Culture, as mirrored in advertising..........

     English has evolved over the past century because of mass media and advertising, but the shadowy literary establishment in the United States, in and outside academe, has failed to adjust.  From the start, like Andy Warhol (another product of an immigrant family in an isolated Northeastern industrial town), I recognized commercial popular culture as the authentic native voice of America.  Burned into my memory, for example, is a late-1950s TV commercial for M & M's chocolate candies.  A sultry cartoon peanut, sunbathing on a chaise lounge, said in a twanging Southern drawl:  "I'm an M & M peanut/Toasted to to a golden brown/Dipped in creamy milk chocolate/And covered in a thin candy shell!"  Illustrating each line, she prettily dove into a swimming pool of melted chocolate and popped out on the other side to strike a pose and be instantly toweled in her monogrammed candy wrap.  I felt then, and still do, the the M & M peanut's jingle was a vivacious poem and that the creative team who produced that ad were folk artists, anonymous as the artisans of medieval cathedrals.

-Camille Paglia,  Break Blow Burn:  Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three Of The World's Best Poems

Couldn't find the exact advertisement she was talking about on YouTube.  This compilation might serve notice though that the M & M creative team are indeed folk artists.  Enjoy:

Hope you have a Road Runner kind of day.....

Never heard this one before..............

Consider what life would have been like for a farmer in New England in 1700.  In the winter months the sun goes down at five, followed by fifteen hours of darkness before it gets light again.  And when that sun goes down, it's pitch black:  there are no streetlights, flashlights, light bulbs, fluorescents—even kerosene lamps haven't been invented yet.  There's just a flickering glow of a fireplace, and the smoky burn of the tallow candle.
     Those nights were so oppressive that scientists now believe our sleep patterns were radically different in the ages before ubiquitous night lighting.  In 2001, the historian Roger Ekirch published a remarkable study that drew upon hundreds of diaries and instructional manuals to convincingly argue that humans had historically divided their long nights into two distinct sleep periods.  When darkness fell, they would drift into "first sleep," waking after four hours to snack, relieve themselves, have sex, or chat by the fire, before heading back for another four hours of "second sleep."  The lighting of the nineteenth century disrupted this ancient rhythm, by opening up a whole array of modern activities that could be performed after sunset:  everything from theaters and restaurants to factory labor.  Ekrich documented the way the ideal of a single, eight-hour block of sleep was constructed by nineteenth century customs, an adaptation to a dramatic change int he lighting environment of human settlements.  Like all adaptations, its benefits carried inevitable costs: the middle-of-the-night insomnia that plagues millions of people around the world is not, technically speaking, a disorder, but rather the body's natural sleep rhythms asserting themselves over prescriptions of nineteenth century convention.  Those waking moments at three a. m. are a kind of jet lag caused by artificial light instead of air travel.

-Steven Johnson,  How We Got to Now:  Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

Sunrise.............................

     I had always loved sunrise:  was always renewed in spirit.  For all my life I'd felt cheated if I'd ever slept through dawn.  The primeval winter solstice on bitter Salisbury Plan had raised my childhood's goose pimples long before I understood why, and it had long seemed to me that dawn-worship was the most logical of primitive beliefs.

-Dick Francis, as excerpted from Wild Horses

photo via

Fifty years ago.............at Woodstock

Mountain.........................................................Blood Of The Sun

Checking in with Thurber..............

“All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” 


-James Thurber

Puzzles.................................

          via

Purging..........................

The search for happiness is not about looking at life through rose-colored glasses or blinding oneself to the pain and imperfections of the world. Nor is happiness a state of exultation to be perpetuated at all costs; it is the purging of mental toxins, such as hatred and obsession, that literally poison the mind. It is also about learning how to put things in perspective and reduce the gap between appearances and reality. To that end, we must acquire a better knowledge of how the mind works and a more accurate insight into the nature of things, for, in its deepest sense, suffering is intimately linked to a misapprehension of the nature of reality.

-Matthieu Ricard

David Kanigan......................

...........................................don't start your day without him.

Achievable goals...........................

Gratitude.............................

........................................................and the "grand old journey."

There's a time or three...............

