Politicians

Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind (George Orwell).

Poverty of the Mind

Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable (Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De)

Kurt Vonnegut on the Bush Administration

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities...They are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin' day, and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they don't give a fuck what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass! (Kurt Vonnegut on the Bush Administration)

Nihilism

Here is a quote I could not agree more with: "Nihilism is best done by professionals" (Iggy Pop).

On Being Creative...

Being the creative voyager I am this caught my eye today: "Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work, risking, and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful: yourself" (Alan Alda).

Corruption

Just stubbled upon this again on the net, has to be one of my favourite sayings: "Knowledge is power ... but power corrupts ... and corruption is a crime ... and crime doesn't pay ... so if you keep on studying YOU'LL GO BROKE!" (Dogbert)

North Americans and Perfection

"... The North American wants to use reality rather than know it. ... We get drunk in order to confess; they get drunk in order to forget. ... We are sorrowful and sarcastic and they are happy and full of jokes. North Americans want to understand and we want to contemplate. They are activists and we are quietists; we enjoy our wounds and they enjoy their inventions. They believe in hygiene, health, work and contentment, but perhaps they have never experienced true joy, which is an intoxication, a whirlwind. [It's not so much fun to be characterized from the other side, is it?] ... What is the origin of such contradictory attitudes? It seems to me that North Americans consider the world to be something that can be perfected, and that we consider it to be something that can be redeemed." (Mexican writer Octavio Paz in The Labyrinth of Solitude)

England in Summer

Been away fighting dragons...back now...read this the other day, and thought...how true: "Even in summer, the English sky's the colour of a dead body left out in the cold", see Die Puny Humans for the rest of this treatise....what a happy fellow. Dunno why it appealed to me, maybe the evil in the world that confronts a Knight like me sometimes seems just to much...

God on the other side

No one ever goes into battle thinking God is on the other side (Terry Goodkind, Fantasy Author)...I think this is enough for today...speaks volumes...although, despite my travels I have never some across this author before.

Liberty

It dawns on me: Are the stapler, rubber band and safety pin the weapons of a modern Knight? No. They are the weapons of a modern day serf. It is from this we must seek liberation. "Liberty, Sancho, my friend, is one of the most precious gifts that Heaven has bestowed on mankind" (Book 2, Part 14).

The World Needs a Knight

This week has still not revealed any new truths...but I remain resolute on my quest. Tommy Chong, I think now after a few days, will not make it onto my list of Chivalrous Knights. He is just too 70s. His fate too silly. Bureaucracy is an evil, an iron cage says Max Weber, but I think it is still not a necromancer as such. Bureaucracy is not a person but a creation of people. So I leave it for now. So to the next week I ride...looking and still searching...comforted by the words: "He was spurred on by the conviction that the world needed his immediate presence..." (Book 1, Part 2, Don Quixote).

Spokey Wheeler

"My in-tray is ridiculous," says Spokey Wheeler. "I could spend all my time on it. I feel as if I am being asked to stick my finger in a dyke and wiggle it in the most imaginative way possible. I love my job - but the deck feels stacked against me."

Delay Brings Danger

Don Quixote says, "Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it" (in Don Quixote, Part 1, Book 4, Chap 2). I am wondering if this is true. Been wondering around the big smoke all day now waiting for adventure, seeking it out, standing ready...but nothing...will this quest come to nought? Anyone out there? Anything out there, or are we sinking further into the belly of this beast called life, never to reappear?