Peter Clausen
Well-known member
Interesting stuff.
Worse things than Norway occur every day, but they are not novel. They've lost their shock value. I know a family that has two adopted African children. These girls are the few--the very lucky. That bad day in Norway is an impossibly good day in the place and time they come from.
The news catches my eye like the Golden Arches on a drive down mainstreet--the masses getting in line for mass-produced nourishment. Industry gives free people exactly what they ask for. They buy sugar and fat from sellers of sugar and fat, and they wait in line for it.
We'll close our eyes and when we open them we'll see one mantis eating a hundred flies. The mantis doesn't decide and the flies don't decide. We do. Most mantises and flies live in nature. Most people die in cages.
Henry David Thoreau says (copied from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau ):
When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is, that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not. In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.
I do not know but it is too much to read one newspaper a week. I have tried it recently, and for so long it seems to me that I have not dwelt in my native region. The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You cannot serve two masters. It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.
We may well be ashamed to tell what things we have read or heard in our day. I do not know why my news should be so trivial, — considering what one's dreams and expectations are, why the developments should be so paltry. The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.
Worse things than Norway occur every day, but they are not novel. They've lost their shock value. I know a family that has two adopted African children. These girls are the few--the very lucky. That bad day in Norway is an impossibly good day in the place and time they come from.
The news catches my eye like the Golden Arches on a drive down mainstreet--the masses getting in line for mass-produced nourishment. Industry gives free people exactly what they ask for. They buy sugar and fat from sellers of sugar and fat, and they wait in line for it.
We'll close our eyes and when we open them we'll see one mantis eating a hundred flies. The mantis doesn't decide and the flies don't decide. We do. Most mantises and flies live in nature. Most people die in cages.
Henry David Thoreau says (copied from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau ):
When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is, that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not. In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.
I do not know but it is too much to read one newspaper a week. I have tried it recently, and for so long it seems to me that I have not dwelt in my native region. The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You cannot serve two masters. It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day.
We may well be ashamed to tell what things we have read or heard in our day. I do not know why my news should be so trivial, — considering what one's dreams and expectations are, why the developments should be so paltry. The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.
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