Relationship failure

Just because a relationship ends, doesn’t mean it’s a failure

Things people say

the facts speak for themselves

no they don’t

analysis is translation

History isn’t a window on the future

What we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history.

I used to take that as a cynical motto, in that we really should try harder to learn from history. It’s really the other way around, we need to accept the limits of what we learn from history and not always trying to ‘fight the last war’.

The military hubris of 1914 gave rise to the shameful anti-war appeasement of the 1930s, which led the way to the militarism in Vietnam and Korea, then the non engagement in the Balkans and Rwanda, to the Iraq war, to who knows what justified humanitarian military action we will hesitate in carrying out because of the Iraq mistakes.

We learn from history, that the hindsight from the last crises shouldn’t write the play-book for the next one.

The Infomisation of everything

when cyberpunk Stewart Brand said in 1984 that ‘Information wants to be free’, could he have envisaged the digitisation/infomistaion of everything?

 

yes,  i made that word up.

To know what we don’t know

Is it the 21st century curse to know what we don’t know?

What drives revolt against injustice?

…what drives men and women to revolt against injustice is not dreams of liberated grandchildren, but memories of enslaved ancestors…

Walter Benjamin

On easy offense and complaining

via Nick Cohen in the Observer

A mob fighting a good cause is still a mob. To fight back, you need to remember that although the internet age is hugely expanding the number of complaints, the old rules still apply. Whether you are the owner of a tiny blog or the editor of a national newspaper, if someone points out an incorrect fact, you correct it; if someone challenges an argument, you argue back; and if someone says that you must think what they think, you ignore them.

What do we want?

Happiness,

when do we want it?

all the time

 

…but not exactly all the time, other wise we wouldn’t appreciate it. To appreciate happy growth we need to experience a happiness recession once in a while.

How to kill a good idea

 

If you ever wish to discredit or malign a well evidenced and righteous discovery, theory or idea… over sell it

Utopia Rising

Are we humans are constantly and tragically drawn to utopian ideas, such as the endlessness of economic growth, one way bets and eventual heavens and justice beyond the stars?

Russell’s case for positive future thought

We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future…

Moto of the day

A lot of life’s problems solve themselves if you leave them be.