fieldus

From The American Spectator
Having shaken off their shackles and discovered that they have not obtained contentment, human beings have a lamentable tendency to believe that they are victims of some alien force, be it aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, capitalism, the priesthood, or simply the belief in God. And the feeling arises that they need only destroy [...]

New Year prediction | clivejames.com
We’ve reached a turning point. A madness has gone out of fashion: the madness of behaving as if only too much can be enough. There will always be another madness, but not that one. From now on a man will have to be as dumb as a petrodollar potentate to think [...]

The visionaries: Meet the men who predicted the crash - Profiles, People - The Independent
…I say listen to negative rather than positive advice. When you go to a book store there are plenty of publications telling you how to get rich, but none telling you how not to go bankrupt. To put it another way, [...]

from a review of of Judith Thurmans’ New Yorker essay on Leni Riefenstahl:
Time, that is intolerant
of the brave and innocent,
And indifferent in a week,
To a beautiful physique,
Worships language and forgives
Everyone by whom it lives;
Pardons cowardice, conceit,
Lays its honours at their feet.
Time that with this strange excuse
Pardoned Kipling and his views,
And will pardon Paul Claudel,
Pardons [...]

Oliver Burkeman on stimulating the intellect | Life and style | The Guardian
But there’s another barrier to iconoclastic thinking: fear. Once you’ve jolted your brain on to a new path of thought, pursuing it further - either in your head or by acting on it - will stimulate the fear of uncertainty, failure or disapproval. [...]

Ken Baldwin, (c) Chronicle / Christina Koci Hernandez

Discussion of Baldwin, the bridge and the causes of suicide in The San Francisco Chronicle.

from

Is Google Making Us Stupid?
Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet as Luddites or nostalgists will be proved correct, and from our hyperactive, data-stoked minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom. Then again, the Net isn’t the alphabet, and although it may replace the printing press, it produces something [...]

iD: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century by Susan Greenfield review | Non-fiction book reviews - Times Online
Lady Greenfield posits three types of identity. Those who are “Someone” locate themselves in relation to others, changing and responding as they gain experience. Those who are “Anyone” are characterised by action, not reflection, and have [...]

Smile and kiss your right to privacy goodbye (according to David Byrne)
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