It is always the respectable classes [...] who are most susceptible to evil. To be intelligent, as many are, at least in a narrow, analytical way, is morally neutral. These respectable citizens are inculcated in their elitist ghettos with “values” and “norms,” including pious acts of charity used to justify their privilege, and a belief … Continue reading The Lie Of The Respectable
Category: Quotes
He said. She said. Things said that are real real smart.
The End Of The Illusions
“The success of totalitarian movements among the masses meant the end of two illusions of democratically ruled countries in general and of European nation states and their party systems in particular. The first was at the people in it’s majority had taken an active part in the government and that each individual was in sympathy … Continue reading The End Of The Illusions
Burke Before Paine?
Having a hard time reading Hanna Arendt. Reason? It’s not that I don’t or can’t understand her. She is most certainly NOT a difficult read. It’s just that…In my confused and un-trained reading-mind, I realize how little I know about so much of the history she is constantly referencing. For example, the quote above. It’s … Continue reading Burke Before Paine?
The Word Mob Or How Worst-Writer Learn Bout Bad-Bad
A quick search in the #Interwebnets provided a kickstart to this worst-post, dear worst-reader. It was originally supposed to be just another quick quote-post as I was so tickled how Hannah Arendt uses the word mob. Putting all my worst-silliness aside, though, I eventually came around to thinking about all the ways the word mob … Continue reading The Word Mob Or How Worst-Writer Learn Bout Bad-Bad
On Human Wickedness And Such
Human wickedness, if accepted by society, is changed from an act of will into an inherent, psychological quality which man cannot choose or reject but which is imposed upon him from without, and which rules him as compulsively as the drug rules the addict. -The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt I'm about three hundred and … Continue reading On Human Wickedness And Such
Error Of Past Goes On And On And On And
“The error of those who reason by precedents drawn from antiquity, respecting the rights of man, is that they do not go far enough into antiquity. They do not go the whole way. They stop in some of the intermediate stages of an hundred or a thousand years, and produce what was then done, as … Continue reading Error Of Past Goes On And On And On And
Celebrating Winning
As VE Day was being celebrated in Western enclaves here and there yesterday, worst-writer was thinking of George Carlin: "When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jack-boots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts. Germany lost the Second World War. Fascism won … Continue reading Celebrating Winning
Sympathy, Maybe Not
The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man’s intelligence; and, as I pointed out some time ago in an article on the function of criticism, it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. Oscar Wilde, The Soul of a Man
The Snake
Trump loves to be caught and not be punished. Throughout the 2016 campaign, he recited the poem “The Snake,” a story of treachery that mocks the victims: “You knew damn well I was a snake before you let me in.” It is not enough for Trump to commit a crime. He needs to let you … Continue reading The Snake
Empirical Observation Of The Masses
This uncritical embrace of authority for its own sake is similar to the excuses given for the refusal of officials to address the attacks on the 2016 election in depth. (The Russians want us to distrust the integrity of the US election process, the pundit explains, therefore we must never, ever question what the Russians … Continue reading Empirical Observation Of The Masses
End Times Hiding In Plain Sight
In the 1990s, history ended with the specter of the wealthiest men in the world raping teenage girls provided by a mafia-affiliated blackmailer. History ended in a sealed file, history ended in a silent scream, history ended with the last man warning you that if you tell anyone, you’d end too.Hiding In Plain Sight, Sarah … Continue reading End Times Hiding In Plain Sight
Hick Fascism Dog Whistle
As suggested earlier, the rise and institutionalisation of the Ronald Reagan political clique, first in California as governor, 1967-1975, and then as U.S. President, 1981-1989, was a major green light for the development of white supremacist groups, from marginal and obscure to mainstream, by the dawn of the twenty-first century. Reagan and his cronies and … Continue reading Hick Fascism Dog Whistle
Sleep of Reason
Thinking too much about my beloved & missed #Americant this morn, dear worst-reader. Thinking about what could lead to the likes of President Stupid and his pee-pee-hair? I mean, is there an essence to it all? Is it that so many compatriots are as stupid as the leaders they elect? That must be the magic-sauce, … Continue reading Sleep of Reason
