A discourse on the meek..........................

 

...................................and their inheritance.

a point of view............

Edward Hopper   Cape Cod Morning   Oil on Canvas   1950

It is a woman looking out to see if the weather is good enough to hang out her wash.

-Josephine Hopper remarking on her husband's painting, Cape Cod Morning.

Did I say that?  You're making it Norman Rockwell.  From my point of view she's just looking out the window, just looking out the window.

-Edward Hopper's reply

judged.........................

 Although I am always minded to say good of what is good, and inclined to interpret favorably anything that can be so interpreted, still it is true that the strangeness of our condition makes it happen that we are often driven to good by vice itself—were it not that doing good is judged by intention alone.

-Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Works, Book 2, Chapter 1

Ah, history...............................

 It has been known for millennia that any understanding of the future is only possible if it includes a reasonable understanding of the past. Thucydides already saw history as, in part, "an aid to the interpretation of the future."

     For humanity, as it exists now, is a product of the past—of the intricate, interweaving complexities of recent, and of less recent, history or histories.  The psychological, as well as physical, conditions we thus inherited must be considered with as much care and clarity as can be attained.  This should, of course, include a proper understanding of backgrounds—so different in different cultures and countries.

     Our current confrontations with the enemies of our civilization are in some ways unlike the earlier threats we faced over much of the twentieth century.  The West prevailed then but was much hampered by misevaluations of the hostile motivations of the other side, which diverted our citizens' attention from the realities.  Writing in the early nineteenth century, Thomas Macaulay expressed the hope that in the future our crises would be handled by people "for whom history has not recorded the long series of human crimes and follies in vain."

     Do our countries today meet Maccaulay's standard?  Alas, no.  Both the actions and intentions of the adversaries and the supporters of a plural society are still being misrepresented by some of those responsible for the transmission of Maccaulay's message.

-Robert Conquest, The Dragons of Expectation:  Reality and Delusion in the Course of History

Careful.............................

 Interpreting behavior is rife with value judgments that are invisible to those making them.

-Margaret Heffernan, from Uncharted:  How To Navigate the Future

Why can't a good story (and a great movie)....

..................................just be a good story (and a great movie)?   I suspect The Dangerous Economist wonders the same thing, but nonetheless, he posts a wonderful interpretation of the Wizard of OZ.   Do read it, if for no other reason than as a stretching exercise.  Here is a wee taste:

When Dorothy’s twister-tossed house comes to rest in Oz, it lands squarely on the wicked Witch of the East, killing her instantly. The startled girl emerges from the abode to find herself in a strange land of remarkable beauty, whose inhabitants, the diminutive Munchkins, rejoice at the death of the Witch. The Witch represents eastern financial-industrial interests and their gold-standard political allies, the main targets of Populist venom. Midwestern farmers often blamed their woes on the nefarious practices of Wall Street bankers and the captains of industry, whom they believed were engaged in a conspiracy to “enslave” the “little people,” just as the Witch of the East had enslaved the Munchkins.

That "requires interpretation"......

.......................part is where it gets interesting:

All social values - liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect  - are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these values is to everyone's advantage. Injustice, then, is simply inequalities that are not to the benefit of all. Of course, this conception is extremely vague and requires interpretation.

-John Rawls,  culled from The Main Idea Of The Theory Of Justice

Needing an interpreter.....

"What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact."

-attributed to Warren Buffet

Interpretations..........................

One of the beauties of the Tao Te Ching (for us English-only readers, anyway) is the rich variety of the translations.  The following are all the 27th verse of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching:


A good traveler has no fixed plans
And is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
Lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
And keeps his mind open to what is.

Thus the Master is available to all people
And doesn't reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
And doesn't waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man's job?
If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
However intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

-as translated by Stephen Mitchell
------------------------------------------------------------


Good walking leaves no tracks
good talking reveals no flaws
good counting counts no beads
good closing locks no doors
and yet it can't be opened
good tying ties no knots
and yet it can't be undone
thus the sage is good at saving
and yet abandons no one 
nor anything of use
this is called cloaking the light
thus the good instruct the bad
the bad learn from the good
not honoring their teachers
mot cherishing their students
the wise alone are perfectly blind
this is called peering into the distance

-as translated by Red Pine
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He who is skilled at traveling
     leaves neither tracks nor traces;
He who is skilled at speaking
     is flawless in his delivery;
He who is skilled at computation
     uses neither tallies nor counters;
He who is skilled at closing things tightly
     has neither lock nor key;
He who is good at binding
     has neither cord nor string,
        but what he binds cannot be untied.

For these reasons,
     The sage
          is always skilled at saving others
               and does not abandon them,
               nor does he abandon resources.
     This is called "inner intelligence."

Therefore,
     Good men are teachers for the good man,
     Bad men are foils for the good man,
     He who values not his teacher
           and loves not his foil,
     Though he be knowledgeable,
           is greatly deluded.

     This is called "the wondrous essential."

-as translated by Victor H. Mair
----------------------------------------------------------

               A knower of the truth
        travels without leaving a trace,
         speaks without causing harm,
       gives without keeping account.
The door he shuts, though having no lock,
                 cannot be opened.
The knot he ties, though using no cord,
                 cannot be undone.

Be wise and help all beings impartially,
                abandoning none.
          Waste no opportunities.
     This is called following the light.

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?
  What is a bad man but a good man's job?
         If the teacher is not respected
         and the student not cared for,
confusion will areise, however clever one is.
           This is the great secret.

-as channeled by Wayne Dyer
---------------------------------------------------------


The sage who goes the way leaves no traces
The sage who speaks the true law never slips up -
He never calculates what profit he can make from what he does.

He keeps out thieves with wisdom!  He's never robbed -
He makes sure the rules are binding, then no one can undo them.

He is aware of everyone, leaving no one uncounted;
He cares like a parent, and wastes nothing.

                         This is the essence of harmony.

So, a good man is a model for a bad one
And, misguided, he is touched by his goodness.

Not to follow a teacher here
Or to love his precious message
Is to lose the Way, however clever you are -

                        This is the essence of the matter.

-as translated by Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer, Jay Ramsey