“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.” — Elizabeth Warren
Every man is a creature of the age in which he lives. Very few are able to raise above the ideas of the time. Voltaire.
Mūsu evolūcijas mantojums ir dārgumu krātuve, kur virspusē guļ nederīgais, nepiemērotais un kaitīgais, kurš jāierobežo un jāveido, bet, dziļāk ielūkojoties, katrs var atrast balvas un vērtības, kas ļauj dzīvot izcili un piepildīti. I. V.
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.”
Montesquieu, (Charles Louis de Secondat) (1689-1755)
I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Albert Einstein
Mēs esam kā ceļinieki, kuriem svešinieks ir iedevis līdzšinējā ceļa aprakstu, bet nav iedevis tā ceļa aprakstu, pa kuru jāiet, lai nokļūtu pie mērķa. I. V.
The aim of science is to make difficult things understandable in a simpler way. The aim of poetry is to state simple things in an incomprehensible way.
Paul Dirac
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect, has intended us to forego their use”. Galileo (1584-1682).
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. ”
Aldous Huxley.
“It is the nature of human species to reject what is true but unpleasant but to embrace what is obviously false but comforting.” H.L. Mencken.
Eric Sevareid’s Law: “The chief source of problems is solutions”.
“What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution, but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and the education of the billions who are its victims.“
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The greatest shortcoming of human race is our inability to understand the simple arithmetic. Albert Bartlett
Thinking is very upsetting, it tells us things we should rather not know.
“Giving society cheap, abundant energy . . . would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.”
~ Paul Ehrlich
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” ― Christopher Hitchens
Ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of, and thinking and learning cures the problem of ignorance.
In contrast stupidity is forever, and being stupid implies wanting to remain ignorant. Lawrence B. Crowell
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
— Bertrand Russell
The majority of people are idiots, and because of this the few can control them. LC
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan
Where a drunken person drinks in order to be happy, who can deny that such a person is happy when drunk? But the happiness can become a crutch and can be unhealthy in the long run. The happiness is only apparent and not real. Leyton M
If you look at the work of the ethologists (people who study animal behaviour) the most striking result to me is that all species develop behaviour patterns appropriate to their life styles and evolutionary niches in which they evolve.
I would suppose that this applies also to that degraded animal species, Homo sapiens. Sydney
“To most of us nothing is so invisible as an unpleasant truth. Though it is held before our eyes, pushed under our noses, rammed down our throats – we know it not.” Eric Hoffer
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes:
– an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and
– the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.
This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl Sagan
“Anyone who thinks that an economy can be expanded forever, within the confines of a finite planet, is either a madman or an economist”. ~ Kenneth Boulding.
Lai valdītu pār citiem, jāvalda pār sevi.
Pilnīgi un daudzpusīgi dzīvi izdzīvo vien tas, kurš dedzīgi ļaujas acumirklim un izdzīvo to tā, it kā tas būtu pēdējais.
Jo mazāk zina, jo vienkāršāk dzīvot. Zināšanas dara brīvu, bet nelaimīgu.
Īstenībā tas taču ir kauns, ka staigā pa zemi un par to gandrīz nekā nezina. Daudz lielāks kauns, ja vispār nezina, kādēļ staigā pa zemes virsu. E. M. Remarks
We have got rid of the fetish of the divine right of kings, and that slavery is of divine origin and outhority. But the divine right of property has taken its place. The tendency plainly is towards…’a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich’.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, US Prezident 1822-1893.
Neticiet tam, kas rakstīts senos manuskriptos, neticiet tam, kas paziņots par pareizu valstī, kurā jūs dzīvojat, neticiet tam, kas jums mācīts bērnībā, bet izdomājiet paši, kas ir patiess, un pēc tam, kad jūs esat par to pārliecinājies, ticiet tam, dzīvojiet saskaņā ar to, un palīdziet citiem ar to dzīvot.
Sidharta Gautama.
Politika – tā ir nozare, kurā nepieņem lēmumus, kas balstās uz faktiem, bet runā par faktiem, kas balstās uz lēmumiem.
Liela daļa cilvēces vēstures pildīta ar cīņu par cilvēka tiesībām. Tā ir mūžīga cīņa, kurā pilnīga uzvara nav iespējama. Bet šīs cīņas atmešana nozīmē cilvēku sabiedrības sabrukumu.
A. Einšteins.
Mūsdienu cilvēces problēmas nevar atrisināt ar to domāšanu, kura šīs problēmas radīja. A. Einšteins
Ateists ir nožēlojams cilvēks, kurš nespēj ticēt lietām, kuras nevar pierādīt. Tādā veidā viņš ir atņēmis sev iespēju justies pārākam par citiem. Chaz Bufe
Kad tehnikas spēki pārspēj morālos, tad mēs nonākam pie vadāmām raķetēm un nevadāmiem cilvēkiem.
Martin Luther King
Ja meli ir pietiekoši lieli un tie tiek atkārtoti pietiekoši bieži, tos sāk uztvert kā patiesību.
Tie, kas turpina ticēt absurdajam, tie turpina rīkoties absurdi. Voltērs
Cilvēki domā, ka viņi ir brīvi, bet tā ir liela kļūda. Brīvi viņi ir tikai tajā dienā, kad vēl parlamentu. Pārējā laikā viņi ir vergi un nekas. Viņi izmanto īso brīvības brīdi, lai to pazaudētu. Un tas ir pelnīti. Ž.Ž. Ruso
98% cilvēku ir saprogrammēti zombēti automāti un tikai 2% tādu nav. Pie tam tie 98% runā par sevi tā, it kā viņi būtu tie 2%.
Neviens cilvēks nekļūst par muļķi, kamēr viņš uzdod jautājumus. Charles Steinmetz
Valodas ir spēles, kuras pie dažādiem noteikumiem tiek izspēlētas dažādās kultūrās, un tādēļ kopēju, universālu izpratni iegūt nav iespējams. L Vitgenšteins.
