Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine
All extremist doctrines invoke the principle (found, sadly, in the Gospels) that "he who is not with me is against me."
Tzvetan Todorov
Justice is the only worship. Love is the only priest. Ignorance is the only slavery. Happiness is the only good.
Robert G. Ingersoll
[ a fully caused & embodied blog ] [ Good Sense Without God ]
It is in the prosecution of some single object, and in striving to reach its accomplishment by the combined application of his moral and physical energies, that the true happiness of man, in his full vigour and development, consists. Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with repose; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm our eyes. If we consider the position of man in the universe,—if we remember the constant tendency of his energies towards some definite activity, and recognize the influence of surrounding nature, which is ever provoking him to exertion, we shall be ready to acknowledge that repose and possession do not indeed exist but in imagination. - Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action) (1854 ed.)
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Required Reading
Arthur points out that Al Gore points out that Obama is a war criminal
Chris Floyd writes on US militarism ( and references this article a lot )
I link to this ( on the election and Sarah Palin ) mostly so you will at least be exposed to "real" left. Perhaps even the whacky left; but honestly better than swampland over at time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
If Alexander Cockburn -- who is in aggressive denial about both 9/11 and global warming -- represents the "real left", then where does the truth fit into the political spectrum? Nowhere??
Wow! I consider myself hardly a "blogger" at all. I post almost zero original content; unlike you and those I link to. Thanks for visiting!
Anyway, here are my thoughts as they came to me:
0. I am not fully aware of all his views. Most of my reading of Cockburn comes in links and references to his work. I once followed a riff between him and Michael Berube over Serbia/Kosovo in which I thought Cockburn was on the more correct side for what it is worth.
1. I do not mind <100% self-consistency, overlap w/ my views, or hypocrisy. I am none of these so if he wants to have some wacky views (IMHO) that is fine w/ me. AFAIK, one of these views is not a love of the AC-130U gunship for example. But, what is his 9/11 denial? My understanding is that you deny the official story on 9/11? Is that correct? (Or am I reading impaired!) I guess I will need to research his view on this.
2. My understanding of Cockburn is that he is generally anti-authoritarian, anti-corporatist, anti-imperialist. That is my fundamental criteria, so GW denial (which i think is stoopid!) does not eject him from the "left" label for me.
3. I did surround real with "quotes". I suppose for me the unquoted real left would be Chomsky, Zinn, and the folks over at ZNet. Not sure if that makes things better or worse!! grin!
Again, thanks for visiting and I thoroughly enjoy your blog!
Post a Comment