Great indeed is the disorder produced in the world by the love of knowledge. From the time of the three dynasties downwards it has been so. The plain and honest-minded people are neglected, and the plausible representations of restless spirits received with pleasure; the quiet and unexciting method of non-action is put away, and…
(So), the versatility shown in artful deceptions becoming more and more pernicious, in ingenious discussions as to what is hard and what is white, and in attempts to disperse the dust and reconcile different views, is great, but the common people are perplexed by all the sophistry. Hence there is great disorder…
An extraordinary faculty in debating leads to the piling up of arguments like a builder with his bricks, or a net-maker with his string. (Its possessor) cunningly contrives his sentences and enjoys himself in discussing what hardness is and what whiteness is, where views agree and where they differ, and pressing on,…
An email exchange developed between the three of us. What is the relationship between the origin, the durability of religion — and our fear of the unknown? There’s a great deal of the unknown, an ocean of it. Does the unknown have a far shore? The thought experiment was posed: Consider the difference —…
It is morning and the sun “rises” in the east over the Fox River. Do I correctly understand and render these matters? Consider the possibility that “getting it correct” is to completely miss the point. Is there a correct? How could/would one know? And if you were convinced that your assessment was incorrect what…
I participated in a study group of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Did I read the book when in high school or is my memory from college? I am not sure. The book is widely known, a parable of sorts. A group of English boarding school boys is marooned on a nameless South…
Continuing to read from the Zhuangzi. A few verses come as a calming presence when facing circumstances which present a likelihood of a weakened society, more violence, less solicitude for the unfortunate majority without power. I need not say that “power” is shorthand for financial reserves. A government shutdown over the coming weekend… Likely….
More of Zhuangzi. Clearly it is natural to project upon the past our ideals, our concept of an idyllic condition of society, of a way-of-life realized by human beings in contrast to the flawed, and often wrecked behavior that we observe day to day in the present. We “see” outlines of a figure, embellished…
This passage in Zhuangzi reminds me of the famous “Madman” passage in The Gay Science by Nietzsche. An individual, deranged by conventional standards, presents himself in a town square. He insistently, pointedly passes judgment upon the optimism of his countrymen; that the future will, as a matter of course, be the present extended, — …
“When men get together to pit their strength in games of skill, they start off in a light and friendly mood but usually end up in a dark and angry one, and if they go on too long, they start resorting to various underhanded tricks. When men meet at some ceremony to drink, they…