Smieties bieži un daudz, iegūt inteliģentu cilvēku cieņu un bērnu mīlestību, iegūt godīgu kritiķu atzinību un paciest neīstu draugu nodevību, atstāt pasauli mazliet labāku nekā tā ir bijusi, vai nu veselīgā bērnā vai dārza stūrītī vai uzlabotā sabiedrībā. Zināt, ka cilvēki elpos brīvāk tādēļ, ka jūs esat dzīvojis – tas nozīmē, ka jums ir paveicies. Ralfs Waldo Emersons.
Ja kapitālisms ir vienlīdzīga bagātības sadale, tad sociālisms ir vienlīdzīga nabadzības sadale. Vinstons Čērčils.
Cilvēks, kurš gaida to dienu, sākot ar kuru viņš sāks dzīvot kārtīgi, ir līdzīgs zemniekam, kurš gaida, kamēr upe izžūs. Bet upe plūst un plūst. Horācijs.
Tas, kas cilvēkam netiek teikts, veido viņa pasaules uzskatu un iespaido viņa rīcību tāpat, kā tas, kas tiek teikts. To sauc par propagandu noklusējot. Tāpēc tik daudz pie mums ir slepens.
Charles Sullivan, ASV žurnālists.
Apziņa vai pat aizdomas, ka esi izdarījis kaut ko nepareizu, vajā un rada šausmas jebkuram cilvēkam, kurš sevi nav nocietinājis ar vienaldzību. Ādams Smits.
Tiem, kas nezina, kas ir mīlestība, nav vērts teikt – tāpat nesapratīs. Tiem, kas zina, kas mīlestība ir, arī nav vērts teikt, jo viņi to jau zina. Marlene Dietrich.
Acīmredzamus faktus visgrūtāk ir ieraudzīt pie sevis.
Ar apātiju pret politiku mēs maksājam ar to, ka valsti pārvalda negodīgi cilvēki. Platons.
Īsts džentlmenis izturas ar cieņu arī pret tiem, kas viņam nevar būt noderīgi. E.M. Remarque
Ārišķīgs lepnums un skaļa sava viedokļa aizstāvēšana liecina par iekšēju nedrošību par savu pozīciju.
Kas mēs esam? Ko mēs zinām? Ar nepilnīgām smadzenēm apveltīti radījumi, kas lūkojas Visuma bezgalībā. Radījumi ar eņģeļa spārniem un primātu instinktiem. Artūrs Konan-doils.
A few hours before Adolf Eichmann was executed, a prison warden asked him, “What should the Jews have done? How could they have resisted?”
Cilvēkiem, kuri tic alternatīvajai medicīnai, vajadzētu lidot lidmašīnās, kuras izstrādājuši fiziķi, kuri tic alternatīvajai fizikai. Terence Geogahegan
Ja cilvēki neprot pārvaldīt paši savu dzīvi, tad vēl jo mazāk viņiem var uzticēt vadīt citu dzīves. Thomas Jefferson
Gudri cilvēki šīs vienkāršās patiesības ierakstīja Neatkarības deklarācijā, bet, ja nākotnē kādi cilvēki vai grupas paziņos, ka tikai bagātiem ir pieejama dzīve, brīvība un laime, tad viņu pēcnācējiem jāielūkojoas Neatkarības Deklarācijā un jāatrod sevī drosme atjaunot cīņu, kuru uzsāka viņu tēvi.
Abrahams Linkolns
Cilvēki, kuri nevar apmaksāt savus rēķinus, saņemt medicīnisko palīdzību un pabarot savus bērnus, daudz nerūpējas par apkārtējās vides un citiem globāliem jautājumiem. Lūk, tādēļ nav iespējams atdalīt sociālā taisnīguma un bagātību sadales jautājumus no apkārtējās vides saudzēšanas jautājumiem. Bob Zanelli
Cilvēku esības traģika nav meklējama nelaimēs. Tā ir ieraugāma mūsu nolemtībā. Nolemtībā būt lielo likumu izpildītājiem. Garret Hardin.
Cilvēks vēl joprojām savā ķermenī nes neizdzēšamu savas primitīvās izcelsmes zīmogu. Č. Darvins
Mūsu spēja sevi pārvaldīt atpaliek no mūsu spējas pārvaldīt Dabu. Mēs esam sarežģīta civilizācija. Mēs varam sagraut šo civilizāciju, ja mēs nespēsim pārvaldīt sevi. Dž. Soross.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. Victor Frankl
If ideal objectivity is impossible, failing to strive for it is nonetheless scientific suicide. Norman Levitt.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” A. Einstein
History is the long and tragic story of the fact that priviliged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.
Martin Luther King.
Ticiet saviem sapņiem. Cilvēki, kuri noniecina citu sapņus, savējos ir pazaudējuši. E.M. Remarks
Reliģija bez zinātnes ir akla, bet zinātne bez reliģijas ir mazefektīva. A. Einšteins.
No laimīgas dzīves mūs attālina divas kļūdas:
– tad, kad mūsu dzīvē nepieciešamas lielas izmaiņas, mēs izdarām mazas;
– tad, kad mūsu dzīvē nepieciešamas mazas izmaiņas, mēs tās nedarām, jo domājam, ka vajadzīgas lielas.
Spēja nebūt pretrunā ir laimes priekšnoteikums.
No attāluma jebkurš ceļš šķiet gluds.
Treniņi un fiziska piepūle neprasa laiku. Tie dod mums papildus laiku.
Demokrātija ir nezinoša indivīda ticība kolektīvai zināšanai.
H.L. Mencken
Doma, ka cilvēki atteiksies no irracionāliem priekšstatiem, ja tos konfrontēs ar neapgāžamiem faktiem, ir irracionāls priekšstats, kuru neapstiprina neapgāžami fakti. George Lakoff
Haoss ir tāda sakārtotība, kas rada apjukumu mūsu apziņā.
George Santayana.
Mīlestībā abi domā, ka viņiem ir paveicies.
