Saturday 12 May 2012

Ideology and Fanaticism

Dogmatism and Scepticism


Freedom is obedience to leaders
Virtue is violence
Manhood is domination


— A Woman's Liberation, 1995.


Love of god and country is like fire:
  • a wonderful friend,
  • a terrible enemy.
Only children play with fire.


Ursula Le Guin (1929 – 2018), Forgiveness Day, Asimov's Science Fiction, 1994.


Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), Timon of Athens, Act 3, Scene 5, 1605-6.


[One] cannot accomplish a great work without doing some evil.

Leopold Victor (1835 – 1909), King of the Belgians (1865 – 1909)


War … proves
  • some to be gods, and
  • others to be mere men,
by turning
  • the latter into slaves, and
  • the former into masters …

Heraclitus (c535 – c475 BCE)


The power of Marxist-Leninist theory lies in the fact that it enables the Party
  • to find the right orientation in any situation,
  • to understand the inner connection of current events,
  • to foresee their course, and
  • to perceive not only
    • how and in what direction they are developing in the present, but
    • how and in what direction they are bound to develop in the future.

— History of the Communist Party, Moscow, 1945.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Stage and Screen

Peace and Long Life


The world is an amazing place.

SBS Television


Fiery the angels fell
Deep thunder rolled around their shores
Burning with the fires of Orc


Ridley Scott (1937), Bladerunner, 1982.


Fiery the angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd
Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.


William Blake (1757 – 1827), America a Prophecy, 1793.


Life is pain …
Anyone who says differently is selling something.


Rob Reiner (1947), The Princess Bride, 1987.


Shoot straight you bastards:
Don't make a mess of it!


Bruce Beresford (1940), Breaker Morant, 1980.


Come on you apes!
You wanna live forever?


— Unknown Platoon Sergeant, 1918.


Can anyone be truly free, who only serves himself?

— The Elixir, Episode 11, Season 2, 1973.


If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present.
But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future.
The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.


— Blood of the Dragon, Episode 1.


[A man] does the only thing he can do.
He lives each day from its start to its end.
And hopes there may be another to follow.


Jerry Thorpe (1926), The Vanishing Image, Episode 13, Season 3, Kung Fu, 1974.


Love is a Word



[Love is just] a word
What matters is the connection the word implies …

Karma is a word
Like "love"
A way of saying:
What I am here to do
I do not resent my karma — I'm grateful for it …

Everything that has a beginning
Has an end

(The Matrix Revolutions, 2003)


You've had your time
The future is our world …
The future is our time …

Free your mind!

(Lilly & Lana Wachowski, The Matrix, 1999)


The Good Earth

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck,
a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you.
All of you, on the good earth.


Frank Boorman (1928), Commander, Apollo 8, December 1968.









(David Fairhead, Mission Control, 2018)