Thoughts gone by...

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Scholarly thought

"Pascal famously observed that "[m]ost of our miseries do stem from the fact that we have lost sight of the importance of being silent, for even a short period, every day of our lives." As I continue along my academic path, Pascal's observation becomes ever more true. How often is it that any of us can obtain the interior quietude that is required for serious thinking and true scholarship?"

-Laura Appleman in a post on concurringopinions.com

Tick?

I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.
- James Thurber

Salvador Dali: "Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."

Don't be afraid of your own ignorance - there is much to be learned by imitating.

Power of Persuasion

As a brief discussion on why the power of persuasion may be one of the greatest of all, the following excerpt from Phillip K. Dick is a well stated perspective:

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. George Orwell made this clear in his novel 1984. But another way to control the minds of people is to control their perceptions. If you can get them to see the world as you do, they will think as you do. Comprehension follows perception. How do you get them to see the reality you see? After all, it is only one reality out of many."

Authentic Humanity

As found on the 37signals Signal vs. Noise blog, an excerpt from How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later by Philip K. Dick:

"Do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new…

The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not."

Beyond the commentary found here on 'authenticity', the underlying reminder is the courage required to enact change in our individual lives as well as in the community. A number of these small, but morally necessary refusals are a key engine of social change in society.

Incidentally, the original writing this post is based upon is available at http://deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm and is an interesting read.