..................................when this would have made life easier.

via

Fifty years ago............at Woodstock

Mountain...........................................................Southbound Train

Rarest............................

They say miracles are past, and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless.  Hence it is, that we make trifles out of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear.  Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot out in our latter times.

-Lafeu, as channeled by Wm. Shakespeare in Act Two Scene Three of All's Well That Ends Well

The rugged individual....................

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

-Hunter S. Thompson

photo via

So call me Steve..................

Public Service Announcement.......................

Fifty years ago..................at Woodstock

Mountain...............,,,,,,,,......Theme From An Imaginary Western

Yea, but this sounds really hard.........

The way to rob the narrative managers of their ability to manipulate our sense of normalcy is to create an image of a sane and healthy world for ourselves to hold onto at all times, and to make that image into our own personal sense of what normal is. By having a vivid picture of what a sane and healthy world would look like in your mind, the false normal that the propagandists are trying to sell you will have no purchase.

-as culled from here

And don't forget, as we've said here many times before, normalcy is merely the psychosis of the majority.

Who am I...............................

I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.  I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.  Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men.  And, alas, of all failures as well.  Those who are great, I have made great.  Those who are failures, I have made failures.  I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine.  Plus, the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.  Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?  I am a habit!

-The intertunnel is conflicted on who said this.  I found it here.

Remedies................................

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven.  The fated sky
Gives us free scope;  only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.

-Helena, as channeled by Wm. Shakespeare in Act One Scene One of All's Well That Ends Well

Interwoven.............................

“The misconception which has haunted philosophic literature throughout the centuries is the notion of 'independent existence.' There is no such mode of existence; every entity is to be understood in terms of the way it is interwoven with the rest of the universe.” 


-Alfred North Whitehead

thanks David

Fifty years ago.....................at Woodstock

Paul Butterfield Blues Band....................................Drifting Blues

More fun............................

..................................................with the language.

On worry..................

Most of us are consumed by worry. It may be acute anxiety because of an immediate crisis, or it may be caused by chronic anxiety due to a lingering worry that rears its head only occasionally. Either way, worry too easily consumes us. We take vacations to try to get away from it all, but find ourselves needing a vacation from our vacation. We tell ourselves if we had enough money all our worries would disappear. Watch the news just one evening and you’ll find that being rich and famous aren’t solutions to worry.

-culled from this A Potter's View post

Thanks Ray

Off track..............................

“The problem with long-term investing is the short term. Nothing destroys a good long-term plan like extreme short-term volatility. That throws people off track, and they often do things that are emotional rather than rational.” 

-Richard Ferri

Philosophy acts as the glue.............

It's not always easy to define yourself as an investor.  There are so many labels out there that it can be hard to keep up—value investor, short-term trader, index investor, active investor, diversified asset allocator, buy, hold, and rebalance, trend follower, tactical, quantitative/systematic, technical analysis, risk parity, and the list could go on.   There's no right or wrong answer for every single individual.  What matters is what works for you.
     There's never going to be a one-size-fits-all investment philosophy for every person.  We all have different strengths and weaknesses.  You have to find a belief system that fits your own personality.  You can't force a square peg through a round hole just because you want to make something work for you.  This will only compound your issues. . . .
     Regardless of the strategy you implement, the true test of your beliefs will always come at those times when it's not working.  These are the times when you investment philosophy should help.
     Inventor and author Rick Ferri summed this up nicely when he said, "Philosophy is universal; strategy is personal; and discipline is required.  Philosophy acts as the glue that holds everything together.  Philosophy first, strategy second and discipline third.  These are the key to successful  investing."

-Ben Carlson, as extracted from A Wealth of Common Sense

I went out too far.........................

     One came, finally, against the head itself and he knew that it was over.  He swung the tiller across the shark's head where the jaws were caught in the heaviness of the fish's head which would not tear.  He swung it once and twice and again.  He heard the tiller break and he lunged at the shark with the splintered butt.  He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again.  The shark let go and rolled away.  That was the last shark of the pack that came.  There was nothing more for them to eat.
     The old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth.  It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment.  But there was not much of it.
     He spat into the ocean and said, "Eat that, galanos.  And make a dream you've killed a man."
     He knew he was beaten now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer.  He settled the sack around his shoulders and put the skiff on her course.   He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind.  He was past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as well and as intelligently as he could.  In the night the sharks hit the carcass as someone might pick up crumbs from the table.  The old man paid no attention to them and did not pay any attention to anything except steering.  He only noticed how lightly and how well the skiff sailed now there was no great weight beside her.
      She's good, he thought.  She is sound and not harmed in any way except for the tiller.  That is easily replaced.
      He could feel he was inside the current now and he could see the lights of the beach colonies along the shore.  He knew where he was now and it was nothing to get home.
      The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought.  Then he added, sometimes.  And the great sea with our friends and enemies.  And bed, he thought.  Bed is my friend.  Just bed, he thought.  Bed will be a great thing.  It is easy to know when you are beaten, he thought.  I never knew how easy it was.  And what beat you, he thought.
     "Nothing," he said aloud.  "I went out too far."

-Ernest Hemingway,  The Old Man and the Sea

photo via

Respect thyself.......................

     "Always do the affairs of man change and improve because keen-minded men seek greater skill that they may better serve those upon whose patronage they depend.  Therefore, I urge all men to be in the front rank of progress and not to stand still, lest they be left behind. . . .
     "Thus the seventh and last remedy for a lean purse is to cultivate thy own powers, to study and become wiser, to become more skillful, to so act as to respect thyself to achieve thy carefully considered desires."

-Arkad, as channeled by George S. Clason in The Richest Man In Babylon

Fifty years ago..................At Woodstock

Ten Years After................................................I'm Going Home

Fifty years ago.......................At Woodstock

Sha-Na-Na....................................................The Duke of Earl

(audience facial expressions are priceless)

Jamie Varon says....................

courtesy of Swiss Miss

A deficit most serious.....................

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that conducts public opinion polls and social science research and informs the public about issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world. The organization recently published a new report called Trust and Distrust in America, which reveals that Americans think declining trust in the government and in each other is making it harder to solve important problems.

-culled from this Zero Hedge post

Shards.............................

The decisive endeavor of our moment – far surmounting, I believe, any specific policy call – is the re-establishment of trust in the institutions of representative democracy.  Only after the system has been reformed and the public has been reconciled to it can we again talk about truth as a self-evident proposition.  Until then, all we will have is perspectives – fragments of truth circling, randomly, the gravitational power of some opinion.  Appealing to tribal identity only compounds the fragmentation.  Fighting imaginary fascists and Nazis can be no more rewarding than hugging an imaginary friend.  What we need is a rhetoric aimed at the whole and persuasive to the whole – and for that to be possible, the public must be heard, and its perspectives, in their multiple and contradictory reality, must be taken seriously.

-Martin Gurri keeps banging his drum

Fifty years ago.............At Woodstock

Paul Butterfield Blues Band...Everything Gonna Be Alright

Unexpectedly..............................

"The problem for me was not ignorance; it was pre-conceived ideas."

-Hans Rosling, from this TED talk

Checking in with Eric Arthur Blair.............

"Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea."

"It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it."

"So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot."

"Either we all live in a decent world, or nobody does."

". . . there is the fact that the intellectuals are more totalitarian in outlook than the common people."

"The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them."

-all quotes lifted from here

About failure.......................

Failure hurts so much that we, as a society, have tried to minimize its impact.  Kids are told that it's okay to fail.  We read how great men and women failed time and again.  We're told that failure is a part of life and it's nothing to get upset about.  At the same time, we're told to learn from our mistakes.  How can we learn from our failures and mistakes if we're told that they're no big deal?
     You can't really have it both ways.  It is the pain that makes failure a step toward success.  By trying to hide your failure or minimize it, what you're really doing is protecting your own ego at the expense of improvement.  We don't get stronger by giving our muscles a little bit of a workout—nothing too painful, nice and steady.  We get stronger when we literally shred our muscle fibers, so that when they grow back, they grow back larger.  It's the trauma, the pain, that builds our bodies.  It's no different when we're going after our dreams.  Experiencing the pain of failure helps us grow.

-Akbar Gbajabiamila, Everyone Can Be A Ninja:  Find Your Inner Warrior And Achieve Your Dreams

Fifty years ago.................At Woodstock

Sly & The Family Stone........................Dance To The Music

Time is of the essence.................

17.  Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you.  Fate is at your elbow;  make yourself good while life and power are still yours.

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations, Book Four

Unchanged..............................

      Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.  Aristocracy ruins itself by limiting too narrowly the circle within which power is confined;  oligarchy ruins itself by the incautious scramble for immediate wealth.  In either case the end is revolution. . . .
     But even democracy ruins itself by excess—of democracy.  Its basic principle is the equal right of all to hold office and determine public policy.  This is at first glance a delightful arrangement; it becomes disastrous because the people are not properly equipped by education to select the best rulers and wisest courses. . . . Mob-rule is a rough sea for the ship of state to ride;  every wind of oratory stirs up the waters and deflects the course.  The upshot of such a democracy is tyranny or autocracy;  the crowd so loves flattery, it is so "hungry for honey," that at last the wiliest and most unscrupulous flatterer, calling himself the "protector of the people" rises to supreme power. . . .
     . . ."Like man, like state"; "governments vary as the characters of men vary; . . . states are made out of the human natures which are in them", the state is what it is because its citizens are what they are.  Therefore we need not expect to have better states until we have better men; till then all changes will leave every essential thing unchanged.

-Will Durant, once again quoting Plato in The Story of Philosophy

An indictment......................

. . .why is it that these Utopias never arrive upon the map?
     He answers, because of greed and luxury.  Men are not content with a simple life:  they are acquisitive, ambitious, competitive, and jealous;  they soon tire of what they have, and pine for what they have not; and they seldom desire anything unless it belongs to others.  The result is the encroachment of one group upon the territory of another . . .

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy:  The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers, from his chapter on Plato

Fifty years ago.......................At Woodstock

Sly & The Family Stone...........,.......................Everyday People

Fifty years ago.............................

Apollo 11 communicates with Houston from the surface of the moon

Success.................................

..................................................................the old-fashioned way:

"Practice frugality. Work hard. Save and invest your money."

As agents of change go........................

.........................this guy has to be in the Top Ten.

via

Ann Althouse has a very successful..............

...............................blog because she writes smart stuff:

That's all very interesting about the Electoral College, and if you read the whole article, you'll see a lot about polls about "approval" of Trump, which are used as a proxy for how people will vote. But in an election, you have to vote for one or another candidate (or abstain), and you might disapprove of all of them.

That is, withholding approval doesn't mean you won't vote for Trump. It's hard to approve of Trump. He's not exactly approval-seeking. You might like the results he's getting and still feel you want distance from him. You might vote for him because you want more of the same or because you think his opponent will take away some of the things you like and still be able to say that you "disapprove" of the person known as Trump.

True this..................................

"If you want to make a difference, you’ll probably need to find your own lane."

-just a sample of the daily wisdom Seth Godin offers for free

Awakenings.............................

On that day, the wind didn’t just blow around Johnson but through him, to a part of himself he previously didn’t know was there. He calls it a “baptism of spirit”: in that instant, he felt like his molecules were taken out, swirled with the air, and rearranged so that he’d forever be aligned with these environments and yearn for them. “I had no idea at the time it was going to be the most significant moment in my childhood,” Johnson says.

-Excerpted from this story, which led me to Sheldon Johnson's wikipedia page, where this quote was found:  "I facilitate astonishment. I didn't join the Park Service for money; I get paid in gasps."

via

Fifty years ago...............At Woodstock

Sly & The Family Stone.............I Want To Take You Higher

Fifty years ago.....................At Woodstock

Canned Heat................................................Woodstock Boogie

History is tricky...................................

Ben Carlson offers an interesting and read-worthy perspective on the study of history.   Reminds me of Winston Churchill's comment that history was going to be kind to him, because he was going to write it.

As a side note:   Carlson is quite a bit younger than your faithful blogger - he wasn't around for Apollo 11 and the first man on the  moon, I was 17.   Going back through the mists of memory, what amazed me most wasn't that we beat the Russians in the Space game, or even the landing on the moon.  What amazed me was the getting back.  Some pretty smart people accomplished some really brave and remarkable feats.  They all deserve to be honored by history.

