John Higgs > Quotes

“The aim of Operation Mindfuck was to lead people into such a heightened state of bewilderment and confusion that their rigid beliefs would shatter and be replaced by some form of enlightenment.”
― John Higgs, KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money

“Really it’s vanity to claim that land is your personal property. In a few hundred years you’ll be forgotten and the land will have shrugged you off as if nothing has happened.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“word noosphere, which refers to the world of human thought. It is the end product of a hierarchy of earthly spheres. At the bottom of these is the geosphere, the physical inanimate world of rock, ocean and mineral. From the geosphere arises the biosphere, the world of all living things. The biosphere moves and evolves faster than the geosphere, and can also change it. The noosphere, in turn, arises from the biosphere. This sphere is the realm of thought, and contains all our myth, history, science, law, religion and culture. It is more fluid and changeable than the biosphere, and it can also affect it. For example, men and women in the UK are on average 4.3 inches taller than they were a hundred years ago, due to changes in our understanding of health and nutrition. This understanding resides in the noosphere, so the noosphere in this example has physically altered the biosphere.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“Blake's verse was written in response to a minor slight Klopstock made about the English language. In response, 'English Blake', as he refers to himself, retaliates with what can only be described as English voodoo shit magic. He starts by taking a crap under a poplar tree at Lambeth, but suddenly stands and spins round nine times, much to the disgust of the watching heavens. This act magically constricts Klopstock's bowels, causing him a great deal of pain, until Blake graciously undoes the spell. He then concludes:

If Blake could do this when he rose up from shite
What might he not do if he sat down to write”
― John Higgs, William Blake Now: Why He Matters More Than Ever

“Your politics are not what you tell yourself you believe. They are not the set of ideas that you identify with, or look to for personal validation of your goodness as a human being. Your politics are expressed in the choices that you make, the way you treat other people, and the actions you perform.”
― John Higgs, William Blake vs. the World

“Bond’s codename, ‘007’, it is said, is taken from the number of the coach which ran from London to Dover via Canterbury. The 007 coach is now operated by National Express but still runs along the same route with the same number.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“A third of the UK is owned by 1,200 aristocrats and their families. Thirty-six thousand people, or 0.6 per cent of the population, own half of the rural land in England. Despite the widely held belief that Britain is ‘full’ and that it is in danger of being ‘concreted over’, only 6 per cent of the UK’s land use is classed as urban, with 94 per cent rural.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“Fourteenth Amendment. When they looked at the wording of this amendment they saw that it granted rights to “all persons.” And so, in one of those inspired flights of human imagination that suggest the involvement of alcohol, lawyers stepped into court and argued that those rights also applied to corporations, because a corporation was really a person.”
― John Higgs, Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century

“That is probably the single phrase that a lot of Jerusalem rests upon: the persistent illusion of transience. The buildings that we love have been pulled down, the people that we loved have gone, you don’t get anything decent on a Saturday night on the telly any more, they don’t make Spangles . . . all of this roster of loss that is our lives, it doesn’t matter. It’s all fine. It’s all back down the road. You’ll probably be experiencing it again, and again, because there’s nowhere else for your consciousness to go. ‘This means that you should never do anything that you can’t live with eternally, which I think is a good rule for life. It also means that Heaven and Hell exist. They’re just not places that are elsewhere. They are here now. They are your life.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“We are seeking a better sense of national identity. Not one that is imposed on us by the state, monarchy or military, but one which bubbles naturally out of the land - an identity that is welcoming, not insular; magical rather than boorish; creative rather than triumphant. It is out there, waiting for us, and if we head out of the front door and follow that road, we will find it. It is an identity fit for those who would live nowhere else in the world, but who wince at jingoism and flag-waving. It should not make anyone proud to be British; it should make them delighted to be British.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“National identity is like a rainbow; it only exists at a distance. We’ve all glimpsed it, out there on the horizon, so we think it is something real and concrete when it is used to push our buttons. Yet when we approach it to nail down the details of what it really is, it becomes vague and uncertain, then evaporates.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“The idea that there is just this single moment and beyond that, absolute nothingness, yeah, I suppose that could be what it is, but it doesn’t feel like that is what it is. Whereas I think the idea of a solid space–time continuum, with only our consciousness moving, is very satisfying. It means that every moment exists always.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“Like our minds, Urizen has no knowledge of what he doesn’t know and deep down this terrifies him, because it threatens his very sense of identity. He will attempt to belittle, mock, or otherwise deny evidence that there is more than he knows, and that he is not the powerful creator he thinks he is. Deeply insecure, Urizen is the aspect of our minds that needs not just to be right, but to be thought of as right. You will recognise him immediately if you use social media.”
― John Higgs, William Blake vs. the World

