no. 726

 

 It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree—not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself—and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fishermen’s song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed. 

Jiddu Krishnamurti, This Matter of Culture

no. 725

 

"Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters...Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise."

--Umberto Eco

no. 724

 

"It's not that Christianity has failed, it's just never been tried. "

G K Chesterton

No. 723

 

In particular, the rise of the government was rewritten to reflect a deliberate political campaign designed to make people fearful enough to throw out a government which was being systematically attacked by the people wanting to replace it. Granted, the previous government hadn't been all that effective, but a lot of reasons why came out in the wash. 

The sad part was, the media couldn't see their own role in the events. When the media is owned by those who believe they have the right to choose leaders, and who also believe that only the rich have the right to make decisions, the media ceases to be an objective reporting tool, and becomes an instrument of criminal conspiracy. The sad thing was, nothing had really changed in six hundred years. Well the criminals were now exposed, but how long before they were replaced with more of the same?

from Hire A Hero by Timothy Ellis

Sound Familiar?

no. 722

War as a moral metaphor is limited, limiting, and dangerous. By reducing the choices of action to “a war against” whatever-it-is, you divide the world into Me or Us (good) and Them or It (bad) and reduce the ethical complexity and moral richness of our life to Yes/No, On/Off.

Ursula K. LeGuin

no. 721

Voldemort is the villian you hope to never face.

Umbridge is the villian you face EVERY DAY.

unknown

no. 720

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”


Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President

no. 719

case 225

The Three Most Terrifying Words

The nun Hwídah was eating lunch with her clan when a senior monk approached, seeking her aid with a production issue. Not wishing to disturb the others, the senior monk bent down to whisper in Hwídah’s ear.
“Ah,” said Hwídah, rising from the table. “The three most terrifying words.” Immediately she departed with the senior monk.
A novice who witnessed this exchange happened upon the senior monk that evening. The novice asked, “What were those ‘three most terrifying words’?”
The senior monk replied, “Possible race condition.”
The novice thought a moment and said brightly, “Tell Hwídah that those cannot be the ‘three most terrifying words’, for the words ‘Definite race condition’ would be even more terrifying!”
The senior monk laughed and continued on his way.

That night the novice fell into long, terrible nightmares from which he was unable to wake. After what seemed like an eternity he came to his senses, twisted up inside his own bedsheets.
Tossing off the mangled covers, the novice found himself alone in the middle of a featureless desert. An empty sedative bottle lay on the sand nearby. Tied to it was a tightly-folded map of the whole world: all its continents and its mountains and its many, many deserts.
Inside one desert was a tiny red dot, pointed to by a tiny red arrow, next to which was some tiny red text in Hwídah’s handwriting which read, “Possibly your location”.


The Codeless Code
Fables and Köans for the Software Engineer

no. 718

 

“You are a Shit Spotter. It's satisfying work. ... We have observed that most of the trouble in the world has been caused by ten to twenty percent of folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus…The mark of a basic shit is that he has to be right. 

— William Burroughs

no. 717

 DAVID BRANCACCIO: There's a little sweet moment, I've got to say, in a very intense book-- your latest-- in which you're heading out the door and your wife says what are you doing? I think you say-- I'm getting-- I'm going to buy an envelope.

KURT VONNEGUT: Yeah.

DAVID BRANCACCIO: What happens then?

KURT VONNEGUT: Oh, she says well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.

I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know. The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around.

And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.

(Source: NOW on PBS, David Brancaccio interviews Kurt Vonnegut discussing his then newly published Book: A Man Without a Country https://amzn.to/3sEBU1I)

no. 715

“Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. 

Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.”

~ Bertrand Russell

no. 714

 All conservative ideologies justify existing inequities as the natural order of things, inevitable outcomes of human nature. If the very rich are naturally so much more capable than the rest of us, why must they be provided with so many artificial privileges under the law, so many bailouts, subsidies and other special considerations - at our expense? Their "naturally superior talents" include unprincipled and illegal subterfuge such as price-fixing, stock manipulation, insider training, fraud, tax evasion, the legal enforcement of unfair competition, ecological spoliation, harmful products and unsafe work conditions. One might expect naturally superior people not to act in such rapacious and venal ways. Differences in talent and capacity as might exist between individuals do not excuse the crimes and injustices that are endemic to the corporate business system. ~Michael Parenti 

(Book: Blackshirts and Reds https://amzn.to/3cIDgEe)

(Art: Illustration by Jon Krause)

Stolen from Facebook

no. 713

 

“I like your Christ.  Your Christians?  Not so much.” 

Ghandi

no. 712

 "Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you, but won't give you the key, that lock is not there for your benefit."

Doctorow’s First Law (Cory Doctorow)

no. 711

 “ Heat is such a daunting problem in part because the most effective, efficient coping mechanism for humans - doing nothing - is incompatible with capitalism. “

Ed Burmilla of Gin and Tacos

no. 710

 

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”

Joseph Campbell 

no. 709

 “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.“

Anatole France

no. 708

“Women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage.”

Gloria Steinem

no. 707

 

Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

no. 706

 “America’s immense heritage of idealistic ability is squandered by a system which divides all power between the prejudices of the ignorant many and the ruthlessness of the plutocratic few.”

— Bertrand Russell, Bertrand Russell's America: His Transatlantic Travels and Writings A Documented Account, Volume One 1896-1945, Part II. British and American Nationalism, p. 234