Sunday, August 23, 2015

deep blue clarities of a delighting mind

--- Robert Conquest, quoted in the obituary by Charlemagne in The Economist, 15 August 2015.

From the column:

When the Soviet archives opened, his meticulous work was utterly vindicated. His books were published in Russia, and he brought out updated editions in English. Mulling a new title for “The Great Terror”, his pal Kingsley Amis suggested “I told you so, you fucking fools”. He preferred derision to self-righteousness, summarising Soviet Communism in a much-quoted limerick:
There was a great Marxist called Lenin
Who did two or three million men in.
That’s a lot to have done in,
But where he did one in
That grand Marxist Stalin did ten in.
The kind of people who overlooked such trifles, he reckoned, were also willing to scrub their minds on other issues. He despised much modern literary criticism: it used “important” freely but shunned “beautiful”. For him, the great pursuit was the “deep blue clarities of a delighting mind”. He wrote: “Just as it is people who think they have discovered the laws of history who have, in our time, inflicted our major public catastrophes so—in a lesser field, or at least one in which the results are not so literally bloody—it is those who think they have discovered the laws of literature who have been the destroyers.”

Another lovely little poem quoted, "Sooner or Later", introduced as follows: "Having seen where grand designs led, he cherished scepticism and moderation."

What’s helpful? Not much. Nothing?
But to fill in the time
There’s little harm in clothing
Such nude truths with a rhyme.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

with Moore’s law of technological progress comes Moore’s outlaw

--- Marc Goodman, interviewed in New Scientist, A cybercrime wave is coming – brace yourself, 8 April 2015

Quote in context:
In the old days, you buy a gun or a knife, you go hide in a dark alley until some sucker walks by and you say, “Give me your wallet”. Good business model, but you can only rob four or five people a day. However, with Moore’s law of technological progress comes Moore’s outlaw, and so we’re seeing a paradigm shift in crime. In one hack of the US retailer Target in 2013, over a third of Americans were victims, including tens of millions of people who had their bank details stolen. So one individual can now rob 100 million people. That has never been possible before and it’s because we’re all connected via vulnerable technology.

Another good quote:
The internet is about to get a whole lot bigger. . . . Every grain of sand on our planet could have its own internet address a trillion times over. Previously, I never had to worry about a hackable television, a hackable pacemaker, a hackable car, a hackable pet. But now all of this is possible. We’ve wired the world but failed to secure it.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Jewish is not a religion, it is an opportunity to travel

--- Ilya Kaminsky, quoted by Breyten Breytenbach in Dancing in Other Words, 'n Nabetragting van 'n Klein Reis, Versindaba, May 2014

Source:

Ilya says : « Jewish is not a religion, it is an opportunity to travel. »

The blog this is taken from appears to be a record of the 2014 "Dancing in Other Words" poetry festival near Stellenbosch, South Africa; see e.g. http://slipnet.co.za/view/event/dancing-in-other-words-2/.

Jy moet diffuus wees soos kladpapier

--- Breyten Breytenbach, in Dancing in Other Words, 'n Nabetragting van 'n Klein Reis, Versindaba, May 2014

In context:
Dis die tussen-inne wat tel, die gleuwe, die voeë en die voue, die kreukels, die epentese in woorde, die amperse epigrawe en die epiloë en die epitawe en die epsomsout, die insetsels en (tot ‘n mate) die byvoegsels.
Wat bly oor wanneer jy jou tussen wêrelde/ideologië/geskiedenisse/tale/stoele bevind ? Nog net beweging en ‘n absolute sin van syn. Oftewel, dat jy jou aanmekaar moet posisioneer. Die gat sal moet leer om van draad te hou.
Maar wat is die dissipline ? Hoe word dit gedoen ?
Dis om die fokus net effens te verskuif, om laterale visie te ontwikkel, om te hoor sonder om te luister in watter boom uit watter kloof die nagtegaal sing. Die beweging wat jy dan optel, die stoornis, is met verwysing na die sentrale fokuspunt, sê maar die doelwit, die bekende of die verwagte. Die betekenis…
Jy moet diffuus wees soos kladpapier. Die belange-hiërargie van wat jy waarneem moet ontdaan en ongedaan gemaak word.
The centre must no longer hold in order for new shapes to emerge.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

It is an illusion to believe that you can be happy when no one else is. Or that other people will not be affected by your unhappiness.

--- Tor Nørretranders, in Altruismhttps://edge.org/response-detail/25500

A few excerpts:

What needs to go away is the basic idea behind the concept of altruism: the idea that there is a conflict of interest between helping yourself and helping others.
The starting point is neither selfishness nor altruism, but the state of being bound together. It is an illusion to believe that you can be happy when no one else is. Or that other people will not be affected by your unhappiness.
Therefore a simple rules applies: Everyone feels better when you are well. You feel better when everyone is well.

Sunday, August 09, 2015

Difficult is life for the modest one

--- Dhammapada 18.245, via Daily Words of the Buddha for September 27, 2013
Hirīmatā ca dujjīvaṃ
niccaṃ sucigavesinā,
alīnenāppagabbhena,
suddhājīvena passatā.
Difficult is life for the modest one
who always seeks purity,
is detached and unassuming,
clean in life, and discerning.
View Pāli on Tipitaka.org

Thursday, August 06, 2015

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things

--- Nicolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532), Ch. 6, transl. George Bull., Penguin Classics, fourth printing (1995), pg. 19

Quote in context:
There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.  For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.  This lukewarmness arises partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the law in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

You must respect the means at your disposal

--- Breyten Breytenbach, in Dancing in other words: Die Nabetragting van ‘n Klein Reis, Versindaba, May 16th, 2014
Quote in context
You must have confidence and a knowledge of self in order to engage the non-self, so as to do away with the self step by step. The self is a way of being, of interacting with the non-self. You must respect the means at your disposal – the movements of interaction – and treat these with understanding and compassion, learning how to listen to the soft rubbing away of skin by skin, so as to be effaced. Being is migration.