“I’m very intelligent. If you’re gonna give me hope you gotta do better than you’re doing.” — Melvin Udall
Category Archives: Quotable & Notes
Cease to cherish opinions
I first came across the following quote (from a poem by Seng-ts’an) back in 2009:
“Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.”
I don’t think old Seng-ts’an was saying you shouldn’t have opinions. Just don’t love them too much. As for “do not seek the truth”… well, that’s harder for me. From the same blog post:
“Get comfortable with the emptiness of no beliefs, no ideas, no concepts, no knowing, no desires, no anticipation, no system, and no future.”
What does that leave? Direct experience. And about the only thing we can be certain of, based on direct experience is: I am. I exist. I find this ever so comforting (when I can remember it). The stress and anxiety of the last year is (for me) the result of beliefs and ideas and concepts and desires and anticipation and what’s gonna happen in the future.
Emptiness. It’s an important concept in most (all?) Eastern philosophies. It doesn’t mean the same thing it does in Western thought. Just saying the word makes me feel lighter. Calmer.
1966: “rock ‘n’ roll” became “rock”
“But 50 years down the line, a case can be made that 1966 may have been the single most creatively expansive year of all. That was the year that “rock ’n’ roll” morphed into “rock,” the year that the 45 rpm single yielded to the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing album as the dominant medium for the music and the year that social and political issues became a regular topic of exploration among musicians looking beyond the next hit and aiming to exert a real impact on the world around them.”
— 1966: Rock ‘n’ roll’s most revolutionary year (Los Angeles Times)
Truths About Life
David Cain has 88 of these on his list. These are just my favorites.
“If you go home with someone, and they don’t have any books, don’t fuck them.” — John Waters
The main reason we argue online is because it feels good, but we like to imagine it’s also somehow noble or helpful.
The news doesn’t show you how the world is. It shows you whatever will make you watch more news.
Every generation thinks the one that came before them and the one that came after them are the worst.
We evolved to go days without food. Missing a meal shouldn’t be a big deal, but if you skip the odd lunch people will assume you have an eating disorder.
We are all atheists, in a sense. Every person denies the existence of either most or all of the gods that have been proposed.
When a party has degenerated into people showing each other their favorite YouTube videos, it’s time to call a cab.
There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote
In 2016, (the U.S. electoral system) will offer 130 million or so voters just three options:
A. I prefer Donald Trump be President, rather than Hillary Clinton.
B. I prefer Hillary Clinton be President, rather than Donald Trump.
C. Whatever everybody else decides is OK with me.
That’s it. Those are the choices. All strategies other than a preference for Trump over Clinton or vice-versa reduce to Option C.
Clay Shirky: There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote