Alexiev wrote: ↑Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:41 am
In another thread, accelafine accused Americans of being the only people who think our country is "the greatest". That reminded me about an anecdote about Dean Atcheson, former secretary of State. It was 1963. In his letter of acceptance, Churchill complained that Acheson had claimed the post-war Britain had a tame and minor role in geopolitics. "It hasn't taken Winston long to adapt to American ways," said Acheson. "He hadn't been and American citizen for three minutes before he began attacking the Secretary of State."
I said the only people who openly crow about it. It's a ridiculous thing to say anyway. What does 'greatest' even mean? The US certainly doesn't have the highest standard of living. In fact it's nowhere near the top of pretty much anything worthwhile.
Churchill's mother was American.
Alexiev wrote: ↑Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:41 am
In another thread, accelafine accused Americans of being the only people who think our country is "the greatest". That reminded me about an anecdote about Dean Atcheson, former secretary of State. It was 1963. In his letter of acceptance, Churchill complained that Acheson had claimed the post-war Britain had a tame and minor role in geopolitics. "It hasn't taken Winston long to adapt to American ways," said Acheson. "He hadn't been and American citizen for three minutes before he began attacking the Secretary of State."
I said the only people who openly crow about it. It's a ridiculous thing to say anyway. What does 'greatest' even mean? The US certainly doesn't have the highest standard of living. In fact it's nowhere near the top of pretty much anything worthwhile.
Churchill's mother was American.
Claiming that geographical location is a standard of judgment of greater and less than, of a non-geographically defined thing, is, simply put, schizophrenia, a schism with factual reality.
Alexiev wrote: ↑Wed Nov 19, 2025 2:41 am
In another thread, accelafine accused Americans of being the only people who think our country is "the greatest". That reminded me about an anecdote about Dean Atcheson, former secretary of State. It was 1963. In his letter of acceptance, Churchill complained that Acheson had claimed the post-war Britain had a tame and minor role in geopolitics. "It hasn't taken Winston long to adapt to American ways," said Acheson. "He hadn't been and American citizen for three minutes before he began attacking the Secretary of State."
I said the only people who openly crow about it. It's a ridiculous thing to say anyway. What does 'greatest' even mean? The US certainly doesn't have the highest standard of living. In fact it's nowhere near the top of pretty much anything worthwhile.
Churchill's mother was American.
Claiming that geographical location is a standard of judgment of greater and less than, of a non-geographically defined thing, is, simply put, schizophrenia, a schism with factual reality.
Never spit in a man's face unless his moustache is on fire.
I said the only people who openly crow about it. It's a ridiculous thing to say anyway. What does 'greatest' even mean? The US certainly doesn't have the highest standard of living. In fact it's nowhere near the top of pretty much anything worthwhile.
Churchill's mother was American.
Claiming that geographical location is a standard of judgment of greater and less than, of a non-geographically defined thing, is, simply put, schizophrenia, a schism with factual reality.
Never spit in a man's face unless his moustache is on fire.
I did not spit, I used a certified flame thrower.
Quit buying those cheap glasses at Save a Lot, and see a real doctor for real glasses.
“Chaos has become not just theory but also method, not just a canon of beliefs but also a way of doing science.” James Gleick
On the other hand, in wholly determined universe, might not chaos itself be no less an illusion?
“In science as in life, it is well known that a chain of events can have a point of crisis that could magnify small changes. But chaos meant that such points were everywhere. They were pervasive. In systems like the weather, sensitive dependence on initial conditions was an inescapable consequence of the way small scales intertwined with large.” James Gleick
On the other hand, in wholly determined universe, might not chaos itself be no less an illusion?
“A chaotic system could be stable if its particular brand of irregularity persisted in the face of small disturbances.” James Gleick
Someone run this by Ian Malcolm.
“In daily life, the Lorenzian quality of sensitive dependence on initial conditions lurks everywhere. A man leaves the house in the morning thirty seconds late, a flowerpot misses his head by a few millimeters, and then he is run over by a truck. Or, less dramatically, he misses a bus that runs every ten minutes—his connection to a train that runs every hour. Small perturbations in one’s daily trajectory can have large consequences. A batter facing a pitched ball knows that approximately the same swing will not give approximately the same result, baseball being a game of inches. Science, though—science was different.” James Gleick
He believed that everybody had a character, a self that they would inevitably become. Years go by, we trudge along, and we collect pieces of ourselves, traits and beliefs, habits and opinions, compulsions and decisions, until we are.” Kyle St Germain
See, I told you.
“Things fall into place before they start falling apart.” Khayri R.R. Woulfe
“An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.” Albert Camus
Let alone being "fractured and fragmented".
“My favourite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'." Arthur C. Clarke
Up in the philosophical clouds as it were.
“Intellect is not wisdom.” Thomas Sowell
Theoretically as it were.
“Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” George Orwell
Theoretically as it were.
“Beer's intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it." Ray Bradbury
New thread?
“Americans on the average do not trust intellectuals, but they are cowed by power and stunned by celebrity.” Viet Thanh Nguyen
“Job says what he thinks and feels, and how every person would likely feel in his position. His friends, on the other hand, talk as if they were secretly being watched by the powerful Ruler whose case is open to their verdict, and as if, in making their verdict, they cared more about winning His favor than about the truth. This trickery of maintaining something just to keep up appearances, contrary to their true beliefs, feigning a conviction they did not have, stands in stark contrast to Job’s candor, which is so far removed from flattery that it borders on audacity, but nevertheless casts him in a very favorable light.” Immanuel Kant
Someone run this by, well, you know.
