Dream not of Utopias but be content if the least thing go forward, and count the outcome of the thing at hand as a small thing. For who can alter another’s conviction? Failing to get a change of conviction, we merely get men pretending to be persuaded and chafing like slaves under coercion. —-Marcus…
The first lesson of philosophy is that we cannot be wise about everything. We are fragments in infinity and moments in eternity; for such forked atoms to describe the universe, or the Supreme Being, must make the planets tremble with mirth. …One may prove out of his writings that he was a monotheist, a…
A group of us discussed Aristotle’s writing on excellence; the meaning and the process of creating an excellent/virtuous human being. Aristotle asserts a mode of human existence that involves excellence of character, and excellence of action. It is possible to make something of one’s self, to use the current manner of speaking. The short…
The pervert claims direct access to some figure of the big Other (from God or history to the desire of his partner), so that, dispelling all the ambiguity of language, he is able to act directly as the instrument of the Other’s will. In this sense, both Osama bin Laden and President Bush, although…
It is snowing outside. The streets are hazardous for travel. Hawaii is recovering from a false alarm of a ballistic missile attack. Our President is tweeting madly to deflect the response to his comments characterizing Africa and Haiti as “shit-hole” countries. Individuals who happened to be in proximity to him when he made the…
A well without water. A bird that can’t fly. An alley with no exit. And— —excerpt from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
We’ve got gluts of information but are dizzy for lack of a norm. The norms of capitalism, friendship, and religion: everything is so provisional, situational, optional, such a matter of lifestyle choice that the very word “norm” is likely to victimize somebody. Our magnetic field is dislocated; gravity itself seems weakened. But weightlessness is…
Language is a gift as dangerous to humanity as the horse was to the Trojans: it offers itself to our use free of charge, but once we accept it, it colonizes us. The symbolic order emerges from a gift, an offering, that marks its content as neutral in order to pose as a gift:…
Reflection for a new year We mistake what is manageable for a catastrophe; we despair of ourselves too soon; we alienate others by overreacting; we don’t notice and appreciate what there is still to be grateful for; we forget we’re going to die and that a lot of today’s headache will soon be forgotten….
A friend observed with chagrin that I was too pessimistic in outlook. I was tempted to compose a detailed justification. The inclination for a pointless dialog passed. This quotation sums it up for me: There are no pessimists; there are only realists and liars. —Paul Virilio
