Me too.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Friday, April 06, 2012
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
The modern poor
The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.
John Berger
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Word of the day: Solipsism
Solipsism (
/ˈsɒlɨpsɪzəm/) is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self). Solipsism as an epistemological position holds thatknowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist. As such it is the only epistemological position that, by its own postulate, is both irrefutable and yet indefensible in the same manner. Although the number of individuals sincerely espousing solipsism has been small, it is not uncommon for one philosopher to accuse another's arguments of entailing solipsism as an unwanted consequence, in a kind of reductio ad absurdum. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis.
/ˈsɒlɨpsɪzəm/) is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. The term comes from Latin solus (alone) and ipse (self). Solipsism as an epistemological position holds thatknowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. The external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist. As such it is the only epistemological position that, by its own postulate, is both irrefutable and yet indefensible in the same manner. Although the number of individuals sincerely espousing solipsism has been small, it is not uncommon for one philosopher to accuse another's arguments of entailing solipsism as an unwanted consequence, in a kind of reductio ad absurdum. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis. Saturday, March 17, 2012
One is a religious fanatic...
One is a religious fanatic railing against secularism, the role of women in the workplace, and the evils of higher education, as he seeks to impose his draconian moral values upon the state. The other is the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah or Grand Old Party?
Friday, March 16, 2012
Truth where you find it...
Skinner's Constant (or Flannagan's Finagling Factor):
That quantity which, when multiplied by, divided by, added to,
or subtracted from the answer you get, gives you the answer you should
have gotten.
Unabashedly borrowed from Slackware Fortune
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Moral justification of capital?
The idea that the profits of capital are really the rewards of a just society for the foresight and thrift of those who sacrificed the immediate pleasures of spending in order that society might have productive capital, had a certain validity in the early days of capitalism, when productive enterprise was frequently initiated through capital saved out of modest incomes. The idea, as a moral justification of present inequalities of privilege, has become more and more dishonest, since the increased centralization of power and privilege makes it possible for those who make the largest investments in industry to do so without any diminution of even the most luxurious living standards. Since we are living in a world in which there is too much capital for production and too little for consumption, the argument that economic inequality is necessary for the accumulation of capital resources has lost even its economic validity. Yet it is still used by privileged classes to establish a specious connection between virtue or social function and privilege.
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
Moral Man and Immoral Society, 1932
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Economy
Economy
by Sandra Beasley After you've surrendered to pillows
and I, that second whiskey,
on the way to bed I trace my fingers
over a thermostat we dare not turn up.
You have stolen what we call the green thing—
too thick to be a blanket, too soft to be a rug—
turned away, mid-dream. Yet your legs
still reach for my legs, folding them quick
to your accumulated heat.
These days
only a word can earn overtime.
Economy: once a net, now a handful of holes.
Economy: what a man moves with
when, even in sleep, he is trying to save
all there is left to save.
by Sandra Beasley After you've surrendered to pillows
and I, that second whiskey,
on the way to bed I trace my fingers
over a thermostat we dare not turn up.
You have stolen what we call the green thing—
too thick to be a blanket, too soft to be a rug—
turned away, mid-dream. Yet your legs
still reach for my legs, folding them quick
to your accumulated heat.
These days
only a word can earn overtime.
Economy: once a net, now a handful of holes.
Economy: what a man moves with
when, even in sleep, he is trying to save
all there is left to save.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
If Fox News covered the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s
If Fox News covered the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60sJoin me on DIASPORA - a real alternative to Fazebook!
Don't crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers...
FAREWELL, DEAR FRIEND: PETER BERGMAN (1939-2012)
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Sunday, March 04, 2012
Abstract conversations
Abstract conversations
Instead of telling our vulnerable stories, we seek safety in abstractions, speaking to each other about our opinions, ideas and beliefs rather than about our lives. Academic culture blesses this practice by insisting that the more abstract our speech, the more likely we are to touch the universal truths that unite us. But what happens is exactly the reverse: as our discourse becomes more abstract, the less connected we feel. There is less sense of community among intellectuals than in the most "primitive" society of storytellers.
Parker J. Palmer
A hidden wholeness
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Theology needs transformation
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Lessons in leadership
1. Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring other to move beyond it
2. Lead from the front - but don't leave your base behind
2. Lead from the front - but don't leave your base behind
3. Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front
4. Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport
5. Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter - and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. Quitting is leading too
Nelson Mandela
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