/notes

A well-ordered humanism does not begin with itself, but puts things back in their place. It puts the world before life, life before man, and the respect of others before love of self.

—  Claude Lévi-Strauss (via stoweboyd)

There is no other way to put this without resorting to demographic bluntness: the small fraction of Americans who are trying to pick the Republican nominee are old, white, uniformly Christian and unrepresentative of the nation at large. None of that is a surprise. But when you look at the numbers, it’s stunning how little this Republican primary electorate resembles the rest of the United States. They are much closer to the population of 1890 than of 2012.

— Timothy Egan, The Electoral Wasteland (via syntheticpubes)

jamesgross:

The Love Competition.

(via The Love Competition on Vimeo)

For the last two decades the world powers have been spending 200 billion annually for armaments and only negligible amounts to assuage poverty. The most powerfully armed control the world’s wealth. Power and muscle clearly continue in the world’s saddle.

Whether human beings will be on our planet in the 21st century depends on whether mind has reversed this condition and has come into complete control over muscle and physical power in general and as a consequence of which the world will at last be operational by humans for all humans.

— 2025, If… - Buckminster Fuller - Tools Ideas Environment - Whole Earth Catalog

As of the closing of 1974, muscle and power are in complete dominance over world affairs. The world pays two pugilists three million dollars to pummel one anothers’ brain boxes for a dozen minutes in front of the T.V. cameras. The winner is officially adulated by the United States Congress. He’s a good human being so that’s great but no T.V. shows are celebrating far greater metaphysical battle heros and heroines in their silent commitment to love, truth and everyday self sacrifice for others.

— 2025, If… - Buckminster Fuller - Tools Ideas Environment - Whole Earth Catalog

Henry Miller's Writing Commandments →

youmightfindyourself:

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can’t create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8. Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

fruit is sex you can eat.

There may be no better way to achieve lasting happiness — as opposed to mere fleeting pleasure — than pursuing a goal that helps us broaden our horizons.

— Guitar Zero - a neuroscientist debunks the myth of a “music talent” and learns to play. (via curiositycounts)

Beyond the Seas
I’ll put up a boat,
and set it free off the shore.
I’ll let it take me away-from this eerie land,
where nobody calls up the sleeping heroes-
from their long, lonely trance.

I’ll put up a boat,
and set it free off the shore;
a boat with no net, a boat with no seine,
with my heart cleansed of wish for pearl.

I’ll sail away on the tides.
I’ll sing all along the ride.

Neither the blues of the deeps,
Nor the mermaids, the natives of the seas,
shall captivate me-from my solitary glide.
I’ll move on with pride.

I’ll sail away on the tides,
I’ll sing all along the ride:

“I’ll leave this eerie land behind;
in this land,Truth is forsaken, set aside,
here, no man recalls- how their heroes died,
here, of woman all but silence is denied.
I did not see a torch.
I did not see a loch.

I shall sail away-
for I am tired of the reign of opaque, thick panes,
I am longing for the crystal verse-
of an open space”.

I’ll sail away on the tides;
I’ll sing all along the ride:

“Beyond the seas,
There is another land;
Its windows open to the virtues of lights;
On its roofs, doves constantly stare-at the soar of human mind
Its children walk, with their backpacks full of faith, hope and trust.”

“Beyond the seas,
There is another land.
People there, they care:
for the call of a gentle hill,
for the feel of a brief dream.
Its soil listens to the song of your soul.
Its breeze, spreads in air-the full flavour of flight.

“Beyond the seas,
There is another land;
Its dawn is weightless, vast and white,
with the freshness of a bird’ first flight.
Its poets are heirs of water, wind and light.”

Beyond the seas,
There is another land:

I shall put up a boat,
I will put up a boat.

By: Sohrab Sepehri
Translation: Maryam Dilmaghani, September 2007, Montreal.

(Source: blog.chezmana.com)