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“In all probability, DuBois would not voice surprise at the serious class problem today or its entrenchment in the economic situation, or the impact of the industrial and economic organization and policies employed by the United States upon the underclass. If he were here, he probably would project a kind of social upheaval unparalleled in this country primarily because of the battle of countervailing powers (big labor, big business, big government, and helpless consumers) over slices of the real no-growth economic pie and the powerless position of the sub-groups of income recipients and dependents and the rising strength of organized workers in public and private essential service industries. The economic future of blacks in the United States is bound up with that of the rest of the nation. Policies, programs, and politics designed in the future to cope with the problems of the poor and victimized will also yield benefits to blacks. In contrast, any efforts to treat blacks separately from the rest of the nation are likely to lead to frustrations, heightened racial animosities, and a waste of the country's resources and the precious resources of black people."
Vivian W. Henderson”
― The Declining Significance of Race : Blacks and Changing American Institutions
Vivian W. Henderson”
― The Declining Significance of Race : Blacks and Changing American Institutions
“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.'
- from "Collected Sayings of Maud'Dib'' by the Princess Irulan”
― Dune
- from "Collected Sayings of Maud'Dib'' by the Princess Irulan”
― Dune
“From being a movement aiming for universal freedom, communism turned into a system of universal despotism. That is the logic of utopia.”
― The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
― The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
“Ichthyophils imagine that human beings want a life in which they can make their own choices. But what if they can be fulfilled only by a life in which they follow each other? The majority who obey the fashion of the day may be acting on a secret awareness that they lack the potential for a truly individual existence. Liberalism – the ichthyophil variety, at any rate – teaches that everyone yearns to be free. Herzen’s experience of the abortive European revolutions of 1848 led him to doubt that this was so. It was because of his disillusionment that he criticized Mill so sharply. But if it is true that Mill was deluded in thinking that everyone loves freedom, it may also be true that without this illusion there would be still less freedom in the world. The charm of a liberal way of life is that it enables most people to renounce their freedom unknowingly Allowing the majority of humankind to imagine they are flying fish even as they pass their lives under the waves, liberal civilization rests on a dream”
― The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
― The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
“Our sexually selected instincts for displaying sympathy tend to affect our belief systems, not just our charity and courtship
behavior. When individuals espouse ideological positions, we typically interpret their beliefs as signs of good or bad moral
character. Individuals feel social pressure to adopt the beliefs that are conventionally accepted as indicating a "good heart," even
when those beliefs are not rational. We may even find ourselves saying, "His ideas may be right, but his heart is clearly not in the
right place." Political correctness is one outcome of such attributions. For example, if a scientist says, "I have evidence that human intelligence is genetically heritable," that is usually misinterpreted as proclaiming, "I am a disagreeable psychopath unworthy of love." The arbiters of ideological correctness can
create the impression that belief A must indicate personality trait X. If X is considered sexually and socially repulsive, then belief A
becomes taboo. In this way our sexually selected instincts for moralistic self-advertisement become subverted into ideological dogmas. I think that human rationality consists largely of separating intellectual argument from personality attributions about moral character. Our difficulty in making this separation suggests that political, religious, and pseudo-scientific ideologies have been part of moralistic self-display for a very long time.”
― The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature
behavior. When individuals espouse ideological positions, we typically interpret their beliefs as signs of good or bad moral
character. Individuals feel social pressure to adopt the beliefs that are conventionally accepted as indicating a "good heart," even
when those beliefs are not rational. We may even find ourselves saying, "His ideas may be right, but his heart is clearly not in the
right place." Political correctness is one outcome of such attributions. For example, if a scientist says, "I have evidence that human intelligence is genetically heritable," that is usually misinterpreted as proclaiming, "I am a disagreeable psychopath unworthy of love." The arbiters of ideological correctness can
create the impression that belief A must indicate personality trait X. If X is considered sexually and socially repulsive, then belief A
becomes taboo. In this way our sexually selected instincts for moralistic self-advertisement become subverted into ideological dogmas. I think that human rationality consists largely of separating intellectual argument from personality attributions about moral character. Our difficulty in making this separation suggests that political, religious, and pseudo-scientific ideologies have been part of moralistic self-display for a very long time.”
― The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature
Zach’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Zach’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,221 books
|
126 friends
342 books
|
99 friends
1,038 books
|
75 friends
1,003 books
|
47 friends
193 books
|
47 friends
286 books
|
78 friends
230 books
|
12 friends
522 books
|
109 friends
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