August 27th, 2008
Stoolie
I hate living a life of loose ends.
The first lesson of history is the good of evil. Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes better… Wars, fires, plagues break up immovable routine, clear the ground of rotten races and dens of distemper, and open a fair field to new men. There is a tendency in things to right themselves, and the war or revolution or bankruptcy that shatters a rotten system allows things to take a new and natural order.
Quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Conduct of Life
August 27th, 2008 at 4:31 am
i agree with everything!
PMs last blog post..Master of The Universe
August 27th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Every technological or medical breakthrough has been the result of war. Without it we would still be in the Dark Ages
Scaramouche Joness last blog post..Flame Off
August 27th, 2008 at 5:03 am
That quote idea from Emerson I think is one of the most memorable. His ideas were mostly associated with transcendalism but I think s in this passage one can identify with those that emerged later from the existentialist philosophical movement with particular reference to Nietzsche’s will to power. If your an existentialist fan (which I am not) than the light at the end of the tunnel will be of your own making through exercise of your will to power.
Best wishes
lindsaylobes last blog post..Unfinished Superannuation Business
August 27th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Oh, everyone is so positive. My cynical intepretation (as is the norm) is that Sera just explained in a very visually and textually elegant way, that life is shit. The light at the end of the tunnel is a toilet bowl. We are born, digested, turned into crap, and then flushed away.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Stoolie?
Is that a seam mistress?
You hardly ever reply to your post-comments. So I will assume I am right until proven wrong.
Lindsay, I can’t find my Emerson book in a hurry. But I can tell you that much, that Emerson in his diversity was not only a transcendentalist, but also an idealist who’s inspired thinking, together with the likes of Thoreau, were some of the best breed of thinkers and humanists the US ever came up with.
The flow and glow of inspiration in society, based on an Emerson like thread, would have conjured into peoples what America (the US) would/could be all about. I would call it the center or the heart.
See, Germany (not only the US) failed also and didn’t pick up on Goethe’s impulse way back when. The failure to embrace that trend of though of universal kindness in observation, finally lead to disaster. Now we have the mess.
…and tunnels to go through until we perceive the light.
Zees last blog post..Iraq withdrawal? - my ass YoYo!
August 27th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Ultimately, we only know that we don’t know. We imagine ourselves separate from our surroundings but how could we be? The heart is the guide.
susans last blog post..at last.. another story
August 27th, 2008 at 8:56 am
The Emerson quote is good in its meaning but not valid for today. We used war and strife to push ourselves along and better our lives but that is now an outdated concept. We can no longer afford to do things that way. We need to GROW UP. Our technology is such that the next big war could very well mean the end of civilization. That would be a big step forward huh? Personally i don’t believe we have it in ourselves to do whats right. I think we are doomed to a very stupid end.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:49 am
The quote seems very radical, but I guess I understand what it is aiming at. Something needs to come to an end before something else can start. We need to open a space, a vacuum, clear out the old before the new can take the place. However, I am a bit sceptical of the statement that things will automatically right themselves through war and plagues- I don’t feel like we really have learnt much from the past.
Bettinas last blog post..Excuse me, but I’m a bit stupid.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
good vs evil…the eternal theme in all comics, novels, plots, life….i love this quote!
wendivas last blog post..HARMONY HOME
August 27th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Yeah, but I don’t see Ralph Waldo volunteering for any of that stuff. True, but who really wants it.
As for the light at the end of the tunnel and intestine analogy - not bad (I was going to say, ‘it stinks’)
Garys last blog post..Proud dad posts song…
August 29th, 2008 at 12:40 am
I have a personal theory about time: time itself is a creation of our minds, we think there is time because we see everything moving. If nothing would move, there wouldn’t be any reason to think of something as “time”. Thinking about that situation (nothing moves) makes us think that “time stands still”. So I’m inclined to say that time = movement. I could work out this further in a “philosophy of time and movement”, I think I’ll try. It’s also interesting to investigate how the time-and-motion studies of Frederick Taylor ( http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/ ) fit into this philosophy.
erik tjallinkss last blog post..The Party Snacks (True Story)