Lai saņemtu kādus labumus nepelnīti, vajadzīgi saprāts un izglītība. Bez tiem cilvēki turpina tiekties un ilgoties pēc šiem nepelnītajiem labumiem un to saņemšana un uzkrāšana nekad nedod piepildījumu. Plutarhs.
Ar vēlēšanām elite dod cilvēkiem iespēju balsot. Nelaime ir tā, ka tas ļauj viņiem domāt, ka viņi pieņem lēmumus.
Sam Hantington
I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it. —Thomas Paine, 1796
Freedom is the right not to lie. Albert Camus
We must not say every mistake is a foolish one. – Cicero
It’s always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile. – Garry Marshall
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. –
Henry C. Link
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. – Franklin P. Jones
To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all. – Peter McWilliams
Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. –
Sophia Loren
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. –
George Bernard Shaw
A man’s mistakes are his portals of discovery. – James Joyce
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
– Oscar Wilde
Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on?
– Peter McWilliams
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. – Scott Adams
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
– Conrad Hilton
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes. – Winston Churchill
Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.
– Mary Tyler Moore
There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go. – Richard Bach
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
– John Powell
If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down. – Mary Pickford
Fall down seven times, stand up eight. – Chinese proverb
Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche
The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything. – Theodore Roosevelt
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.
Evolution is almost universally accepted among those who understand it, almost universally rejected by those who don’t. Richard Dawkins
Svētīgi tie garā vājie kā rasotas pļavas miglotiem prātiem,
Jo tiem ir dots savu vājumu neapzināties.
Vizma Belševica.
Tad, kad mēs iemācīsimies redzēt, kā darbojas mūsu smadzenes, tad sāksim sevi saprast.
Tad, kad mēs iemācīsimies saprast citus, tad iegūsim mieru.
Tad, kad iemācīsimies patiesīgumu pret sevi, tad sāksim dzīvot.
Līdz pirmajam jādzīvo ilgi. Otro vairākums iegūst ar sevis maldināšanu. Priekš trešā vajadzīga drosme. I.V.
Ja savas kļūdas neredz, tā ir cilvēcīguma pazīme.
Ja savas kļūdas nelabo, tā ir vājuma pazīme.
Ja savas kļūdas noliedz, tā ir muļķības pazīme. I.V.
Indeed, I tremble for my planet, when I reflect that Nature is inflexible: that her response to our abuse cannot sleep forever.
Thomas Jefferson
If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity — and we will leave a ravaged world.
Dr. Henry W. Kendall, Nobel Laureate
No one in their right mind would let a first-century dentist fill their children’s teeth. Why, then, do we allow first-century theologians to fill our children’s minds?” Michael Dowd
Older people can see the injustice with more understanding and compassion. Laura Carstensen
Excessive Privilege should never be due merely to the luck of birth, nor should it ever be excessive even when earned.
Bob Zannelli
Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. We have created Star Wars civilization, with stone age emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.
Edward Osborn Wilson
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires. Epicurus
Turn every challenge into an opportunity, because opportunities open up for the prepared.
The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. Anatole France
Psychopath is someone who wants to do whatever he wants without concern for the consequences for others, and who strongly resents any restraint. kerry
Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds. Richard Feynman
More discoveries come from finding out that you’re wrong than from finding out that you’re right. Ian Linnell
“The old scientific ideal of episteme – of absolutely certain, demonstrable knowledge – has proved to be an idol. The demand for scientific objectivity makes it inevitable that every scientific statement must remain tentative for ever. It may indeed be corroborated, but every corroboration is relative to other statements which, again, are tentative. Only in our subjective experiences of conviction, in our subjective faith, can we be ‘absolutely certain.'”
– The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1934, 1959
Faith is believing what you know isn’t true.
Mark Twain
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
A. Einstein
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
— Plato
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Christopher Columbus
“We are a way for the Universe to know itself”. Carl Sagan
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much higher consideration.” –Abraham Lincoln
The most honorable way a scientist can make his contribution to human progress is to distribute knowledge. For free. I.V.
First love is a kind of vaccination which saves a man from catching the complaint the second time. – Honore de Balzac
College is a place where professor’s lecture notes go straight to the student’s lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either. Mark Twain
The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. Plutarch
To say that God did it is not to explain anything, but simply to offer an excuse for not having an explanation. (Plato, Cratylus)
The price of knowledge is eternal skepticism. Justen Robertson
If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.
If you can’t reproduce it, you don’t understand it.
Power derives from force or the threat of force. Authority is the likelihood that a command, once given, will be obeyed.
Max Weber
If you break the laws of logic or probability theory you decrease your chances of arriving at true beliefs, and if you break the laws of decision theory then you decrease your chances of achieving your goals. Luke Muehlhauser
Give a child religion first, and she may find it hard to shake even when she encounters science.
Give a child science first, and when she discovers religion it will look silly. Luke Muehlhauser
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;
the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
— Plato
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
“Human beings function better if they are deceived by their genes into thinking that there is a disinterested objective morality binding upon them, which all should obey.”
–E. O. Wilson
“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical.”
–Wittgenstein
“Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
–Kant
“Man when perfected is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice he is the worst of all.”
–Aristotle
“I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”‘
— Mark Twain
Not only will men of science have to grapple with the sciences that deal with man, but — and this is a far more difficult matter — they will have to persuade the world to listen to what they have discovered. If they cannot succeed in this difficult enterprise, man will destroy himself by his halfway cleverness.
~ Bertrand Russell, 1951
“Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy.” Chang Tzu
“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
— Alfred North Whitehead
For any belief, it is always possible to come up with a seemingly unlimited amount of supporting evidence.
David P. Barash
Science deals with facts discovered by observation and experimentation. Philosophy deals with beliefs derived by inference from facts.
We owe respect to the living. To the dead we owe only truth.
Voltaire
Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you. Mascha Normann
You are what you do, not what you say.
“Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.”
René Descartes, Discourse on Method, 1637
If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it. Tennessee Williams
You don’t really understand how something works until you can reproduce it yourself.
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance-it is the illusion of knowledge.” -Daniel Boorstin
“…be careful what you wish for, you might get it…”
If there is any inconsistency in a set of axioms then every statement can be proved (and disproved), and nothing of any value remains. Chaitin, G.
Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn’t breaking. It hurts because it’s getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds. Rita Mae Brown
A self is not something static, tied up in a pretty parcel and handed to the child, finished and complete. A self is always becoming. Madeleine L’Engle
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thougt which they seldom use. Soren Kirkegaard
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. Dale Carnegie
Education is not the learning of facts, but the traning of the mind to think. Albert Einstein.
To create, one must question everything. Eileen Gray.
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
Louis Hector Berlioz.
Uz visu skatieties tā, it kā jūs to redzētu pirmo vai pēdējo reizi. Ar to jūs piepildīsiet savu laiku.
Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. David Hume
Mīlēt nozīmē riskēt, ka negūsi pretmīlestību. Cerēt nozīmē riskēt, ka vilsies. Cilvēks, kurš neriskē, neko nedara, neko nepieredz, viņam nepieder nekas, un viņš nav nekas. Viņš nespēj mācīties, mainīties, augt, mīlēt un dzīvot.
Es iešu caur dzīvi tikai vienreiz. Ja ir kāda laipnība, ko varu izrādīt, vai kāds labs darbs, ar ko varu kādam palīdzēt, tas jādara tagad. Jo pa šo ceļu man vairs nebūs lemts iet. Viljamss Penns.
Pasaulē nav vietas gļēvuļiem. Mums visiem ir jābūt gataviem strādāt, ciest un mirt. Tava dzīve nav mazāk cēla tikai tāpēc, ka tev pa priekšu neiet bundzinieks, kad dodies savās ikdienas cīņās, un tevi nesagaida gavilējošs pūlis, kad atgriezies ar uzvaru vai zaudējumu.
Roberts Lūiss Stīvensons.
Panākumi lielā mērā ir atkarīgi no tā, ka tu paliec un izturi tad, kad citi ir atmetuši ar roku. Viljams Peters
Būt gudram nozīmē saprast, cik kļūdaini ir mūsu uzskati un viedokļi, cik nenoteiktas un nestabilas ir vērtības, uz kurām mēs visvairāk paļaujamies. Džeralds Brenans
Tikai tas ir dižs, kas vientuļo vēja balsi pārvērš maigākajā dziesmā ar savu mīlestību. Kahlils Gibrāns
Nav iespējams liels talants bez liela gribasspēka. Onorē De Balzaks
Nežēlo laiku draudzībai – tas ir ceļš uz laimi.
Nežēlo laiku sapņiem – tie aizvedīs tavu kuģi līdz zvaigznēm.
Nežēlo laiku, lai sniegtu un saņemtu mīlestību – tā ir dievu privilēģija.
Nežēlo laiku, lai palūkotos apkārt – diena ir pārāk īsa, lai tu būtu savtīgs.
Nežēlo laiku smiekliem – tā ir dvēseles mūzika.
Mācies no pagātnes, lai mūža galā nebūtu jāsecina, ka tu nemaz neesi dzīvojis. Jo daudzi nonāk līdz brīdim, kad jāpamet sava vieta uz zemes, un, atskatoties atpakaļ, viņi redz prieku un skaistumu, kas tā arī viņiem nepiederēja, jo viņi dzīvoja bailēs. Klervotera
Nesteidzies, neraizējies. Tu esi ieradies tikai uz īsu brīdi. Tāpēc noteikti apstājies un pasmaržo ziedus. Volters Hāgens
Kad es piedzīvoju ārkārtīgi grūtu laiku, kāds man piezvanīja un automātiskajā atbildētājā bija dzirdams, ka viņš spēlāja klavieres.
Bet es tā arī neuzzināju, kurš tas bija.
Mums vajadzētu atcerēties, ka neesam vienīgie, kas reizēm nonāk šķietamā strupceļā. Jau tūkstoši pirms mums ir sastapušies ar līdzīgu likteni un uzvarējuši. Dr. R. Brašs
Mēs visi un ikviens no mums cieš sakāvi neskaitāmas reizes. Ja pieņemam zaudējumu ar gaišu prātu un no tā mācāmies un meklējam citu ceļu – rodam piepildījumu.
Rozanna Ambroza Brauna.
Laime ir kā smaržas, ko tu nevari uzliet citiem, pāris pilienu neuzpilinot arī sev. Ralfs Valdo Emersons.
Nav nepiepildāmu sapņu, ir tikai mūsu ierobežotā uztvere par to, kas ir iespējams. Beta Mende Konija
Vai tu domā, ka vari, vai domā, ka nevari – tev ir taisnība!
Henrijs Fords
Labākā izeja no grūtībām ved cauri grūtībām. Roberts Frosts
Dzīve prasa tikai to spēku, kāds tev ir. Ir jāpaveic tikai viens varoņdarbs – tu nedrīksti bēgt. Dāgs Hammerskjelds
Mums pietiek cilvēku, kas mums stāsta, kā ir. Tagad mums noderētu kāds, kas pateiktu, kā varētu būt. Roberts Orbens
Mūsu pienākums ir veidot savu raksturu. Mūsu dižais un brīnišķais mākslas darbs ir piedienīga dzīve. Viss pārējais labākā gadījumā ir tikai piedevas un atbalsts. Mišels de Montēns
Senā laime ir novītusi un mirusi. Bet, raugi, jauns zaļums rotā zemi…
Trauslais jaunas un labākas dzīves iesākums. Pema Brauna
Nemeklē atbildes, kuras tev nav iespējams dot, jo tu nespētu ar tām dzīvot. Galvenais ir visu izdzīvot. Pēc tam tu pamazām, to pat nemanot, nodzīvosi līdz dienai, kad saņemsi atbildi.
Rainers Marija Rilke
Stabilitāte nāk no iekšienes, nevis no ārpuses. Lusila Kliftone
Cerība ir radījums ar spārniem, kas ligzdo mūsu dvēselē, dzied dziesmu bez vārdiem un nekad nenorimst. Emīlija Dikinsone
Arī šis mirklis paies. Klēra Reinere.
