Barbs & Wires
that sums it up
"Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than
dolphins because he had achieved so much ... the wheel, New York,
wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck
about in the water having a good time. But conversely the dolphins
believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely
the same reasons."
Douglas
Adams (*1952)
Ernest Hemingway
... became the most famous writer of the century, but it was for
everything except writing. He killed at least one each of every
animal in Africa. He caught at least one each of every big fish
in the sea. Hemingway's lethal exploits were written up in the
new picture magazines Life and Look, with photographs taken on
the site of the massacre. Often Hemingway contributed the pose
himself. He didn't actually kill every bull in Spain, but he liked
watching. He wrote a book about it. He used simple sentences.
He said the simple life of the instincts was better than too much
thought.
In 1959 Hemmingway was back in Spain to watch the bulls bite the dust. Or else he was out in the Gulf Stream killing fish. Or else he was in Africa killing animals again. Hemmingway was always killing something. He called it an appetite for life. Hemingway lived in Key West, in Cuba, and in all the world's best hotels, always talking about the good wine and the good food and the good season. But he no longer wrote good books, although the Nobel Prize followed one of his worst, The Old Man and the Sea.
In Africa, on the hunt for the few
remaining animals he had not already killed, Hemingway had a plane
crash and woke up to read his own obituaries. His next move was
to have another plane crash. When he recovered from that one he
went fishing. He could never have enough of killing living things.
Finally he did it to himself, with a shotgun.
Clive
James
our constitutional dilemma
A:
"The historian in me has a dim idea what the originators
of the electoral college may have had in mind - seen in a context
of horse drawn carriages and smoke signals as the fastest means
of communication. But the election of the President of the United
States is the election of the Union's head of state: he is everybody's
president not just for the people in Milwaukee, Delaware, and
Rhode Island. And if Missouri needs to speak for herself, she
has her governor and local senate to do so. The President of the
United States is my and every individual's president regardless
how such individual may feel for his or her state. The electoral
college has one and one purpose only, to elect the President,
therefore it is obsolete and self-defeating in a time when the
popular majority of all individuals can be known in the same night,
even before closing the polls. In fact the elector's legal right
to overrule the figures from his constituency is a slap in the
face for everything democracy is standing for. The electoral college
has the function and capacity to introduce bias in an affair where
only the figures should count. So why do we continue to cling
so tenaciously to this archaic institution? We don't go to work
on horseback anymore!"
B: "Different people elect presidents for different reasons, so do different groups of people ... "
A: "... are you trying to tell me that the people in Tennessee have a different agenda when voting for a President than the people in California, hence you need the electors to put things right? Well, hard luck buddy, if the interest of the Californians is outweighing yours in sheer numbers, then there must be a reason for it, a reason which figures in the Union's gross annual income. Their interest simply deserves to enjoy the priority as mirrored in the majority figures."
B: "Hey! Just imagine the whole world would be one big happy family under one state with popular majority rule, then the two groups with the lowest income, the peasant populations in China and India would be the ones pulling the weight and totalling out every other voter group - is that really what you want?"
A: "Why, have they no right to be represented?"
B:
"Sure, but do you really think their interests weigh as much
as the exponentially more productive interests of some much smaller
groups? And this is limiting the argument only to the economic
aspect. We even don't go to the cultural ramifications. Popular
democracy can get us into the strangest places, my friend ...
."
S.
dairymaid account
In 1995 a British politician discribed the most recent changes
in our economy as turning the under-educated labour-force from
needless but decently payed jobs into subsidised redundancies,
meaning that this actually would reduce the costs for the taxpayer.
But his facial expression and a sudden pause between two phrases
was a dead giveaway for what this actually means in terms of human
dignity and motivation. And the reasoning is actually wrong. Those
people did not receive their income from taxes, but from redundant
branches of obsolete industry which indeed meant smaler profit
margins for the money lender. But their income still contributed
to the most important factor of any economy: domestic purchasing
power. The only legitimate fuel of any ecnomy. On the dole they
contribute nothing. In other words, they are laid off for the
interests of an other minority group, which has the financial
muscle to force their fellow human beings into redundancy for
no other reason but to increase their own profits. And they dare
telling us, Marx is passé?
S.
I.Q. bluess
Darwin's fitness gym: survival of the sharpest. Which is not exactly
survival of the smartest. Calling you bright refers to your I.Q.,
calling you sharp acknowledges your knack of making the best with
what amount of brains you are endowed with. What makes uneasy,
is the aspect to leave this beautiful world to the manipulators
alone. Thinkers don't count.
S.
oh those were the days ...
When I still didn't know much about penises at the time I looked
it up in a book appropriately called a "dick-tionary."
S.
cold war
... was a new concept and given the most recent developments in
our blessed post-cold-war world, a successful concept. That it
should lead to one side's "victory" was a flaw in the
execution. It left behind a world which is clearly less manageable
and less secure with numberless hot little wars flaring up everywhere.
S.
fact & fiction
"A strong imagination creates the event."
Montaigne (1533-1592)
even Aristotle had his moments
According to Aristotle we are no human being before the 40th day
after birth. Incidentally that is the day when most babies learn
to gratify their completely manipulated parents for their round
the clock services with a little peel of laughter. There was more
to the old schoolmaster than meets the eye. But also notice the
cruel aspect of what makes us laugh.
S.
shaken, not stirred
Grown up in a world of films and TV commercials, we perceive things
differently from the verbal continuum of previous ages, more fragmented:
We live on clever phrases, often barely eloquent, on attitudes
and posing.
S.
the storybook
All the influence the Bible actually had in shaping our civilization
is due to the fact that it is a storybook. Stories are meat for
the imagination. Starve the imagination from stories and suffer
the consequences.
S.
the 'Stone of Destiny'
1998, the 'Stone of Destiny,' the coronation seat of Scottish
kings, was returned to Scotland. With parades, gun salutes and
everything. Later in the program a Scottish historian pointed
out that there are no actual records for the removal of the stone
to London. That in fact the stone, if ever there was any, never
left the country. It may still lie in the fields at Edinburgh
Castle where hundreds of slabs litter the lawns. But since one
stone there looks like any other, nobody is quite sure which one
is which. On top of everything it was revealed that the coronation
stone was the one which Jacob took for his pillow, when he had
that dream!!!!
S.
the giveaway
"Postmodernism"
- speak of contradictions in terms. The people who coined the
label hoped that nobody would notice the good old fashioned "syncretism"
underneath. Of course being "syncretistic" has a slightly
derogative connotation - it reminds the groove-snob too much of
the Victorians and the Roman Empire - hey did you really think
being "postmodern" is something new? Hello: déjà
vu! The only difference is the latter day communication speed.
Today we do in minutes what previously took years. And what is
it all about? A mess of styles thrown together by confused minds
in search for their style. Blah.
S.
a valid question
When the subject of "black holes" first comes up in
physics classes, a frequently asked question is "If nothing
can escape the event horizon because nothing can propagate faster
than light, how does gravity get out of a black hole?" The
question is still valid.
S.
inside out
In a very large black hole, say of a mass of one hundred million
times that of our Sun, the conditions beyond but close to the
event horizon would be very mild. The average density of matter
within the horizon would be about that of air. At this moment,
we could all be living inside a very large black hole (say of
the size of the universe) without noticing anything amiss. In
fact, when we look back in time to the end of the light-cone,
i.e. towards the "Big Bang," we actually could be looking
to the center of a black hole. For an observer located close to
the even horizon, it would be impossible to tell the difference
between real expansion and static increase of overall mass. But
we would have to postulate an invisible and inaccessible environment
outside of our Black Hole, which for us would be representing
the entire universe.
S.
Everett's Universe
The waking have one common
world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own.
Heraclit (c.535-c.475)
credulity
"People will believe anything. Except, it seems, the truth."
Jeanette
Winterson
ecclesiastic history
No mater how far back we track a document, the church or a church-like
organization is already there as custodian of the tradition. From
this I conclude we would be misguided to look for the beginnings
of a new cult. Instead what we are after is the moment when the
new sectarian movement splits off from an older mother religion;
in other words we look for "heresy."
S.
it's there for everyone who can read
Does it actually bother nobody that the early outbreaks of hysterical
sightings of the resurrected (Mark 9:2-10; Jn. 20:2,
10; Acts 2:14-36) used to happen in the presence of people
who simply saw nothing - just a bunch of seemingly raving lunies
and drunks? Even Peter himself admits that much.
S.
God?
"God wouldn't be popular
with you, if the natural atheist in you wouldn't be panicking."
Edmund
White (*1940)
let's not misunderstand each other
Whoever thinks that any system of social security could ultimately
dry all the tears, or that science has the answer to everything,
is sorely mistaken. Science is a specific methodology for the
acquisition of knowledge, in fact the only methodology that works.
It does give us the truth. Euclid's 'Elements' had for two thousand
years been the only book of indisputable truth on the planet.
But I doubt that during this time anybody on his deathbed had
been able to draw comfort from the fact that the sum of all angles
in a triangle makes two right angles. There is a sadness oozing
from "the velvet at the bottom of all things," and I
am not sure that rationalism has taught us to face it squarely.
(The nowadays common mix-up of 'tragedy' with merely sad and sentimental
stories is a telling sign; the loss of the sense for the tragic
and the whole complex of values and insights surrounding it, has
consequences. It de-humanizes.) That is why the religious rabble
with their false promises is still able to be crowding the door.
Rationalism has failed us because in order to save a precarious
status quo in the division between church and state, it left religion
with the monopoly to address the issue of consolation and comfort.
But no matter how outmoded the religious legacy appears to be
- coming from the early bronze age and handed down to us through
dynasties of priests, shamans, and charlatans - we cannot afford
not to address their issues. The failure to do so has in recent
history led to consequences no less brutal than the history of
religious (especially Christian and Islamic) terror over the believing
mind and the infidel's body.
S.
Eucharist
Real canibals may have an excuse for their diet; for ritual canibalism
I know none.
S.
the New Testament
"It is amazing that God learned Greek to speak to the human
race. Even more amazing is that he did not learn it better."
Friedrich
Nietzsche
(1844-1900)
papal encyclicals
As ever - the Catholic enthusiasm
for thought prohibitions never fails.
S.
the human touch
"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, yet he
will make gods by the dozen."
Michel
de Montaigne (1533-1592)
reflection on an ancient heretic
If Satan incarnate came to visit us, how do you think he would
introduce himself - as "Satan," or as "Christ?"
S.
worth a study
In the Egyptian pantheon the sinister Seth was the spirit of darkness
and cruelty as opposed to Hathor, the goddess of beauty and merriment.
Could it be, the Yahweh of the fugitive Hebrews, if he wasn't
merely the genie or familiar spirit, from Jethro's hearth fire
(Exodus 3:1) was actually an incognito for Seth? And
he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see
me, and live (Ex. 33:20); and it came to pass by the way
in the inn, that the LORD met Moses, and sought to kill him
(Ex. 4:24); and Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a
man with him until the breaking of the day (Gen. 32:24).
S.
the scariest news I've heard recently
The law in Pakistan makes going to school mandatory. Isn't that
so everywhere? Not quite! In Pakistan the country doesn't spend
a penny on their schools. Therefore a large proportion of the
children, who incidentally come mostly from the poorest and disenfranchised,
observe the law by going to Koran schools, so called Medreses,
where they literally learn nothing but the Koran. Rarely has a
beneficial law been perverted to such extreme degree. And such
country is a nuclear power! Can you imagine what this may mean,
one day?
S.
opinions
Dogs have fleas, people have opinions.
S.
gunlobby
In 1914 a pistol-shot ignited the great European war, today it
is the Balkans stretching all over the globe and Charlton Heston
promoting the proliferation of handguns. I always thought he was
a decent guy. I was wrong.
S.
eternal recurrence?
"That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet"
Emily
Dickinson (1830-1886)
a keen observation
"It is strange to
observe that the most effective use of Scripture phraseology arises
out of the application of it in a sense not intended by the author."
Benjamin
Jowett (1817-1893)
these parochial obsessions of ours
Translators are so obsessed with getting right the Texan crease
in their jeans (nobody wants to be all-American anymore) that
they completely forget that there is more to communication than
local flavors and cute soundbites. Literature is not a cooking
show.
S.
his greatest fan
Dr. Goebbels saw to it that every German soldier carried in his
backpack a copy of Hamsun's Nobel piece, the "Growth of
the Soil." Basically the book is a well written manifesto
of blood and soil for the radical right - Hamsun was not messing
about and in Germany many lesser talents imitated the artfully
retarded diction. Then came 1945, and Hamsun's imitators under
the cover of anonymity turned to writing children's books. Imagine
that!
S.
theoretical science in ancient Rome
My own fascination with Rome
does not cloud my awareness that imperial Rome's political success
had effectively put a stop to the progress of theoretical science.
