Next year in Jerusalem
1 week ago
Random thoughts on the blue highways.
You never know what you will find on the blue highways. Particularly when the choice at an intersection is controlled by the roll of a die. About the only rule is that highway onramps don't count as an intersection. You don't even have to roll the die. If one road looks interesting, go for it.
"We don't have a democracy, we have a RePUBliC!!1"All democracies are republics. [Edit: this is not strictly true, what I should have said is any 'pure' democracy would be, but constitutional monarchies aren't republics]. Not all republics are democracies. These are not things that are in opposition. The only alternatives to democracy are oligarchy and monarchy(and in practice, monarchies are primarily oligarchic).Our sainted Founding Fathers didn't oppose democracy in order to defend oppressed minorities. They were slavers. They were rich and powerful men whose families gained their hereditary wealth and power from service to the kings of Europe, who they'd just convinced the public were illegitimate. There was a very reasonable fear that putting the systems that legitimized and enforced their wealth and power up to a vote would result in them being rescinded. So they designed the system to insulate them from the public will.
The only minority they cared about in the slightest was the group James Madison referred to as "The Opulent Minority". Ie: themselves. The oligarchs.
I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life. I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody. That is the only answer I can give along that line.Transcript
From Facebook: How do you tell the difference between betraying your principles and learning new ones?
To believe you can live free of your cultural matrix is one of the easiest fallacies and has some of the worst consequences. You are part of your group whether you like it or not, and you are bound by its customs.
Don't belittle customs. It is easier to change Mendelian characteristics than to change customs. If you try to ignore them, they bind you when you least expect it.
Don't break them--avoid them. Take them into your considerations, examine how they work, and make them serve you.
Claude Morden, Beyond This Horizon, Chapter 15 147 NAL, Robert A. Heinlein.
It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a language. Or anything, as long as it isn't the whole population. Friday Baldwin in Friday. Robert A. Heinlein. 1982.
To believe you can live free of your cultural matrix is one of the easiest fallacies and has some of the worst consequences. You are part of your group whether you like it or not, and you are bound by its customs.
Don't belittle customs. It is easier to change Mendelian characteristics than to change customs. If you try to ignore them, they bind you when you least expect it.
Don't break them--avoid them. Take them into your considerations, examine how they work, and make them serve you.
Claude Morden, Beyond This Horizon, Chapter 15, p 147 NAL, Robert A. Heinlein.