August 2010
13 posts
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Watch
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“One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside...”
– via smilingpuppet
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“We have no intention, however, of making a fetish of democracy. It may well be...”
– from The Road to Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, from the end of Chapter 5 “Planning and Democracy”.
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Objects, Values and Madness
There are similarities between perceiving objects and values. Thus, if you happen to live in a society where you don’t share its values, it is like not being able to see certain objects, or being able to see objects that others don’t; therefore, it is no coincidence that an individual with a different morality than that of his society, is considered by many to be like a madman who sees or responds...
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Ο Έλληνας
Ο Έλληνας πρέπει να είναι ορθόδοξος αλλα όχι Χριστιανός.
Translation: The Greek should be orthodox but not Christian.
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If you can count
If you can count the times you’ve had sex you haven’t had enough.
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Fashion
Wear the latest fashion you are called a fashion victim. Do not wear it, and you are called old-fashioned.
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Childhood
Childhood is adulthood without pretension.
Four scenes
City center. People walking. Stores displaying their wares. Cars moving, honking. A driver sighs in frustration.. Some pigeons flutter their wings as a passerby quickens his gait. “Can you spare some change?” intermingled with laughing teenagers on skateboards. Seeing people who talk to themselves and trying to determine their sanity by the presence of a bluetooth earpiece. Where are we going? I...
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Zen Stories: Across the River
Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed.
As the monks continued on their way, the one was brooding and preoccupied. Unable to...
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Zen Stories: The Bicycle
A Zen teacher saw five of his students return from the market, riding their bicycles. When they had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?”
The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying this sack of potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back! “The teacher praised the student, saying, “You are a smart...
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The ethical dialectic
First you care for yourself. Then you care for others. Then you care neither for yourself nor others. The first is selfishness, The second altruism. The third? Selflessness.
Selflessness is when you do things for the things themselves irrespective of reference to selves.
Great creators create not so that they please themselves or others but because they follow some inexorable law of what needs...