During the Hellenistic era, after Alexander's death, the sciences
were thriving. Before Christianity became state-religion, we know
of no official pressure or infringement; only of official neglect.
But the scientific genius of the period had already migrated from
free research into engineering and architecture. It would be interesting
to identify the cultural factor that had had such negative effect.
Was it lack of public funding after the death of the last scion
of the Ptolemys (Cleopatra)? The absence of a system of public
schools? The narrow-minded inertia of the ancient stock exchange?
You tell me.
S.
no such thing as empty space, Mr. Newton
"I don't say that matter and
space are the same thing. I only say, there is not space, where
there is no matter; and that space in itself is not an absolute
reality."
Gottfried
Leibnitz
(16461716:
in a letter responding to Newton's idea of the reality of an absolute
space that is independent of the existence of matter.)
the highwayman
Mohammed, according to his Arabic biographers, spent a critical
time of his life waylaying caravans and poisoning wells - which
in a land of desert people for every lesser mortal would have
been an unspeakable crime. Since it was a "holy war"
and it was left to the victorious to write its history, nobody
blinks an eye.
S.
not enchanted
I must admit, I have read the Koran only once in translation and
I was struck by the monotony of an "endless and incoherent
rhapsody of fable and precept." But then, I don't read Arabic.
The Koran as imaginative literature, has little to redeem it.
Except for a suggestion which is even not part of the book itself:
One day Al-Buraq, the Prophet's magical horse, carried Mohammed
to heaven, and on its departure toppled a water jar. The travel
lasted a whole week, but on the prophet's return the still listing
jar just hit the ground and spilled the first drops. (In Einstein's
universe clocks traveling close to light velocity go infinitely
slow, while clocks on earth continue calling standard time.)
S.
Mary's virginity
We know that the prophet suited his revelations to exigencies
of policy and passions, and subsequently amplified the scripture
to abrogate previous contradictions. Mohammed's companions recorded
his utterances on palm-leaves and the shoulder bones of mutton.
These recordings were cast into a domestic chest in the custody
of one of his wives. Two years after Mohammed's death, Abubeker
collected the text and the Caliph Othman revised the work in the
30th year of the Hegira. And if Gibbon is to believed, the Catholic
Church appropriated the doctrine of Mary's virginity from the
Koran.
S.
sceptical about Einstein
These days, physicists build their calculations around "four
dimensional spacetime." But we know for sure, that space,
real space, still has no more than three directions. And time
is intimately linked to the emission and consumption of energy
and Clausius' second law. If there really would be such a thing
as a continuum of space and time in four dimensions, the actual
value of Newton's gravity constant would be different and produce
a universe in which the bodies roll apart and bounce about like
balls on a billiard table. (However there wouldn't be sizable
bodies in the first place: a spatially four dimensional Universe
doesn't contain matter as we know it.) In fact latest astronomical
triangulations show, there is even not much of a curvature out
there - triangles in interstellar and intergalactic space measure
up close to the usual 180° on a flat surface. How boring.
S.
midlife
"Once a man passes into
his 40s, he has become a certified rogue!"
Chinese
proverb
"War is the father of all and the king of all; ... Homer was wrong in saying: "Would that strife might perish from among gods and humans!" He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the universe; for, if his prayer were heard, all things would pass away" (Heraclit c.535-c.475).
True: these days many more heart
patients survive their first heart attack because of the emergency
techniques developed in the Vietnam War. It is mathematically
inevitable, that the number of rescued heart patients will outgrow
the number of casualties from that war.
S.
archaeology
Archaeologists from a distant
future - say, two millennia from now - should easily be able to
date our skeletal remains. For instance, I was born when the world
powers were testing hydrogen bombs in our atmosphere; so every
bone from that period contains deposits of strontium, a fallout
product of nuclear explosions. (Proudly shall I wear this batch
from the dawn of the nuclear age.) Younger people, born in the
seventies and later, will be recognizable by their dentures -
there have been significant advances in dental care. (My childhood
was still surrounded by black spotted teeth and gaps in the incisors.)
Other clues are provided by new materials in hip-replacements.
S.
torture box experiments
Remember? They picked up the odd bystander from the street and
asked to push buttons on an impressive setup of flashing lights
and curved scales. It was introduced as part of a "pedagogic
experiment." For all appearances it seemed to apply electric
shocks to a person in the next room (partly visible through a
glass panel) who apparently writhed in pain. The people at the
button were decent blokes and lasses like you and me; housewives
and insurance brokers. A man in a white smock gave instructions
with an air of dignified authority. What he didn't tell, was,
that the wired up guinea-pig behind the glass-panel was a student
from acting school. Some hesitated, but barely anybody refused
to "increase" the voltage, despite of heartrending screams
from the other room, for effect amplified on the intercom speaker.
The experiment confirmed that most people want to be told what
to do. Even battle hardened conquistadors used to ask for absolution
after a massacre and for indulgences before. There is wickedness
in human nature, but this doesn't change the fact that a catalyst
is needed to set it in motion.
S.
a public relations problem
The Renaissance had improved the Church's image but not the attitude.
The Holy Office's responded to the printing press with the infamous
index of forbidden books; Bruno attended his own barbecue as the
main course and Galilei was presented with a pair of thumbscrews.
S.
no joy with all that Freud
Children of the 60s would have had no difficulties to identify
Freud as a "guru." Basically that's what Freud had been.
He doped his clients with cocaine into hysteria and exorcised
hysteria as a profitable neurosis. For the record: in his entire
lifetime, despite of claims, Freud did not cure even one single
patient - including the "Wolfman." But he created an
industry.
S.
I'm not making this up
President Kennedy and President Lincoln were elected to Congress
in '46 of their respective centuries. Both were elected President
in '60. Both had the legality of their elections contested. Both
were directly involved with black civil rights. Both lost
a son while serving as President. Both were killed while
serving as President. Lincoln's staffer, whose name was Kennedy,
advised him not to go to the theater. Kennedy's secretary,
whose name was Lincoln, advised him not to go to Dallas. A
week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A
week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe. Both
were shot on a Friday. Both were shot in the head from behind. Both
were shot in the presence of their wives. Both were shot
while sitting with another couple. Both were shot with another
member of their entourage being injured, but not fatally. Both
assassins were born in '39. Both were Southerners favoring
extremist views. Both are known by their first, middle and
last names. Booth ran from the theater and was captured in a warehouse. Oswald
ran from the warehouse and was captured in a theater. Both
were themselves assassinated before their trials. Both President's
successors were Southern Democrats. (How so? Did Lincoln choose
a running mate from the other party?) Both successors
had the last name of Johnson. Both successors were Vice-Presidents. Both
successors were born in '08. Both successors were former
senators.
S.
the Piggy & Kermit show
I was already beyond that age where one could claim to have "grown
up" with Sesame Street. But I still like Kermit - he would
have made a good president. However, I sometimes wonder about
the damage done by Sesame Street to groom the budding reader and
prepare him for poetry? From that perspective, most adults will
look back with embarrassment and swear never again to open a poetry
book. Or is this too a generation thing?
S.
in His image
He had made the sinner and
fornicator in His image - what does this tell us about the creator?
S.
our postmodern parochialism
Recently I had a friendly banter with a reviewer who had posted
on his website a list of the ten "greatest cultural figures"
of the 20th century. I couldn't believe my eyes! Was this for
real? I mean we all are entitled to our little hobbies, and everybody
knows that culture reveals itself in the difference how people
do things. But it still boggles the mind to find on this list
a certain Brian Lamb (who is that? never heard of him) George
Orwell, John Wayne (huh?), Elvis (??? if at least he had chosen
Louis Armstrong), Barry Goldwater?????!!?, and of course the inevitable
Ronald Reagan. Apparently Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Alan Turing,
W. H. Auden, James D. Watson & Francis Crick, the Monty Pythons,
or even Henry J. Kaiser and Eisenhower are just not corny enough.
Go figure.
S.
Brian P. Lamb
helped found C-SPAN--the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network--and
has served as the company's chief executive officer since its
beginnings.The concept of a public affairs network that provides
in-depth coverage of national and international issues was a natural
for Lamb, who has been both a journalist and a political press
secretary. Interested in broadcasting from childhood, he worked
at Indiana radio and television stations while attending high
school and college, spinning records, selling ads, and eventually
hosting the locally popular Dance Date television program.After
graduation from Purdue University, Lamb joined the Navy; his tour
included White House duty and a stint in the Pentagon public affairs
office. In 1967, he went home to Lafayette, Ind., and its local
television station. Washington beckoned, however, and he soon
returned to the nation's capital. There, he worked as a freelance
reporter for UPI Audio, a Senate press secretary, and a White
House telecommunications policy staffer. In 1974, Lamb began publishing
a biweekly newsletter called The Media Report. He also
covered communications issues as Washington bureau chief for CableVision
magazine. It was from this vantage point that the idea of
a public affairs network delivered by satellite began to take
shape. By 1977, Lamb won the support of key cable industry executives
for a channel that could deliver gavel-to-gavel coverage of the
U.S. Congress. Organizing C-SPAN as a not-for-profit comapny,
the group built one of Washington, D.C.'s first satellite uplinks
by March 1979--just in time to deliver the first televised session
of the U.S. House of Representatives to 3.5 million cable households.