Fifty years ago..............At Woodstock

Canned Heat........................................A Change Is Gonna Come

News you can use......................

According to the National Weather Service, more than half of flood-related drownings take place after a vehicle has been driven into flood water. “A mere [six] inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over an adult,” the agency warns. Think your car is any safer? “It takes just 12 inches of rushing water to carry away most cars and just two feet of rushing water can carry away SUVs and trucks.”

-cut and pasted from here

A prerequisite for.....................

.................................successfully navigating the 21st Century:

"an immune boosting sense of humour."

-Nicholas Bate

Fifty years ago..................At Woodstock

Canned Heat.......................................Going Up The Country

Fifty years ago.........................

...........................................The launch of Apollo 11

Fifty years ago................At Woodstock

Canned Heat..................................................On The Road Again

I just know they were checking out our tiger lilies...

In (faint) praise of hippies..................

...........................Some of my best friends were hippies.  I wasn't much of one, although I did own a fabulous pair of rainbow bells.................

Some readers have asked me to elaborate on my perspective on youth culture now vs. the 1960s. To me, campus culture today seems idiotic. I think that the hippie culture of my youth also was idiotic, but it was not as aggressive. If you weren’t a hippie, the hippies didn’t try to shut you up or get you fired.

-Arnold S. Kling, as  he opens this blog post

Live (sort of) from the Rijksmuseum..........

Preparing to restore, publicly, Rembrandt's Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, aka The Night Watch:



The back story may be found here.

via

Call it an investment.....................

When you've done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations, Book 7:73

      So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing?  It's your job.

-Ryan Holiday, from today's entry in The Daily Stoic

Fifty years ago.............At Woodstock

John Sebastian.......................................................I Had A Dream

Hot streak declared.....................

........................................Bloggery at its finest.

Opening paragraphs..................

      Cavalrymen remember such moments:  dust swirling behind the pack mules, regimental bugles shattering the air, horses snorting and riders' tack creaking through the ranks, their old company song rising on the wind:  "Come home, John! Don't stay long.  Come home soon to your own chick-a-biddy!"  The date was October 3, 1871.  Six hundred soldiers and twenty Tonkawa scouts had bivouacked on a lively bend of the Clear Fork of the Brazos, in a rolling, scarred prairie of grama grass, scrub oak, sage, and chaparral, about one hundred fifty miles of Fort Worth, Texas.  Now they were breaking camp, moving out in a long, snaking line through the high cutbanks and quicksand streams.  Though they did not know it at the time—the idea would have seemed preposterous—the sounding of "boots and saddle" that morning marked the beginning of the end of the Indian wars in America, of fully two hundred fifty years of bloody combat that had begun almost with the first landing of the first ship on the first fatal shore of Virginia.  The final destruction of the last of the hostile tribes would not take place for a few more years.  Time would be yet required to round them all up, or starve them out, or exterminate their sources of food, or run them to ground in shallow canyons, or kill them outright.  For the moment the question was one of hard, unalloyed will.  There had been brief spasms of official vengeance and retribution before:  J. M. Chivington's and George Armstrong Custer's savage massacres of Cheyennes in 1864 and 1868 were examples.  But in those days there was no real attempt to destroy the tribes on a larger scale, no stomach for it.  That had changed, and on October 3, the change assumed the form of an order, barked out through the lines of command to the men of the Fourth Cavalry and Eleventh Infantry, to go forth and kill Comanches.  It was the end of anything like tolerance, the beginning of the final solution.

-S. C. Gwynne,  Empire Of The Summer Moon:  Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

thanks Rob

On mental health...................

“Get out of your head. It’s a bad neighborhood.”

-Jennifer Pastiloff

This rule of reason......................

“Upon this first, and in one sense this sole, rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry.” 


-Charles S. Peirce

Fifty years ago...............At Woodstock

John Sebastian..........................................Darling Be Home Soon

Dreaming.............................

“Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.” 

-J. B. S. Haldane, Possible Worlds

enlargeable photo and attempted explanation here

On managing expectations.............

