a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up

 --- George Schultz, decribing the Washington foreign-policy establishment, quoted by Richard Sokolsky & Gordon Adams in Don’t Let the DC ‘Blob’ Guide Trump’s Foreign Policy, Nov 2016, 

Excerpt

Nearly thirty years ago, in testimony before Congress, then secretary of state George Shultz offered a rare window into the inner workings of the Washington foreign-policy establishment. He told members of Congress, “Nothing ever gets settled in this town. It’s not like running a company or even a university. It’s a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me, and that’s the atmosphere in which you administer.”

President Obama called the foreign-policy establishment “the Blob.” He was critical of the playbook it wanted to use, which invariably advocated the use of U.S. military force to effect regime change, interfere in other countries’ civil wars, and promote democracy and human rights, as well as a hyperactive and muscular approach to dealing with the world’s problems. Obama had a mixed record in taming the Blob; he succumbed to its preferences in Libya, but has kept it largely at bay in Syria. 

mirrors ought to be merely glanced at, not stared at

--- Mamoru Oshii, script of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, around time code 1:24:55.

A conversation between the Major, acting through a doll, and Batou, as they attack the control center of the Locus Solus ship.

The Major: There are few who can hold up a mirror and not become evil. A mirror does not expose evil. Rather, it creates it. 

Batou: This ain't the time to become philosophical. I'm running short on ammo here. 

The Major: In short, mirrors ought to be merely glanced at, not stared at.

 

Mirrors are associated with the occult. From occult-world.com:

• In lore, mirrors are believed to reflect the soul and must be guarded against lest the soul be lost.
• The Aztecs used mirrorlike surfaces to keep witches away.
• Medieval and renaissance village wizards frequently employed mirrors to detect thieves.

the uncertainty that perhaps something that doesn't appear to be alive, actually is

--- Mamoru Oshii, script of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, around time code 1:06. 

The speaker is a manikin looking like detective Togusa, animated by the hacker Kim, during Togusa's hallucination.

This is seriously disturbing isn't it? Trust me, I know how you feel. It's the uncertainty that something that appears to be alive, actually isn't. On the other hand, it might be the uncertainty that perhaps something that doesn't appear to be alive, actually is. 

 

issues are real but politics are just an invented way to solve those issues

 --- Trevor Noah, in What Did Trevor Learn from The Daily Show?  at time code 1:24 on The Daily Show

Great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn

 --- N.K. Jemisin in The City We Became (2020)

Excerpt

This is the lesson: Great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn.

Duh, right? Everyone who's visited a real city feels that, one way or another. All those rural people who hate cities are afraid of something legit; cities really are different. They make a weight on the world, a tear in the fabric of reality, like ... like black holes, maybe. Yeah. (I go to museums sometimes. They're cool inside, and Neil deGrasse Tyson is hot.) As more and more people come in and deposit their strangeness and leave and get replaced by others, the tear widens. Eventually it gets so deep that it forms a pocket, connected only by the thinnest thread of ... something to ... something. Whatever cities are made of.

But the separation starts a process, and in that pocket the many parts of the city begin to multiply and differentiate. Its sewers extend into places where there is no need for water. Its slums grow teeth; its art centers, claws. Ordinary things within it, traffic and construction and stuff like that, start to have a rhythm like a heartbeat, if you record their sounds and play them back fast. The city ... quickens.

Not all cities make it this far. There used to be a couple of great cities on this continent, but that was before Columbus fucked the Indians' shit up, so we had to start over. New Orleans failed, like Paulo said, but it survived, and that's something. It can try again. Mexico City's well on its way. But New York is the first American city to reach this point.

The gestation can take twenty years or two hundred or two thousand, but eventually the time will come. The cord is cut and the city becomes a thing of its own, able to stand on wobbly legs and do ... well, whatever the fuck a living, thinking entity shaped like a big-ass city wants to do.

And just as in any other part of nature, there are things lying in wait for this moment, hoping to chase down the sweet new life and swallow its guts while it screams.

That's why Paulo's here to teach me. That's why I can clear the city's breathing and stretch and massage its asphalt limbs. I'm the midwife, see.