||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The reporter risking status by telling the truth, the government
official risking employment by exposing the wrong, the civic leader
refusing to go with the flow -- these are all essential catalysts of
change. A transformation in the order of things is not the product of
immaculate conception; rather it is the end of something that starts
with the willingness of just a few people to do something differently.
There must then come a critical second wave of others stepping out of a
character long enough to help something happen -- such as the white
Mississippian who spoke out for civil rights, the housewife who read
Betty Friedan and became a feminist, the parents of a gay son angered by
the prejudice surrounding him. But for such dynamics to work there must
be space for non-conformity and places for new ideas and the chance to
be left alone by those who would manipulate, commodify, or destroy our
every thought. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We now comprehend the hazards of blithely pouring DDT over crops,
slashing through treelands, or fouling the air. But we still act as
thought we can, without penalty, wipe out neighborhoods, force mass
migrations, rip out favorite meeting places for people, or tear down
centers of communications, culture and commerce that are as important to
a community as a marsh is to a flyway - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We need a trial to judge all those who bear significant responsibility
for the 20th century - the most murderous and ecologically destructive
in human history. We could call it the war, air and fiscal crimes
tribunal and we could put politicians and CEOs and major media owners in
the dock with earphones like Eichmann and make them listen to the
evidence of how they killed millions of people and almost murdered the
planet and made most of us far more miserable than we needed to be. Of
course, we wouldn't have time to go after them one by one. We'd have to
lump Wall Street investment bankers in one trial, the Council on Foreign
Relations in another, and any remaining Harvard Business School or Yale
Law graduates in a third. We don't need this for retribution, only for
edification. So there would be no capital punishment, but rather
banishment to an overseas Nike factory with a vow of perpetual silence.
- Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Among the powerful, "mistakes were made" but no one has to admit that
they were the ones who made them. Instead, the elite rises as one to
pronounce it not the time for blame, but rather for moving forward
together into the future and putting this or that "behind us." Everyone
nods their heads and the foxes are allowed back into the chicken house
one more time. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unfortunately, complex failing systems have little capacity to save
themselves. In part this is because the solutions come from the same
source as the problem. The public rarely questions the common
provenance; official Washington and the media honor it. Even a failure
as miserable as that of Vietnam had little effect on the careers of its
major protagonists, those men who not only were wrong but were wrong at
the cost of 50,000 American lives. They remain quoted copiously, cited
as experts and transmogrified into statesmen. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One of the greatest myths of America's elite is that it functions by
logic and reason and that it is devoid of myth. In truth, elites
function like other people; they choose their gods and worship them. The
gods, to be sure, are different. For example, many in Washington believe
fervently in the sanctity of data, the Ivy League, the New York Times op
pages and the Calvinist notion that their power is an outward, visible
sign of an inner, invisible grace. And some, even while professing to be
without myth, spend their lives creating myths for others. We call them
political consultants and ghostwriters. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHY IS IT safer to say "fuck" than to say "fascism?" One of the
curiosities of post-cold-war rhetoric is that we no longer have a term
for those who practice ideologies antithetical to democracy. Current
American foreign policy seems aimed at turning incompetent communists
into competent fascists. One American politician once put it this way:
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the
growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their
democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of
government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private
power." Would such a radical be allowed on Sunday morning talk shows
today? Probably not, even though his name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The reporter risking status by telling the truth, the government
official risking employment by exposing the wrong, the civic leader
refusing to go with the flow -- these are all essential catalysts of
change. A transformation in the order of things is not the product of
immaculate conception; rather it is the end of something that starts
with the willingness of just a few people to do something differently.
There must then come a critical second wave of others stepping out of a
character long enough to help something happen -- such as the white
Mississippian who spoke out for civil rights, the housewife who read
Betty Friedan and became a feminist, the parents of a gay son angered by
the prejudice surrounding him. But for such dynamics to work there must
be space for non-conformity and places for new ideas and the chance to
be left alone by those who would manipulate, commodify, or destroy our
every thought. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We now comprehend the hazards of blithely pouring DDT over crops,
slashing through treelands, or fouling the air. But we still act as
thought we can, without penalty, wipe out neighborhoods, force mass
migrations, rip out favorite meeting places for people, or tear down
centers of communications, culture and commerce that are as important to
a community as a marsh is to a flyway - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We need a trial to judge all those who bear significant responsibility
for the 20th century - the most murderous and ecologically destructive
in human history. We could call it the war, air and fiscal crimes
tribunal and we could put politicians and CEOs and major media owners in
the dock with earphones like Eichmann and make them listen to the
evidence of how they killed millions of people and almost murdered the
planet and made most of us far more miserable than we needed to be. Of
course, we wouldn't have time to go after them one by one. We'd have to
lump Wall Street investment bankers in one trial, the Council on Foreign
Relations in another, and any remaining Harvard Business School or Yale
Law graduates in a third. We don't need this for retribution, only for
edification. So there would be no capital punishment, but rather
banishment to an overseas Nike factory with a vow of perpetual silence.
- Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Among the powerful, "mistakes were made" but no one has to admit that
they were the ones who made them. Instead, the elite rises as one to
pronounce it not the time for blame, but rather for moving forward
together into the future and putting this or that "behind us." Everyone
nods their heads and the foxes are allowed back into the chicken house
one more time. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unfortunately, complex failing systems have little capacity to save
themselves. In part this is because the solutions come from the same
source as the problem. The public rarely questions the common
provenance; official Washington and the media honor it. Even a failure
as miserable as that of Vietnam had little effect on the careers of its
major protagonists, those men who not only were wrong but were wrong at
the cost of 50,000 American lives. They remain quoted copiously, cited
as experts and transmogrified into statesmen. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
One of the greatest myths of America's elite is that it functions by
logic and reason and that it is devoid of myth. In truth, elites
function like other people; they choose their gods and worship them. The
gods, to be sure, are different. For example, many in Washington believe
fervently in the sanctity of data, the Ivy League, the New York Times op
pages and the Calvinist notion that their power is an outward, visible
sign of an inner, invisible grace. And some, even while professing to be
without myth, spend their lives creating myths for others. We call them
political consultants and ghostwriters. - Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
POCKET PARADIGMS
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHY IS IT safer to say "fuck" than to say "fascism?" One of the
curiosities of post-cold-war rhetoric is that we no longer have a term
for those who practice ideologies antithetical to democracy. Current
American foreign policy seems aimed at turning incompetent communists
into competent fascists. One American politician once put it this way:
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the
growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their
democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of
government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private
power." Would such a radical be allowed on Sunday morning talk shows
today? Probably not, even though his name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
- Sam Smith
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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