Jen’s Reviews > Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader > Status Update

Let's Be Revolutionary: "But if we have to change the world, let's at least be revolutionary like atoms; let's each of us take a step forward by himself. The world won't take a step forward; the world s broad and peaceful, like matter. We need millions of individuals to accomplish revolutions in themselves, so that the people as a whole can evolve."

We believe that plugging our ears will keep other people silent. There's another name for this: intellectual cowardice. So let the concept "goodwill" be sufficient then, because goodwill which is neither courageous nor honest is neither good, nor is it will. And at the crossroads where we now find ourselves, between government by force and government by understanding, let there stand, first and foremost, goodwill."

Goodwill: We could also say that intellectual goodwill is simply intellectual honesty. It is intellectually dishonest not to understand, not to want to understand. It is intellectually dishonest to classify truths and opinions according to who articulates them. We don't want to hear spiritual outpourings unless they're from our camp. We want _not_ to know. [...]

"The Five Loaves" is a baker's commentary on Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Absolutely hilarious and scathing -- and probably not that far off from the truth for most people.

The Stamp Collection: "If a man rummaged around in his past, he'd find enough material in it for several different lives. At some point...whether by mistake or inclination...he chooses only one of them and lives it through to the end. But the worst of it is that those other, those possible lives, aren't entirely dead. And sometimes you can feel pain from them, just as one does from an amputated leg."

In Praise of Clumsy People: "It was the un-handy man who created the specialist. If all people were equally adaptable, there would be no division of labor; the result of that would be no progress. [...] The skillful ones discovered that it is possible to make a knife out of flint; but the unskillful ones discovered that it is possible to leave this work for other people."