Jabberwhorl Cronstadt
There's no such thing as the present. There's a word called Time, but nobody is able to define it. There's a past and there's a future, and Time runs through it like an electric current. The present is an imaginary condition, a dream state... an oxymoron. -Henry Miller, Black Spring, chapter: Jabberwhorl Cronstadt,
Party Here, Faction There
Van Buren will be nominated and he will defeat Clay or any other National Republican--no, no, Whig, I must get used to calling them that. How topsy-turvy it is! Those of us who were for the Revolution were Whigs. Those for Britain were Tories. Then there was the fight over the federal Constitution. In our … Continue reading Party Here, Faction There
Does The Razor Cut Through It
It was actually Ockham who prepared our minds for this unwelcome (to him) conclusion. He devised a "principle of economy," popularly known as "Ockham's Razor," which relied for its effect on disposing of unnecessary assumptions and accepting the first sufficient explanation or cause. "Do not multiply entities beyond necessity." This principle extends itself. "Everything which … Continue reading Does The Razor Cut Through It
Futility Of Discourse
"He had encouraged him to talk to him, although he had always wondered at a certain incoherence, or rather restlessness in his mind, and could not understand what it was that so continually and insistently worked upon the brain of "the contemplative." They discussed philosophical questions and even how there could have been light on … Continue reading Futility Of Discourse
Oh Yeah, Daniel Boone…
What Daniel Boone, like George Washington, was up to was intruding upon sovereign Native land so as to covertly survey it and sell it to white settlers, who would then form themselves into militias to murder the families who had been living there for generations. Some were successful and grew rich and powerful, such as … Continue reading Oh Yeah, Daniel Boone…
Whose Freedom Is It To Give Anywho?
While re-reading The Grand Inquisitor this morning after or almost at the same time ingesting another day of newz from my beloved & missed #Americant where THE FREEDOM TO BE STUPID rules all, this quote got to me. "For fifteen centuries we have been wrestling with Thy freedom, but now it is ended and over … Continue reading Whose Freedom Is It To Give Anywho?
Too Much Fun With Stephen Fry
Below is one of Stephen Fry's shortest chapters in his book Mythos. Even though I'm reading them out of order, his sequel to this book really motivated me. So far this book has not been a disappointment. I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting the whole, short chapter here. But I got as … Continue reading Too Much Fun With Stephen Fry
Egypt Of The…
"This was indeed the Egypt of the Confederacy,--the rich granary whence potatoes and corn and cotton poured out of the famished and ragged Confederate troops as they battled for a cause lost long before 1861. Sheltered and secure, it became the place of refuge for the families, wealth, and slaves. Yet even then the hard … Continue reading Egypt Of The…
Still Trying To Learn The French Revolution. Because.
One of the best of the few too many books I've read on the subject. Had no idear this was gonna be so good--on account worstwriter learn something galore. It's also kinda funny-sad how some of the rhetoric from yore is no different than today--even though we're supposed to have progressed. Progressed to where? Note … Continue reading Still Trying To Learn The French Revolution. Because.
Willful Ignorance
(noun) The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs. This practice is most commonly found in the political or religious ideologies of "conservative" Americans. Many times it is practiced due to laziness--people not wanting … Continue reading Willful Ignorance
Missing The Hitch
"Given this overwhelming tendency to stupidity and selfishness in myself and among our species, it is somewhat surprising to find the light of reason penetrating at all. The brilliant Schiller was wrong in his "Joan of Arc" when he said that "against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." It is actually by means of … Continue reading Missing The Hitch
Battle of Communications
"The battle for the survival of man as a responsible being in the Communications Era is not to be won where the communication originates, but where it arrives." -Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality, Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare But seriously. If/when the communication arrives at the #Americant in the comfort of his credit card, never-paid-for … Continue reading Battle of Communications
worstwriter 