Kad tu esi gājis tik tālu, ka nevari paspert vairs nevienu soli, tad tu esi nogājis tieši pusi no attāluma, ko spēj noiet.
Grenlandiešu sakāmvārds.
Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony. Douglas Coupland
Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore. Zora Neale Hurston
If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction – and ultimately, without a major resolution. Jasper Fforde
Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome. Derek Walcott
Only a rule of skin in the game, that is, direct harm from one’s errors, can puncture the game aspect of research and establish some form of contact with reality.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering, NYU-Poly
For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are. Lloyd Alexander
There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments – there are only consequences.
Robert G. Ingersoll
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” ~ GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Richard P. Feynman
Laws are the spider’s webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. -Solon
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength. A.J. Cronin
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. ” — Theodore Roosevelt
‘One death is a tragedy, a million a statistic.’ Josef Stalin
I have just realized that the stakes are myself.
I have no other ransom money, nothing to break or barter but my life. Diane di Prima
We live at a time when emotions and feelings count more than truth, and there is a vast ignorance of science. James Lovelock
Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. Graham Greene
Learning something new is always slower than actually doing something old. Pemberton
By sticking your head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the problem, you are part of it.
Anne O’Reily
Peace cannot be kept by force.
It can only be achieved through understanding.
Albert Einstein
To see what is in front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle. G. Orwell.
Anyone can be a barbarian; it requires a terrible effort to remain a civilized man. Leonard Woolf
When we killed–or exiled–God, we also killed ourselves…. No God, no afterlife, no us. We were right to kill Him, of course, this long-standing imaginary friend of ours. And we weren’t going to get an afterlife anyway. But we sawed off the branch we were sitting on. And the view from there, from that height–even if it was only an illusion of a view–wasn’t so bad.
Julian Barnes
All people are not people without other people.
We are a way of the cosmos to know itself.
Carl Sagan
It is easier to point the finger of blame at others than it is to find and implement solutions.
William Benson
Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting. Haruki Murakami
Visu mūsdienu sabiedrību traģika ir tā, ka mēs esam nolemti rīkoties saskaņā ar to nezināšanu, kāda mums ir. Tāpēc arī civilizācijas iet bojā.
Insincerity is a special kind of dishonesty. Jim Wyman
Reason exists for the sake of the emotions, not the other way around. David Hume
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are. Saying of the cetics
A belief that cruelty and violence are needed to address cruelty and violence only perpetuates cruelty and violence. Christine Hansen
Before we can know what is moral, we must know what is true.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking
We don’t receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves after a journey through the wilderness, which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us. Marcel Proust.
There is in the modern world this thing called media that keeps people entertained into being zombies. It is the case in the article that a cheap appliance and a high end appliance serve much the same function, which means the gap in living is not as great. The main difference though between being rich and poor is between security and angst. If you are poor you live in constant fear that tomorrow might bring disaster, while if you are rich you do not have quite those fears. With media though the poor can mollify their concerns by playing video games or watching programs that direct their minds elsewhere. The media is the biggest social-psychological control system in history.
LC
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The really pernicious difference, as mentioned in the article, is the attitude toward public goods. For example traffic congestion – it doesn’t matter to the uber-rich, they just helicopter over it. But it adds hours to everybody else’s work day. Pollution, the rich go to their ranch in Montana – no pollution there. Higher education, no problem they can afford Harvard and Yale; let the hoi polloi borrow the money. And because the uber-rich have so much political power there’s no investment in these public goods.
Brent
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I remember when we read Brave New World and “1984” in high school, and again in college, there was a big discussion afterwards over which dystopia our modern world most resembled (this was in the ’70’s). Both times there was general consensus that we were much more like the consumerist hedonistic society of BNW than the soviet-style war-state of 1984 (though perhaps some societies, like North Korea are closer to the “1984” model). A couple of decades ago Aldous Huxley wrote “Brave New World Revisited” and examined the ways that the late 20th century had become like the world he predicted. I recall he said that antidepressants came close to being like “soma” and that test tube babies were the precursors to bottled designer babies from the lab and that TV was the “telescreen” and that the advertising business with its endless jingles came close to the mind-conditioning of BNW. The entertainment industry, melded with the news media, also contributed to a jingle-like shallow understanding of what was going on in the world.
Today there is also the difference in re-makes of old movies, which are virtually all special effects with hardly any plot or character development (Compare the brilliant 1950’s version of the Titanic “A Night to Remember” with the goofy brainless version in the ’90’s or the eerie ’60’s version of the Haunting of Hill House with it’s mind-numbingly monotonous ’90’s version; “The Haunting” or (worst of all) the fantastic ’30’s version of King Kong with the increasingly pathetic versions in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. ) Today’s re-make movies are on their way to being the “feelies” in BNW — all special effects and sensationalism, moronic plot and cardboard characters.
I’m trying to think of whether any SF writers anticipated the internet. In “1984” communication was done through sending letters in a canister through a network of pneumatic tubes (which must be where that American senator got the idea that this was how the internet worked.) In 2001, the astronauts were able to communicate with their families through some kind of live video conferencing and in Rene Barjavel’s “The Ice People” people sent each other video cassettes instead of letters. I can’t think of any SF author who anticipated being able to communicate at the speed of light or live through typing, which is odd considering that telegrams and telex machines were already in existence and it wouldn’t have taken much to extrapolate from there and imagine everyone having their own private telex, so to speak. Star Trek anticipated cell phones — sort of — although there were already walkie-talkies (if that’s what they were called) in the ’60’s.
I know that I have become “dumbed down” over the last decades since I find it very difficult to read books, especially fiction. The stories are too long and I don’t like having to hold the book. And the type is too small and not lit up which means I have to wear reading glasses. Don’t have this problem on the computer. The answer is not e-books since you still have to hold them and the stories are too long. I mostly refer to just read short items on line, or watch the movie.
