Umi Devi

Showing posts with label ponder this. Show all posts

Aug 22, 2011

The possibility of bliss

"What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then, if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There's always the possibility of a fiasco. But there's also the possibility of

On the right of self defense

Meanwhile, in England ...
"Is there an inalienable right to self-defense? If there is, each man has indisputable, inestimable value, value that he may rightly preserve even if the life of another man is forfeit. A man may kill another in lawful self-defense even if the policy preferences of the state would prefer his death. If a right to self-defense actually exists, it is in a very real

Aug 20, 2011

The question-driven life

"We are born with what some psychologists call an “explanatory drive.” You give a baby a strange object or something that doesn’t make sense and she will become instantly absorbed; using all her abilities — taste, smell, force — to figure out how it fits in with the world.

"Some people center their lives around money or status or community or service to God, but this seems to be a

Aug 18, 2011

On reverie

"Reverie," Adolphe Plot
Reverie: a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing
"Like a good genie who would replace the world left behind with a shimmer, or a novel that, as you read it, immensely intensifies emotions, engraves reality, unleashes pleasures and joys that one life would not suffice to reveal, reverie — intuitive nescience —shatters the dreamer into an atopia of sensations

Aug 16, 2011

Live with nature in the present

"Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say `I think,' `I am,' but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.
"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every

Aug 14, 2011

There won't always be an England

"Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too.

"The London rioters are the children of dependency, the progeny of Big Government: they have been marinated in 'stimulus' their entire lives. There is literally nothing you can't get Her Majesty's Government to pay for. A man of 21 with learning disabilities has been granted taxpayers' money to fly to Amsterdam

Aug 6, 2011

Getting in touch with your inner child

"Yes, you do have one of those psychobabble things.

"Your inner child is selfish, self-centered, greedy, jealous, envious, angry, spiteful, grudge-bearing, hyper-sensitive; feels deprived, entitled, fearful, passive-aggressive, and often destructive. It's a nasty thing and results in misery (for others) in life.

"My general advice is to avoid being "in touch with" one's inner child as much as

Aug 4, 2011

A life well lived

A life well lived would be, it seems to me, first of all to include some element of reflection – critical reflection; what one believes about fundamental moral questions, about obligations to one’s fellow citizens and beyond. But it should be the kind of reflection that draws upon the moral traditions and histories that one inhabits.

"And not only reflection in the sense of thinking, but also

Aug 2, 2011

Do you dream in color?

"When people today are asked whether they regularly dream in color, most say they do. But it was not always so. Back in the 1950s most said they dreamed in black and white. Presumably it can hardly be true that our grandparents had different brains that systematically left out the color we put in today. So this must be a matter of interpretation. Yet why such freedom about assigning color?

"Well

Jul 18, 2011

No more reason to believe a scientist than a politician

Mike Haseler, a Scotsman, is an agnostic on global warming, has worked in the "wind industry," was once selected as a candidate by the Green Party, has studied physics and electronics, and has an MBA. He writes.
In the 20th century “science” was without doubt incredibly successful. Everything from microchips to antibiotics. As a result “science” became a reputable brand giving authority to those

Jul 16, 2011

The dignity of life

"One can recognize that rising health-care costs, particularly at the end of life, are bankrupting our nation and thus failing to serve the common good without concluding that this entails that the lives of those with terminal diseases are no longer worth living. Between the two extremes of intentionally killing and prolonging life at all costs lies a virtuous mean of accepting death when the

Jul 11, 2011

A touch of cynicism

"Cynicism is a means toward sturdiness and independence in a man; it quickens his activities, and prevents a too ready acceptance of existing conditions. It is almost necessary to important achievement. The reverential frame of mind is inefficient when confronted with the world’s work; too much in the problems of life demands not to be reverenced, but to be cursed. There can be no useful and

Jul 5, 2011

John Adams: spinning in his grave

Not amused.
"In 1776, Massachusetts native son John Adams declared that Independence Day 'ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.'
"If John Adams were to return to Massachusetts today to lead such a parade, he would find that the sale and

Jun 29, 2011

Rancid tapioca

"I rarely watch television, read newspapers, or listen to the radio. I read books by dead persons, pretty much. I have little use for 99.9 percent of the Internet, because it's just people telling me that they can watch TV and read the newspaper harder than me. The average intellectual's head is full of tapioca. On the Intertunnel, it's rancid tapioca.

"You cannot tell what's going on by what

Jun 28, 2011

Let the experts decide

"One of my favorite political fables concerns Dwight D. Eisenhower and his tenure as president of Columbia University. The campus was undergoing an expansion, and Ike was presented with two very different plans for laying out new sidewalks. The architects were irreconcilable, each insisting that his plan was the only way to go and that the other guy had it all wrong. Ike, sensible fellow that he

Jun 27, 2011

Bunch of know it alls

"Superficially, the world has become small and known. Poor little globe of earth, the tourists trot round you as easily as they trot round the Bois or round Central Park. There is no mystery left, we’ve been there, we’ve seen it, we know all about it. We’ve done the globe, and the globe is done.
"We’ve been everywhere and done everything, we know all about it. Yet the more we know, superficially,

Jun 25, 2011

Today is the day for me

?We are a driven people, New Yorkers. Too much to do, not enough time. We keep lists; we crowd our schedules; we look for more efficient ways to organize ourselves — we get things done when we’re not too busy planning to get things done. Even our leisure time is focused, and there is something proactive about our procrastination. We don’t merely put things off. We put things off by piling other

Jun 19, 2011

One explanation

(American Digest)

Jun 15, 2011

First let's kill all the experts

"An expert consensus is not a fact. Experts used to think the sun revolved around the earth (wrong), that bad air caused disease (wrong), that spicy food and stress caused ulcers (wrong), that autistic people are mentally retarded becausetheir mothers didn’t love them (oh, so wrong), etc. Experts are wrong, all the time."
-- Bookworm

A commencement speech worth watching

Trust me.

(Thanks, J)