...........or as 12-step people might say, "High expectations are just premeditated resentments."

"The fastest way to fail as an investor to have reality fall short of your expectations. It’s better to plan for 5% and get 10% than to plan on 10% and only get 5%."

-Michael Batnick

The uncertainty of Socrates.............

He had his own religious faith:  he believed in one God, and hoped in his modest way that death would not quite destroy him, but he knew that a lasting moral code could not be based upon so uncertain a theology.  If one could build a system of morality absolutely independent of religious doctrine, as valid for the atheist as for the pietist, then theologies might come and go without loosening the moral cement that makes of wilful individuals the peaceful citizens of a community.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Making some rather large assumptions....

If, for example, good meant intelligent, and virtue meant wisdom; if men could be taught to see clearly their real interests, to see afar, the distant results of their deeds, to criticize and coordinate their desires out of a self-cancelling chaos into a purposive and creative harmony—this, perhaps, would provide for the educated and sophisticated man the morality which in the unlettered relies on reiterated precepts and external controls.  Perhaps all sin is error, partial vision, foolishness?  The intelligent man may have the same violent and unsocial impulses as the ignorant man, but surely he will control them better, and slip less often into imitation of the beast.  And in an intelligently administered society—one that returned to the individual, in widened powers, more than it took from him in restricted liberty—the advantage of every man would lie in social and loyal conduct, and only clear sight would be needed to ensure peace and order and good will.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Needing just the right amount of chaos.......

     But if the government itself is a chaos and an absurdity, if it rules without helping, and commands without leading,—how can we persuade the individual, in such a state, to obey the laws and confine his self-seeking within the circle of the total good?  No wonder an Alcibiades turns against a state that distrusts ability, and reverences number more than knowledge.  No wonder there is chaos where there is no thought, and the crowd decides in haste and ignorance, to repent at leisure and in desolation.  Is it not a base superstition that mere numbers will give wisdom?  On the contrary is it not universally seen that men in crowds are more foolish and more violent and more cruel than men separate and alone?

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Fifty years ago..................At Woodstock

John Sebastian...............................................Younger Generation

Message...................................

“There is a hidden message in every waterfall. It says, if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you!” 

-Mehmet Murat ildan

Sort of like Socrates.................

.........................................................just asking questions.

The beginning of western philosophy........

     In 490-470 B.C. Sparta and Athens, forgetting their jealousies and joining forces, fought off the effort of the Persians under Darius and Xerxes to turn Greece into a colony of an Asiatic empire.  In this struggle of youthful Europe against the senile East, Sparta provided the army and Athens the navy.  The war over, Sparta demobilized her troops, and suffered the economic disturbances natural to that process, while Athens turned her navy into a merchant fleet, and became one of the greatest trading cities of the ancient world.  Sparta relapsed into agricultural seclusion and stagnation, while Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse cults and customs, whose contact and rivalry begot comparison, analysis and thought.
      Traditions and dogmas rub one another down to a minimum in such centers of varied intercourse; where there are a thousand faiths we are apt to become sceptical of them all.  Probably the traders were the first sceptics; they has seen too much to believe too much;  and the general disposition of merchants to classify all men as either fools or knaves inclined them to question every creed.  Gradually, too, they were developing science; mathematics grew with the increasing complexity of exchange, astronomy with the increasing audacity of navigation.  The growth of wealth brought the leisure and security which are prerequisite of research and speculation;  men now asked the stars not only for guidance on the seas but as well for an answer to the riddles of the universe;  the first Greek philosophers were astronomers.  "Proud of their achievements," says Aristotle, "men pushed farther afield after the Persian wars; they took all knowledge for their province, and sought ever wider studies."  Men grew bold enough to attempt natural explanations of processes and events before attributed to supernatural agencies and powers;  magic and ritual slowly gave way to science and control; and philosophy began.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy

Fifty years ago.............At Woodstock

Joan Baez............................................Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

trifling issues...............................

