In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the read more

In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance.

American public education is a remarkable enterprise; it succeeds best where it fails. Imagine an industry that consistently fails to read more

American public education is a remarkable enterprise; it succeeds best where it fails. Imagine an industry that consistently fails to do what it sets out to do. a factory where this year's product is invariably sleazier than last year's but, nevertheless, better than next year's. Imagine a corporation whose executives are always spending vast sums of money on studies designed to discover just what it is they are supposed to do and then vaster sums for further studies on just how to do it. Imagine a plant devoted to the manufacture of factory seconds to be sold at a loss. Imagine a producer of vacuum cleaners that rarely work hiring whole platoons of engineers who will, in time, report that it is, in fact, true that the vacuum cleaners rarely really work, and who will, for a larger fee, be glad to find out why, if that's possible. If you discover some such outfit, don't invest in it. Unfortunately, we are all required to invest in public education.

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of read more

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.

...the self-assertive tendency is the dynamic expression of the holon's wholeness, the integrative tendency, the dynamic expression of its partness.

...the self-assertive tendency is the dynamic expression of the holon's wholeness, the integrative tendency, the dynamic expression of its partness.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which read more

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club
that will accept me as a member.

Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club
that will accept me as a member.

Morality, like other inputs into the social process, follows the law of diminishing returns- meaning ultimately, negative returns. People can read more

Morality, like other inputs into the social process, follows the law of diminishing returns- meaning ultimately, negative returns. People can be too moral.

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often read more

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.