With cable industry support, C-SPAN grew rapidly from a part-time
video programming service. Today's C-SPAN employs 244 people and
offers two 24-hour video channels--C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2, plus a
50,000-watt radio station--WCSP-FM--which serves the Washington/Baltimore
area. Still best known for live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the
U.S. Congress, each C-SPAN service also provides unique public
affairs programming on a wide range of news and public policy
issues. More than 75 million households may tune into C-SPAN's
flagship network. Also one of C-SPAN's on-air hosts, Lamb lives
in Arlington, Va.)
what would it have looked like?
W.: "Tell me, why do people always say
it was natural to assume that the sun went around the earth rather
than having the earth rotating around the sun?" - B.:
"Well obviously, because by the looks of it, the sun is going
around the earth." - W.:
"Then tell me, what would have been the looks of an earth
that rotates around the sun?"
Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
a fact to be considered
Of the five greatest geniuses of the western world - Plato, Michelangelo,
Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Albert Einstein - three had been
gay, one was ambiguous, and only one positively straight.
S.
thank you, but no, thanks
A Discourse on Inequality, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"I have received your
new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Never was
such cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One
longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours. But as I have
lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the
impossibility of resuming it. Nor can I embark in search of the
savages of Canada, because the maladies to which I am condemned
render a European surgeon necessary to me; because war is going
on in those regions; and because the example of our actions has
made the savages nearly as bad as ourselves."
Voltaire (1755)
buddhism
A friend of mine said that meditation introduces happiness among
Buddhist monks. It is "good dope," inexpensive and with
no bad side-effects. Some monks may even maintain that "jhana"
is better than sex, because it goes on for hours and "frees
the mind from attachments." Well, I too had my Zen-phase
during adolescence, and I knew all about the Japanese swordsmen
who honed their skills and dulled their minds in meditation; but
seriously: Why should I want to be dissociated from my attachments?
That's what makes me the person I am; it gives meaning to my life;
it is the stuff that matters. Yes, it can cause pain and is the
occasional source of unhappiness - well that's the price for being
alive. But systematically vegetating and withdrawing, if nothing
else, is a waste of the one shot on life we have and pretty boring,
isn't it?
S.
the paradox
The signatories of the American Constitution swore by the principle
of tolerance and the separation of State and Church - but the
paradox is still with us! How can tolerance survive if it includes
its worst enemies? Because if tolerance would make exceptions,
it would no longer be tolerance - right?
S.
free willie
(I'm waxwork in my Willie's hands ... .) Which begs the question:
First: is it one Willie, or many, or everyone's? Second: is it
a real Willie, unreal or a counterfactual superposition? Thirdly:
is a superposition something implied or sub-sequential? Consequential
or dependent? And: Is it actually possible at all? Does Willie
exist? Must he be or can he be? And if he can, why should he?
Says at my ear a sleepy voice - "but we are free to choose?"
S.
school prayer
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the
corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I
say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray
to thy Father which is in secret."
Matthew 6:5-6
"every author creates his own pedigree."
(Jorge Luis Borges)
Dostoyevsky looked for his models at Eugène Sue, Byron,
Ann Radcliffe, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, and Samuel Richardson. Why?
Because they educated their audience in the pleasures of the simple
life of the poor (but secretly disposed of their own children
in the orphanages) and made it a trade, to exaggerate emotions
to a point that it provokes a Pavlovian reflex of conventional
compassion. Even the great Charles Dickens, with a very conscious
look at sales-figures, would do such a thing.
S.
by their language ye shall know them
"It is perfectly clear to me, that Nietzsche was quite mad
and not just in a figurative sense: his incoherence, the leaps
between thoughts, comparisons without telling what he is comparing,
the way he starts a rodomontade without bringing it to an end
- - this positively demented obsession with his own brilliant
superiority!"
Tolstoy
(1828-1910)