Warren Wagar, A Short History of the Future, page 244:
…sharp witted, yet outgoing and cooperative, the young members of Homo Sapiens altior fashioned a new model of human behavior ideally suited for life in autonomous communities. They were less inclined than the old human type to take advantage of others and too intelligent to [...]
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Another form of wealth
30 April 2008 – 8:54 pm
On integration
29 April 2008 – 9:25 pm
As integration deepens, the generation whose identity was created by separation can feel left behind, betrayed, and lash out … at other members of the minority.
– Andrew Sullivan, parsing Wright, Sharpton, and Obama
B. Alan Wallace Interviewed by Steve Paulson
28 April 2008 – 9:02 pm
You’ve suggested that there might be certain functions of the mind, certain aspects of consciousness, that don’t have a material foundation.
Yes.
Advanced contemplatives in the Buddhist tradition have talked about tapping into something called the “substrate consciousness.” What is that?
Just for a clarification of terms, I’ve demarcated three whole dimensions of consciousness. There’s the psyche. It’s [...]
From David McCullough’s John Adams
27 April 2008 – 11:45 am
John Adams: Spring 1772
Government is nothing more than the combined force of society, or the united power of the multitude, for the peace, order, safety, good, and happiness of the people … There is no king or queen bee distinguished from all others, by size or figure of beauty and variety of colors, in the [...]
From Richard Gwyn’s John A. Macdonald
27 April 2008 – 11:37 am
In writing this book, I have made a host of spelling “mistakes”, but have paid them no heed. Each has been signaled clearly by a red line that my computer’s U.S. text system inserts beneath the offending word. The mistakes aren’t really mine, though; they are Macdonald’s. He had an order-in-council passed directing that the [...]
Rome Notes
27 April 2008 – 11:29 am
The prevalence of pedantry at Rome was quickly followed by a decline of true taste, by a contempt of simplicity and nature, and by the substitution of false and affected beauties. Before the close of Augustus’s reign, a certain effeminacy of style insinuated itself at court; and the malignant criticisms of Asinius Pollio, and of [...]
Why I’ll never vote conservative for as long as I live
26 April 2008 – 1:52 pm
Despite Canada’s status as one of the larger donors, it has failed to meet a commitment to donate 0.7 per cent of its gross domestic product to the Millennium Project, despite a resource boom over the past few years that generated considerable economic wealth. Mr. Sachs said he was told on one occasion by a [...]
The Importance of Clear Language in Democratic Discourse Part III
20 April 2008 – 8:31 pm
Norman Mailer: ‘One of the reasons Franklin Delano Roosevelt was so beloved one of the reason Jack Kennedy was so mourned is they were two of the rare examples of presidents trying to make the country more intelligent. They didn’t jump the easy conclusions all the time. When Roosevelt said ‘the only thing to fear [...]
The Importance of Clear Language in Democratic Discourse Part II
20 April 2008 – 8:27 pm
Norman Mailer, speaking in March 2006 (Mp3; 17:39):
NM: A democracy is a most delicate form of government, the most delicate, that’s why it took so long to arrive in history. It depends on the language of the people becoming more artful and richer, and more elevated if you will, over the decades and the centuries. [...]
The Importance of Clear Language in Democratic Discourse Part I
20 April 2008 – 4:23 pm
From Bad Writing’s Back by Mark Bauerlein :
Still, despite the mannered presentation, Just Being Difficult? and previous pro-theory statements do forward responses that deserve a hearing. Theorists devote long paragraphs to them, but they can be distilled into blank assertions and treated as hypotheses. They are:
[...]
Scientists have their jargon—why can’t theorists have theirs?
Again, this is [...]