There certainly are some aspects of “1984” in our present world, with endless wars that are fought far away with various enemies, and the rabble (the low information rightwing bots) screaming for the blood of today’s enemies and worshiping the hero soldiers who are mostly unknown to them personally. But overall I think we’ve come a lot closer to Huxley’s dystopia than to Orwell’s.
One place where the poor *are* storming the barricades is in Europe, where growing and increasingly desperate crowds of refugees from West Asia and Africa are trying to migrate and European governments are trying to shut them out.
Anne
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Remember that Orwell’s “1984” is really a treatise on the social psychology of totalitarian rule. “Brave New World” explores how technology and consumerism can play into authoritarian power. The two books then in effect serve somewhat different purposes.
Big Brother in “1984” is any archetype of a powerful figure, and given the mysterious nature of BB he can represent everything from God, Stalin, a mafia don, or the boss from hell at work. Orwell illustrated how fear and hatred are employed to control people, and on top of it how to capture the loyalties of people. Remember, at the end of the novel Winston Smith loved Big Brother. It sort of gives one an insight into why it is the North Koreans have such affections for their Kim (***) dictators.
“Brave New World” displays a world of constant distraction and entertainment that keep people in line. It also had the whole bit about people who were alphas, betas etc through genetic engineering. There may be in the future some elements of that, such as GATACA. We do have elements of BNW around us, and it is the reason the poor do not batter down the barricades. The market oriented media fragments us into the individual, and now people walk around like zombies looking down at little screens. It is also meant to plug into people’s wants and desires, and it is not possible to organize resistance when people are behaving that way.
The 21st century will see hybrids of Orwell and Huxley. The world does not have the resources to provide a complete Huxley BNW, which implied hyperconsumerism. There will be scarcities and problems, and the disparity in economic wealth means that people closer to the bottom will experience privations. This means there will have to be some of the fear aspects to social control. If the world’s resources begin to seriously play out I suspect that Orwell’s vision will emerge as more dominant. Of course on the other hand, given the economic experience of people it will not happen that suddenly there will be an Orwellian system imposed. As a result I think a sort of hybrid of the two distopian visions is likely to materialize.
LC
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Or maybe we will solve our problems and life will continue to get better for more and more people on the planet as it has done throughout human history.
Bob Zannelli
That would be nice, but some recent events have me suspicious about this. The most recent thing I heard illustrates how it is possible that some of our instinctive programming conflict with being an intelligent life form. It is almost universal in animals that during a time of scarcity there is intensive behavior to “grab everything you can,” and to do it as fast as possible. I was reading a report a while back about almond farming in the San Joaquin valley. Farmers are scrambling to put in more almond trees because these make the most money and there is a premium on using what water is left to make the highest profit. This sounds crazy, for it would make greater sense to plant things that use water lightly, but exactly the opposite is happening. If you think about it this is rather common, and it leads inevitably to the worst possible outcome. The behavior is fine for most animals seeking to maximize their fitness to spread their genes. For an intelligent life form that has such control of their environment this is a disaster.
In the end we may face more than peak oil, or peak water, or even peak environment. This last one is where we run out of possible environment that serves as a life support. It is that we face peak brain. We will not likely “solve all our problems,” any more than we have really any of the problems I remember when I was a child. We had problems of protracted war (Vietnam), pollution, drugs, crime, urban decay and … , and these are all with us still. In the case of protracted war the name changed from Vietnam to Iraq or ISIS etc, pollution has changed from words like smog to global warming and plastics in the ocean and so it goes. We have in fact not really fundamentally solved a single problem facing our species in my lifetime. The level of complexity with these problems is also growing, and it leads me to suspect eventually we may no longer be able to manage anything.
LC
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jim.wyman
Aug 26
Re: BNW or 1984? (was:Fw: Why aren’t the poor storming the barricades?
Shut off the goddamned TV, push away from the effing computer, get your head out of the past and get out into the world.
Nobody knows their heroes? They’re all around you, you just have to notice them. They’re “unsung” because you and I didn’t sing their praises loud enough.
You see a problem? Join a group and get to work on a solution. Closest to the problems is where you’ll find your missing heroes.
If there isn’t a group, form one. There have never been more tools to organize and communicate. There have never been so many resources available at hand, and never so many hands around to help. And while you’re working, there will always be a few of the Crybaby Permanently Disgruntled standing around the edges criticizing everybody and everything – but that’s OK, we need critics too.
I read all the same books cited here. My mistake was poring over the last one of that bunch – the Whole Earth Catalog.
j
Sent from my iPhone
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In a time where a sociopathic billionaire and reality TV show host is leading the pack in a race for the Presidency I can only conclude that we are probably in the long run washed up. I also suspect that it really doesn’t matter, and that things will be better without us.
LC
Now if you act on the logical conclusion to that, or act on my question “why don’t you act more like a Samurai?, or a leader, showing us all the way ahead by example?”, the authorities will arrest me for being an accessory to your suicide.
To quote Stephen King’s character in his ‘Shawshank Redemption’, Lawrence “get busy living, or get busy dying.”
j.
If the universe and life are absurd, then there is no point in doing as you say. In fact if existence is absurd, I am liberated from the burden of having to convince people of things, or “save the world,” or from having to convince you or anyone else of my position with respect to how the world is to be saved. This is made particularly so since there are millions of people with these idea and most of them are contradictory. I am in fact liberated from the burden of having to convince people of any grand moral principle, or even why we should do anything to “save the world,” and because of that I am free to pursue other things that are of greater interest and I think of greater profound nature — even if in the end it is all absurd.
LC
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hannibal.crisp
Aug 26
RE: BNW or 1984? (was:Fw: Why aren’t the poor storming the barricades?
