Truman: Silencing the voice of opposition

Tue, 11 Dec 2007

Harry S Truman, August 8, 1950.

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

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Archy the Cockroach on Politics

Thu, 18 Oct 2007

random thoughts by archy, from archys life of mehitabel by Don Marquis.

one thing that
shows that
insects are
superior to men
is the fact that
insects run their
affairs without
political campaigns
elections and so forth

More links:

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Barbarism had the world to itself

Sun, 14 Oct 2007

John Stuart Mill
On Liberty - Chapter 4

[...] If civilization has got the better of barbarism when barbarism had the world to itself, it is too much to profess to be afraid lest barbarism, after having been fairly got under, should revive and conquer civilization. A civilization that can thus succumb to its vanquished enemy must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it. If this be so, the sooner such a civilization receives notice to quit, the better. It can only go on from bad to worse, until destroyed and regenerated (like the Western Empire) by energetic barbarians.

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Yes, I met Epictetus!

Thu, 12 Jul 2007

Epictetus. (c.A.D. 50 - c.A.D. 138).
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus.
The Harvard Classics. 1909 - 14.
XCIII

You are sailing to Rome (you tell me) to obtain the post of Governor of Cnossus. You are not content to stay at home with the honours you had before; you want something on a larger scale, and more conspicuous. But when did you ever undertake a voyage for the purpose of reviewing your own principles and getting rid of any of them that proved unsound? Whom did you ever visit for that object? What time did you ever set yourself for that? What age? Run over the times of your life ... by yourself, if you are ashamed before me. Did you examine your principles when a boy? Did you not do everything just as you do now? Or when you were a stripling, attending the school of oratory and practising the art yourself, what did you ever imagine you lacked? And when you were a young man, entered upon public life, and were pleading causes and making a name, who any longer seemed equal to you? And at what moment would you have endured another examining your principles and proving that they were unsound? What then am I to say to you? "Help me in this matter!" you cry. Ah, for that I have no rule! And neither did you, if that was your object, come to me as a philosopher, but as you might have gone to a herb-seller or a cobbler. "What do philosophers have rules for, then?" "Why, that whatever may betide, our ruling faculty may be as Nature would have it, and so remain. Think you this a small matter? Not so! but the greatest thing there is. Well, does it need but a short time? Can it be grasped by a passer-by? ... grasp it, if you can!

Then you will say, "Yes, I met Epictetus!"

Ay, just as you might a statue or a monument. You saw me! and that is all. But a man who meets a man is one who learns the other’s mind, and lets him see his in turn. Learn my mind ... show me yours; and then go and say that you met me. Let us try each other; if I have any wrong principle, rid me of it; if you have, out with it. That is what meeting a philosopher means. Not so, you think; this is only a flying visit; while we are hiring the ship, we can see Epictetus too! Let us see what he has to say. Then on leaving you cry, "Out on Epictetus for a worthless fellow, provincial and barbarous of speech!" What else indeed did you come to judge of?

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Epictetus: Prohairesis and Dihairesis

Wed, 14 Feb 2007

Epictetus, (c. AD 55 - c. 135): Discourses 4.1.83-4

What have you been studying all along but to distinguish what is yours from what is not yours, what is in your power from what is not in your power, what is subject to hindrance from what is unhindered? Why did you go to the philosophers? To be as unfortunate and miserable as always? No - but to be free from fear and troubles.

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