March 31, 2003
German words worth mentioning
German has words for emotions that do not exist in the English language. I wonder if its because of philosophers like Nietzsche, Kant, Schopenhauer, or authors like Kafka? Here is a cheat sheet.
weltschmerz A sentimental sadness caused by the realization that the perception of an ideal state is different from reality
Aufklarung Enlightenment, Nirvana.
Gotterdammerung The collapse of a society/regime amidst mayhem and violence.
Weltanschauung A particular point of view about the world.
Weltpolitik Policy towards the world
gestalt the essence of anything
Weltuntergang Armageddon
March 29, 2003
What is Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo is a depiction of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns. Nietzsche wrote a book with the same title. The pirate Nietzsche page has more of his books online.
March 26, 2003
funny
"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."-Author Unknown
March 25, 2003
March 21, 2003
My Nausea
I live alone, entirely alone. I never speak to anyone, never; I receive nothing, I give nothing… When you live alone you no longer know what it is to tell something: the plausible disappears at the same time as the fiends. You let events flow past; suddenly you see people pop up who speak and who go away, you plunge into stories without beginning or end: you make a terrible witness. But in compensation, one misses nothing, no improbability or, story too tall to be believed in cafes- Jean Paul Sartre Nausea
The Sartre Programming Language
Cat's eye technologies lists some esoteric technologies including the Sartre Programming Language. The data types por soi and en soi cracked me up.
Nietzche on Kant
Twice, when an honest, unequivocal, perfectly scientific way of thinking had been attained with tremendous fortitude and self-overcoming, the Germans managed to find devious paths to the old 'ideal' -- at bottom, formulas for a right to repudiate science, a right to lie. Leibniz and Kant - these two greatest brake shoes of intellectual integrity in Europe
Friedrich Nietzsche
--Ecce Homo
March 20, 2003
March 18, 2003
Summary of Agamemnon
Aeschylus wrote Agamemnon.
Some useful sites:
Detailed summary
brief summary
even briefer
Important notes:
Agamemnon returned after the sack of troy with Cassandra. His wife Clytemnestra had married Aeropagus in the interim. When he returned, he was killed along with Cassandra. Agamemnon took revenge by killing Clytemnestra and Aeropagus.
Rationality today
I have seen cruelty, persecution, and superstition increasing by leaps and bounds, until we have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age.
Bertrand Russell
--Unpopular Essays
If this was Russell's estimate during the last century, then what would he say if he saw our actions today?
Desire in Buddhism
"The Buddha's teaching is all about understanding suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. When we contemplate suffering, we find we are contemplating desire, because desire and suffering are the same thing.
"Desire can be compared to fire. If we grasp fire, what happens? Does it lead to happiness? If we say: 'Oh, look at that beautiful fire! Look at the beautiful colors! I love red and orange; they're my favorite colors,' and then grasp it, we would find a certain amount of suffering entering the body. And then if we were to contemplate the cause of that suffering we would discover it was the result of having grasped that fire. On that information, we would hopefully, then let the fire go. Once we let fire go then we know that it is something not to be attached to. This does not mean we have to hate it, or put it out. We can enjoy fire, can't we? It's nice having a fire, it keeps the room warm, but we do not have to burn ourselves in it."
Religion
Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.
Ludwig Feuerbach
--The Essence of Christianity
March 11, 2003
March 10, 2003
Religion
Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory.Fred Hoyle --The Nature of the Universe
March 09, 2003
Bohemians
What's the relationship between a poor region of the Czech republic and the poor artisits in Paris?
March 08, 2003
March 07, 2003
Hanoi Jane
During the vietnam war Jane Fonda visited the North Vietnam and toured the NVA facilities. She decried the war, claimed the American POW's were treated well and that American GI's were criminals. She was nicknamed 'Hanoi Jane' for her 'treacherous' actions. Urinal targets with her face were popular.
Jane Fonda went on to marry Ted Turner for a while. As the joke goes, "Jane found God and Ted found out it wasn't him. Hence they divorced"
March 06, 2003
Tame your mind
As I left my daytime resting place on Vulture Peak, I saw an elephant come up on the riverbank after its bath.
A man took a hook and said to the elephant,
"Give me your foot."
The elephant stretched out its foot;
the man mounted.
Seeing what was wild before
gone tame under human hands,
I went into the forest
and concentrated my mind.
Dantika, in Susan Murcott's The First Buddhist Women
Off to see La Boheme
Here is a plot summary of La Boheme
The liberetto of La Boheme is available at Bohemian Opera.