Well,in my own modest way, I’m trying to do that. However, I essentially believe, that the efforts I make are doomed to failure and ultimate destruction by global events that are arguably now beyond anyone’s control. In much of Ethiopia the rains have come too late this year for the farmers to achieve anything like sustainable harvests. I am no more certain than anyone else that this is specifically an outcome of global warming, but I am fairly convinced that 30 years or so down the road it will be the norm across much of sub-Saharan Africa (as well as other parts of the world). This means that the children of the people I work with are either destined to die of thirst or starvation or in some desperate attempt to migrate to some more fortunate part of the world where they will be loathed and despised – a fairly respectable and widely read social media commentator in the UK recently described the migrants trying to get into Britain as “cockroaches”, the compassionate British Prime Minister spoke of “swarms” of migrants. I’m a Brit, and your kind of gung-ho, can-do, pollyanna positivism is beyond my range, and often, in my belief a form of whistling in the dark. As social beings we have evolved to feel good about being part of a group committed to some larger purpose, but it is too easy to kid ourselves that our efforts make any difference in the face of natural or anthropogenic forces that may have been in play for millennia, if not since the Big Bang. Somebody here will probably chastise me for mixing my physical metaphors, but the combination of inertial and kinetic forces is such that the likelihood of reversing them is vanishingly small.
I’m not sure there is much comfort to be gained from Lawrence’s view that the human race is a virus that is in the process of inefficiently destroying its host, and therefore the conditions of its own survival, and that therefore the host will be cleansed by our absence. I think that the human adventure has been full of glorious achievements and that the universe will be the poorer for our disappearance, but it would seem that our much vaunted ability to learn from the past is simply a delusion. It may be that your search for “local heroes” will leave the remnants of some kind of survivalist, post-apocalyptic, Mad Max human society, but the kind of efforts currently being made by ISIS to erase the past in Palmyra seems symbolic of what our species is doing on a global scale. I was brought up on the stories my mother told about her childhood in prewar Poland, the games she played with her brothers and sisters, the friends she brought to life with her anecdotes – and when I asked her where all those people were, she would smile and tell me how they died: in prison camps, by execution, by gas, by suicide, by starvation, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, by naivete… Nothing has changed except our increased capacity for destruction and self-destruction.
The “hero” is a very popular American meme, a revival of the Homeric past where titans toppled topless towers, where fallible gods moved their human pawns around parochial chessboards. Those gods today are the likes of Donald Trump, toupéed and bombastic, or tricksters of every ilk, like the UK’s oh-so earnest Blair, the “aw shucks” morons of America from Reagan to GW, the “wrestle a bear” parody of Putin… They have always been the same. Local heroes are the protagonists of the brief “little man” era, and of course much propagated through modern social media, but their essential role is to comfort us in the thought that we are still okay, that however contemptible the “gods” are, down at the bottom here there is still something worth valuing.
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“Liberated” implies you were enslaved. But this is a misconceiving ethical obligations as moral ones. Whether you want to do anything to save the world is a moral choice, entirely up to you. But if your choice may well influence how others regard you and whether they are willing to cooperate with you. I don’t think there is any objective (human independent) way of saying the universe if absurd or not. But there is a subjective way, and it’s up to each subject.
Brent
“It does not matter now that in a million years nothing we do now will matter.”
— Thomas Nagel
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Chris Savage
Aug 27
RE: BNW or 1984? (was:Fw: Why aren’t the poor storming the barricades?
1/ All of us are going to die.
2/ All of our children are going to die.
3/ All of their children are going to die.
4/ Etc.
The above statements have been true for all people, ever. They are going to be true for all people, ever (barring science-fiction-y immortality schemes we can ignore for now).
If they are a sufficient reason to be miserable and depressed – that is, if mere nihilism, or fatalism, or realism, about the bare fact of mortality is enough for depression and misery – I guess that explains why so many people convince themselves to believe in an afterlife, souls, etc.
To me one of the challenges of life is finding ways not to be depressed and miserable even though I know that I’m going to die, my kids are going to die, all the cute little baby animals are going to die, etc., etc., etc.
The first step (for me) when confronted with those facts is to ask, “So what? Does that mean I have to be miserable before I die?”
The answer, of course, is no.
So then the question is, what can I do/think/experience that will cause me to be happy, fulfilled, interested, joyful, etc., notwithstanding the fact that we’re all doomed.
On a purely selfish level, doing things that are interesting in the short term makes me happy. On a slightly more other-directed level, taking care of my family (emotionally and materially) makes me happy. On a much more other-directed level, doing things that at least by my lights move “the world” in a better direction makes me happy.
But of course no matter how effective I am, it doesn’t change the fact that I, my kids, their kids, the cute little baby kittens, etc., are all going to die.
The fact that from that perspective “none of it matters” is actually orthogonal to the question of living a happy and fulfilled life, it seems to me.
Chris S.
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Ideas concerning the salvation of man, the world etc usually track the power systems I have mentioned: statecraft, priestcraft, warcraft and tradecraft. In the case of priestcraft the idea is that God will come to rescue us, whether that be the birdman cult of the Easter Islanders or the return of Jesus. In the case of warcraft or statecraft the idea is that our purpose or meaning is found in the larger system that we must patriotically fall in line with, and curiously tradecraft in the recent ideology of the market and capitalism has suggested its “plan.” Each of these are systems we are enslaved to, in particular we are enslaved within our mind. That is the most powerful way that a person is enslaved; they are enslaved by some narrative they play in their mind.
LC
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John….you swat flies and kill millions of bacteria, even cut off pieces of yourself and never blink when you murder those cells.
Yet you and I decry when Nature doesn’t send rain to take care of “Her children” in Ethiopia, and doesn’t blink, or send a warning, or weep (literally or figuratively).
And frankly, it doesn’t matter that your opinion of my positivism is insulting or reductionist or “Pollyanna”, or whistling in the dark.
Every individual human is going to die. That doesn’t mean we flop down and stop eating and drink our tears to speed up the process.
We have a brief time of health and sanity on the stage, and it’s more fun and fulfilling to work with what you have, and add a dash of panache and a tell joke while doing it.
If the flood is coming, start filling sandbags, whistle while you work, and yes…every so often take a break, pull out a sheet of paper, and do some cipherin’ to see if you can find or build a better way, then get back to work.
If you want to know what gets me up in the morning, it is a very simple picture burned into my brain.