“Reincarnation offers a better justification of evil than anything monotheism can offer, but it does so by blaming the victim and sanctifying the status quo.” Patricia Crone
New thread?
“The condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.” Thomas Hobbes
Not much that doesn't explain.
Unless, perhaps, you can think of something
“But in the treasures of divine wisdom, that is, in the hidden God and (which comes to the same) in the universal harmony of the world, a profundity (bathos) is latent, which contains the reasons why the actual series of the universe, comprehending the events we admire and the judgements we worship, has been chosen by God as the best and as preferable to all others.” Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
And, like John From Cincinnati, he's got the monads to prove it.
“If there is a 'problem of evil' there is also a 'problem of good.' Wherever we look we see not only confusion but beauty. In a snowflake, leaf or insect, we discover structured patterns of a delicacy and balance that nothing manufactured by human skill can equal. We are not to sentimentalize these things, but we cannot ignore them.” Kallistos Ware
Whatever "rooted existentially in dasein" that means.
“If we did not feel the bitterness of His anger, we would not so sweetly relish His love.” Timothy Rogers
“Even in the grave, all is not lost.” Edgar Allan Poe
And he knew that how?
“I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.” Mark Haddon
Well, among other things, sure.
“In the midst of life, we are in death.” Agatha Christie
“I used to think it utterly normal that I suffered from “suicidal ideation” on an almost daily basis. In other words, for as long as I can remember, the thought of ending my life came to me frequently and obsessively.” Stephen Fry
Define utterly?
“There is a certain right by which we may deprive a man of life, but none by which we may deprive him of death; this is mere cruelty.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Trust me: pertaining to some considerably more than others.
“…they think of suicide as a quick route to oblivion, an escape. Far from it. It merely alters a person from one form to another. Nothing can destroy the spirit." Richard Matheson
On the other hand, "for all practical purposes" lots and lots and lots of things can.
“He said you were the only one who was bitter about S.'s suicide and the only one who really forgave him for it. The rest of us, he said, were outwardly unbitter and inwardly unforgiving. ” J.D. Salinger
One and/or the other as it were.
“What people don't understand about depression is how much it hurts. It's like your brain is convinced that it's dying and produces an acid that eats away at you from the inside, until all that's less is a scary hollowness. Your mind fills with dark thoughts; you become convinced that your friends secretly hate you, you're worthless, and then there's no hope. I never got so low as to consider ending it all, but I understand how that can happen to some people. Depression simply hurts too much.” Tyler Hamilton
I know that mine did. And, from time to time, still does.
“Suicide. A sideways word, a word that people whisper and mutter and cough: a word that must be squeezed out behind cupped palms or murmured behind closed doors. It was only in dreams that I heard the word shouted, screamed.” Lauren Oliver
iambiguous wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 2:58 amSuicide
“I used to think it utterly normal that I suffered from “suicidal ideation” on an almost daily basis. In other words, for as long as I can remember, the thought of ending my life came to me frequently and obsessively.” Stephen Fry
[
With an infinite number of interesting things to do with one's life, suicide must be due to a person unable to get over their own arrogance, stupidity, or both.
iambiguous wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 2:58 amSuicide
“I used to think it utterly normal that I suffered from “suicidal ideation” on an almost daily basis. In other words, for as long as I can remember, the thought of ending my life came to me frequently and obsessively.” Stephen Fry
[
With an infinite number of interesting things to do with one's life, suicide must be due to a person unable to get over their own arrogance, stupidity, or both.
What's it to you if someone else has had enough of life?
"Old Father's Quote #1. You can screw with the Laws of Man. If you are clever, you can get away with it - at least sometimes. If you try to screw with the Laws of Nature you end up screwing yourself. (2008-03-14)" How I Understand Things. The Logic of Existence
PieterR wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 11:30 am
"Old Father's Quote #1. You can screw with the Laws of Man. If you are clever, you can get away with it - at least sometimes. If you try to screw with the Laws of Nature you end up screwing yourself. (2008-03-14)" How I Understand Things. The Logic of Existence
“The problem with catering to the lowest common denominator, is that when society goes and lowers the bar, some idiot turns it into a limbo contest.” Kyu Wolf
Let's run this by the idiots here. How low can they go?
“I'm not afraid of you," he said irritably.
"Then you're as stupid as you look.” Leigh Bardugo
Ouch, and then some.
“I had always assumed he was doing an impression of a moron, but sometimes I wonder if he isn’t simply stupid.” Izumi Suzuki
Here? Let's name names.
“When a person becomes comfortable with stupidity, it eventually defines him.” Vincent Okay Nwachukwu
Tell us about it!
“Dumb as donuts.” Anthony Liccione
Do they know that?
“I'm stupider than a lot of people give me credit for!” James Riley
iambiguous wrote: ↑Wed Nov 26, 2025 3:44 amStupidity
“I'm stupider than a lot of people give me credit for!” James Riley
Can you say that?
If you make a habit of self-criticizem, as I have, you get into the habit of being just as critical of others, but although you might learn to live like that, other's, who habitually flatter themselves, will not tolerate it. I learnt to also not give a shit about that.
When I was very small, I found people's behavior very odd because it really does not help them.
I remember when I was small, my mother and father arguing about a word, and I was amazed and said, there is a dictionary downstairs, and that made them both mad at me. I guess some people just like to argue.
that’s so true. Nice one!