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.
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Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into read more
Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into the ears of political overlords as by contributing to the vast and powerful currents of conceptions and misconceptions that sweep human action along.
The collective matrix of a science at a given time is determined by a kind of establishment, which includes universities, read more
The collective matrix of a science at a given time is determined by a kind of establishment, which includes universities, learned societies, and, more recently, the editorial offices of technical journals. Like other establishments, they are consciously or unconsciously bent on preserving the status quo- partly because unorthodox innovations are a threat to their authority, but also because of the deeper fear that their laboriously erected an intellectual edifice might collapse under the impact.
The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.
The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.
Cultures contain many cues and inducements to dissuade the individual from approaching ultimate limits, in much the same way that read more
Cultures contain many cues and inducements to dissuade the individual from approaching ultimate limits, in much the same way that a special warning strip of land around the edge of a baseball field lets a player know that he is about to run into a concrete wall when he is preoccupied with catching the ball. The wider that strip of land and the more sensitive the player is to the changing composition of the ground under his feet as he pursues the ball, the more effective the warning. Romanticizing or lionizing as "individualistic" those people who disregard social cues and inducements increases the danger of head-on collisions with inherent social limits. Decrying various forms of social disapproval is in effect narrowing the warning strip.
I'd rather be dead than cool.
I'd rather be dead than cool.
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.
...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.
Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.
Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.
Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and the police.
Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and the police.