In 2005, to prove to our military bosses that the concrete we were pouring on Camp Lemonier was sound,
we drove once a week to a “real” (IBC everything, serious money) construction project 10 miles from the base…the oil terminal on the other side of the wadi leading into Djibouti City.
The real construction site there had a lab where they could do controlled conducted breaks (7-day, 28-day, etc.) and issued lab reports.
Many, some would claim most…young men in Djibouti scraped together whatever money they could and bought $5 bunches of khat from roadside stands (the president’s wife owned the khat concession, and flew in a plane of the fresh stuff from Ethiopia every day.) They’d stuff the leaves into big masses in their cheek, let themselves relax into a stupor, then sit with their backs to any convenient wall and wait for the heat of the day to go away, immobile and high the whole day.
The road to the lab was filled with horrendous potholes almost all the way.
One over-crowded spot in the road was a chaotic intersection, and there is where I saw the world’s smallest entrepreneur.
He had three articles of clothing: a pair of shorts and two flip-flops.
He carried a yellow plastic Prestone oil bottle cut so that it made scoop with a handle.
Over and over he gathered up loose dirt from the side of the road, carried it to a pot hole in the roadway, poured it in, and stamped on the pile until it was smooth.
He went back and forth as fast as he could walk, smoothing the road even if only for a few passes.
Occasionally a hand would reach out of a car or truck window and give him money.
And _that_ man gets me up every morning.
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As social beings we have evolved to feel good about being part of a group committed to some larger purpose, but it is too easy to kid ourselves that our efforts make any difference in the face of natural or anthropogenic forces that may have been in play for millennia, if not since the Big Bang. Somebody here will probably chastise me for mixing my physical metaphors, but the combination of inertial and kinetic forces is such that the likelihood of reversing them is vanishingly small.
I’m not sure there is much comfort to be gained from Lawrence’s view that the human race is a virus that is in the process of inefficiently destroying its host, and therefore the conditions of its own survival, and that therefore the host will be cleansed by our absence. I think that the human adventure has been full of glorious achievements and that the universe will be the poorer for our disappearance, but it would seem that our much vaunted ability to learn from the past is simply a delusion. It may be that your search for “local heroes” will leave the remnants of some kind of survivalist, post-apocalyptic, Mad Max human society, but the kind of efforts currently being made by ISIS to erase the past in Palmyra seems symbolic of what our species is doing on a global scale. I was brought up on the stories my mother told about her childhood in prewar Poland, the games she played with her brothers and sisters, the friends she brought to life with her anecdotes – and when I asked her where all those people were, she would smile and tell me how they died: in prison camps, by execution, by gas, by suicide, by starvation, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, by naivete… Nothing has changed except our increased capacity for destruction and self-destruction.
…and YOU are still alive. You are so fucking lucky. And what are you doing with the gift she gave you, they all gave you? Whining?
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“It is almost universal in animals that during a time of scarcity there is intensive behavior to “grab everything you can,” and to do it as fast as possible. If the universe and life are absurd, then there is no point in doing as you say. In fact if existence is absurd, I am liberated from the burden of having to convince people of things, or “save the world,” or from having to convince you or anyone else of my position with respect to how the world is to be saved. This is made particularly so since there are millions of people with these idea and most of them are contradictory. I am in fact liberated from the burden of having to convince people of any grand moral principle, or even why we should do anything to “save the world,” and because of that I am free to pursue other things that are of greater interest and I think of greater profound nature — even if in the end it is all absurd.”
“1/ All of us are going to die.
2/ All of our children are going to die.
3/ All of their children are going to die.
4/ Etc.
The above statements have been true for all people, ever. They are going to be true for all people, ever (barring science-fiction-y immortality schemes we can ignore for now).
If they are a sufficient reason to be miserable and depressed – that is, if mere nihilism, or fatalism, or realism, about the bare fact of mortality is enough for depression and misery – I guess that explains why so many people convince themselves to believe in an afterlife, souls, etc.
To me one of the challenges of life is finding ways not to be depressed and miserable even though I know that I’m going to die, my kids are going to die, all the cute little baby animals are going to die, etc., etc., etc.
The first step (for me) when confronted with those facts is to ask, “So what? Does that mean I have to be miserable before I die?”
The answer, of course, is no.
So then the question is, what can I do/think/experience that will cause me to be happy, fulfilled, interested, joyful, etc., notwithstanding the fact that we’re all doomed.
On a purely selfish level, doing things that are interesting in the short term makes me happy. On a slightly more other-directed level, taking care of my family (emotionally and materially) makes me happy. On a much more other-directed level, doing things that at least by my lights move “the world” in a better direction makes me happy.
But of course no matter how effective I am, it doesn’t change the fact that I, my kids, their kids, the cute little baby kittens, etc., are all going to die.
The fact that from that perspective “none of it matters” is actually orthogonal to the question of living a happy and fulfilled life, it seems to me.”
My answer to all these deep, true and in some sense tragic thoughts is:
It is not important that we will die. The most important is the information we have received and have to pass to the next generations. They don’t know it, they do feel it as ‘their’ knowledge but in fact it is our (human) knowledge and heritage. The knowledge we have received in the same way – not feeling that these others are living in us. But this (for the time being) is the only aspect of our immortality. The most important aspect formulated by Carl Sagan: “We are the way the Universe is trying to get conscious of itself”.
I deeply think that this is the most important task, sense of life and responsibility for every thinking human being. Will we manage to rise over our primate origin and heritage? In any case, this is the task, responsibility and sense. Greater one is not possible.
It is possible that ‘if current technological developments, especially Moore’s Law, continue at their current pace, a conscious machine may be within the realm of engineering possibilities.’
(Lyle N. Long, and Troy D. Kelley, The Requirements and Possibilities of Creating Conscious Systems,
http://www.personal.psu.edu/lnl/papers/aiaa20091949.pdf),
After that we will transfer our consciousness to intelligent machines. This promises longer individual lives, behavior and solutions closer to reality. This promises survival on a bigger scale.
Of course, if the Moore’s Law…But, in any case, we have to and we can try … to do anything possible. Imants Vilks
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