14 April 2007
12 April 2007
Self-Censorship
Something about self-censorship and the nature of the philosopher will be posted here sometime today.
Action
"Tocqueville suspected that the greatest danger to freedom was not a state which prevented men from exercising liberty, but one which encouraged them to refuse the burdens of action."
-- Bruce James Smith, Politics & Remembrance: Republican Themes in Machiavelli, Burke, and Tocqueville, n. 106, p. 240
While there is something of "two sides of the same coin" present here, this way of looking at the issue underscores the perniciousness of tyranny. It is not simply that the tyrant acts like a tyrant; the tyrant also fosters a society where political, etc. culture is so weak that it numbs any "instinct" to overthrow the tyrant's rule.
10 April 2007
Firefly Personality Quiz
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
| Dependable and trustworthy. You love your significant other and you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.  |
Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz
I'm quite pleased with the result.
Jonestown
PBS' American Experience did a great piece on Jonestown last night (09/04/07).
For me Jonestown was the point in my then young life when the problem of evil reared its ugly head. It was also the first time that I discerned the sort of troubling things that groups of people can do given the requisite commitment. Indeed seeing the pictures of those bodies lined up as neatly as they were induced nightmares in me for days afterwards.
Note that I'm a great fan of the idea that our intellectual, etc. commitments are largely pre-political/pre-rational in nature. If I apply that idea to my reaction to Jonestown I could argue that the source my religious and political stances is in the events at Jonestown.
For me Jonestown was the point in my then young life when the problem of evil reared its ugly head. It was also the first time that I discerned the sort of troubling things that groups of people can do given the requisite commitment. Indeed seeing the pictures of those bodies lined up as neatly as they were induced nightmares in me for days afterwards.
Note that I'm a great fan of the idea that our intellectual, etc. commitments are largely pre-political/pre-rational in nature. If I apply that idea to my reaction to Jonestown I could argue that the source my religious and political stances is in the events at Jonestown.
09 April 2007
Don't Use Condoms; Masturbate
PARIS, April 6, 2007 (AFP) - French far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen told a women's forum Thursday he was against making condoms freely available in schools -- advising young people to masturbate instead.
Whatever else can be said about Le Pen at the very least he is unpredictable.
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