     Zeno appears to have been trying to synthesize the best aspects of different Athenian philosophical traditions.  However, the Cynic and Academic schools were often seen as representing fundamentally different assumptions about what it means to be a philosopher.  The Cynics sneered at the pretentious and bookish nature of Plato's Academy.  The Academics, in turn, thought the doctrines of the Cynics were crude and too extreme—Plato reputedly called Diogenes "Socrates gone mad."  Zeno must have believed that studying philosophical theory, or subjects like logic and cosmology, can be good insofar as it makes us more virtuous and improves our character.  However, it also can be a bad thing if it becomes so pedantic or overly "academic" that it diverts us from the pursuit of virtue.  Marcus learned the same attitude from his Stoic teachers.  He repeatedly warned himself not to become distracted by reading too many books—thus wasting time on trifling issues in logic and metaphysics—but instead to remain focused on the practical goal of living wisely.

-Donald Robertson,  How To Think Like A Roman Emperor:  The Stoic Philosophy Of Marcus Aurelius

As slogans go.........................

.............................this one may be difficult to top.  Got my vote.

Ponder this one for a moment...........

"The pace of change is never going to be slower than it is now."

-Beth Comstock, as extracted from here

Learned another new word today.....

It's pretty clear that cartoonist Paula Pratt was a student of the nineteenth-century American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.  By the way, that's not a typo;  his name really did violate the rule "i" before "e," except after "c," and he pronounced it "Purse."  And that's not the only rule he broke.  He staked out new territory with is declaration that "truth is what works," and he is therefore known in the history of philosophy as a "pragmatist."  His own term for himself was "fallibilist," meaning, as he said, that "people cannot attain absolute certainty concerning questions of fact."  But in the meantime, we have to go with our best shot, based on current evidence, and see how it works out in practice.

-Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein,   I Think, Therefore I Draw:  Understanding Philosophy Through Cartoons

Here's something you don't read everyday....

Maybe Portugal can show us a different approach to the problem. 

Standards...................................

..................................................................................a list.

Opening paragraphs................

     Wardell Holland, the mayor of Wheatfield, Minnesota, was sitting in the double-wide he rented from his mother, a Daisy Match Grade pellet rifle in his hands, shooting flies.  His mother suspected he let the flies in on purpose so he could shoot at them.  He denied it, but he was lying.

-John Sandford,  Holy Ghost:  A Virgil Flowers Novel

Let's have more faith.....................

.................................................in the "bottoms up" approach:

Discussions of cities and how they work are of three kinds. Economists like the neoclassical model of spatial equilibrium; sites are evaluated by competitors and equilibrium site rents emerge. Designers (often utopians) like ambitious plans: their top-down design skills can be scaled-up significantly. Followers of Jane Jacobs disagree and celebrate the complex spatial arrangements that emerge bottom-up; knowledge is complex and dispersed.

-Peter Gordon, as culled from here

Fifty years ago....................At Woodstock

Joan Baez...............................................We Shall Overcome

The times they are a changin'—Part 1

..................................................................Homo Appiens.

The time they are a changin'—Part 2

Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

-Bob Dylan, circa 1963

Character............................

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” 

-Helen Keller

And mind your own while you are at it......

But this is the blind spot in human nature:  we are poorly equipped to gauge the character of the people we deal with.  Their public image, the reputation that precedes them, easily mesmerizes us.  We are captivated by appearances. . . . And so, because of our blind spot, we suffer under the irresolute leader, micromanaging boss, the conniving partner.  This is the source of endless tragedies in history, our pattern as a species.
     At all costs, you must alter your perception.  Train yourself to ignore the front that people display, the myth that surrounds them, and instead plumb their depths for signs of their character.  This can be seen in the patterns they reveal from their past, the quality of their decisions, how they have chosen to solve problems, how the delegate authority and work with others, and countless other signs.  A person of strong character is like gold—rare but invaluable.  They can adapt, learn, and improve themselves.  Since your success depends on the people you work with and for, make their character the primary object of your attention.  You will spare yourself the misery of discovering their character when it is too late.

Robert Greene,  The Laws Of Human Nature, from the chapter The Law of Compulsive Behavior

Fifty years ago.............At Woodstock

Joan Baez..........................................................Sweet Sir Galahad

Groucho says..............................

Howling..................................

..............................................Skip sure knows how to pick 'em.