is relevant though right? And honestly, Last of the Mohicans is my second favorite movie of all time.
Epic story, epic music, epic scenery, and it is a love story. Sorry, shameless plug there. It is an old enough movie that I don't feel guilty though.