Today, this strikes me as terrible reasoning. I now understand that love is a rare and valuable thing, and you don’t get to choose its object. You just go around getting hung up on the all the least convenient things—and if the only obstacle in your way is a little extra work, then that’s the wonderful gift right there.
from The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them
“It’s unfortunate that what people believe to be the most important things about themselves, their innermost truths and secrets – the real you or me – that we dish up when somebody looks sympathetic, is very likely to be the driveling nonsense that we generally have enough brains to forget about. The real you or me that we conceal because we think people won’t accept it is slop – and why should anybody want it?”
I’ve finally moved Half Past Noon to a new host home. The site should exhibit a little more pep, now. I also gave it a new look, and hope to re-add the post box for contributors at the top. I hope you like it!
a quote from Burke: “There are a set of writers who work hard every day trying to create a framework where the only right answers can be some kind of dogma, who will never for one passing second acknowledge the legitimacy of evidence which contradicts their own pet doctrines, who are never even momentarily in any danger of being persuaded by any countervailing viewpoint. For these writers, all online discussion is a colossally elaborate manipulation.”
http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2010/04/colossally-elaborate-manipulation.html
The idea of private property universal but private, the idea of families free but still families, of domesticity democratic but still domestic, of one man one house–this remains the real vision and magnet of mankind. The world may accept something more official and general, less human and intimate. But the world will be like a broken-hearted woman who makes a humdrum marriage because she may not make a happy one; Socialism may be the world’s deliverance, but it is not the world’s desire.
Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World
Early in his career Wendell Berry wrote for the Whole Earth Catalog (motto: “Access to tools.” Later: “Stay hungry, stay foolish”). Steve Jobs considered the Whole Earth Catalog to be a “conceptual forerunner to Google”. It was a catalog of sustainable products and information sources. And it was the product of two of my hippie heroes: Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly.
This week, Stewart Brand talked about the dangers of underpopulation.
Kevin Kelly talked about the Shirkey principle, which states that institutions can become so dedicated to the problem they are the solution to, that often they inadvertently perpetuate the problem. He uses the example of unions, and their codependency with management. His conclusion is brilliant – relevant to the food discussion, concern for the poor, and more:
In a strong sense we are defined by the problems we are solving. Yin/Yang, problem/solution, both sides form one unit. Because of the Shirky Principle, which says that every entity tends to prolong the problem it is solving, progress sometimes demands that we let go of problems. We can then look to marginal solutions and ask ourselves, what marginal problem is this solving that might be a more appreciated problem later on?
Public Power
Public Water
Public TV Broadcasting
Public Weather Service
Public Food System
Public Roads
Public Fuel
Public Financial System
And then libertarians tell me I’m crazy or leftist to want local food, rain barrels, solar power, and a local currency! Where is the disconnect?
We have been trying to remember humanity; to re-member humanity in the rigorous liturgical sense–to exercise anamnesis, the heart of the Eucharistic command and privilege: When you do this, remember me. Which is to say, Stay with history, Make something of it, by falling within its main line of action, the breaking of bread, the sharing of wine. Make a community whose life will also be available to history.
Daniel Berrigan, America Is Hard to Find
Artificial refrigeration was perfected throughout the 1800s, but wasn’t available to consumers in the US until the early 1900s. There was some health concern at the time about “articifial ice” as opposed to the natural stuff cut out of rivers and lakes.
That’s it, we’re done with media temple hosting. This site is ridiculously slow. Look for changes in the next few days.