“Our choice of hell or heaven, in other words, is a question of whether we prefer looking in the mirror or looking at the wider world. Regardless of which heaven or hell we choose, we always convince ourselves that our choice was the right one. A person who becomes more cynical and pessimistic as they age will tell themselves that they are becoming wiser, for example, even though in the eyes of others they are becoming bitter.”
― John Higgs, William Blake vs. the World

“Here then is an idealised fantasy of how modern men could be. They are not motivated by greed or by a sense of purpose, they are sexually adventurous but not predators, they see themselves as valid rather than victims, confident enough to be true to themselves, brave enough not to hide themselves away. They know when they can relax and enjoy life and when they need to harden, stand firm, protect themselves and others. In a very meta modern way they are skilled at knowing when they should swing to these extremes. If the Beatles are an expression of yes and the Bond is a statement of no, they are an ability to choose the right response at any given moment. The fantasy of being Bond has always been a desire to be confident, skilled and brave. To make it modern it also has to be wise, there is no reason why you can’t be emotionally intelligent behind the wheel of a really fast sports car. Or to put it another way they need an ambition and mastery of Paul, the bravery and honesty of John, the sense of higher purpose and great cause of George and an ability to enjoy life of Ringo.”
― John Higgs, Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

“In theory, there should be no way that something with no material aspect could impact a physical system. However, this happens all the time, for example when the idle thought, ‘I wonder what’s in the fridge?’ results in a physical human walking across the kitchen, opening the fridge and eating some cheese. This was a problem that deeply troubled the French philosopher René Descartes. Eventually, he managed to hand-wave it away by claiming, with no real justification, that the immaterial and material interacted through the pituitary gland in the brain. In the centuries that have followed, much effort has been expended in seeking a less arbitrary answer.”
― John Higgs, William Blake vs. the World

“His voice was proof that no matter how lost you may be you are never alone because there are people like John Lennon who could reach you.”
― John Higgs, Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

“Megalomania is a common reaction to extensive LSD use, for once you are aware that your reality was created by yourself for your own benefit, it is hard to avoid getting a God complex.”
― John Higgs, I Have America Surrounded: A Biography of Timothy Leary

“When Bond was born he personified an aspect of male identity that was prevalent after the war that of the protector. Man saw their role as being the one to protect their families from external threats. An ability to resort to violence when necessary was part of this. Meaning that emotionally men had to harden and reduce their empathy. The role of protector is an aspect of male identity that is now less necessary. The great majority of men go through their lives without ever having to fight and those who use violence against others are no longer admired or tolerated. It is the lack of love, particularly in childhood, that can lead to the toxic behaviour and violence that we need to protect ourselves against. Craig’s Bond gradually learned that his armour hurt and isolated him as much as it protected. He came at the end of five film arc to open himself up, leave himself vulnerable and accept the consequences. This was necessary he finally understood, even though it will lead to his death.”
― John Higgs, Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

“In the midst of communal screaming there is only the present moment. The past and the future dissolve the way, nothing more than illusions. When the past disappears it takes with it the possibility of regret or shame, when the future vanishes, gone are any feelings of worry, stress or our capability to experience fear.”
― John Higgs, Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

“An important factor here is that Bond does not see himself as a victim. This feels like it should be an increasingly important aspect of the character given the extent which society consistently urges us to define ourselves in this way. This is an issue not necessarily linked to how life has treated us. […] To not be a victim does not mean that you become an oppressor. It means that you are able to accept responsibility for your actions and circumstances and are prepared to withstand pressure when necessary. It means that you are willing to stand up and use your voice even at times when to do so is futile or against your own self interest. It is to not give in to fear, to act when necessary and to not be coward by the realities of the world. This is especially appealing in an era when so many suffer from anxiety. These are usually portrayed as idealised masculine qualities but they are more universal than that. [If you] don’t act like a victim, in the modern world it can be enough to mark you out as a hero.”
― John Higgs, Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche