#cs

What we are dealing with here is another version of the Lacanian 'il n'y a pas de rapport ...': if, for Lacan, there is no sexual relationship, then, for Marxism proper, there is no relationship between economy and politics, no 'meta-language' enabling us to grasp the two levels from the same neutral standpoint, although—or, rather, because—these two levels are inextricably intertwined. ↗

— Slavoj Žižek

#lacan #marxism #politics #sex #economy

When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do. ↗

— Sam Harris

#atheism #belief #ethics #humanism #religion

Sometimes it isn't easy to be sane, smart, and responsible. Sometimes it sucks. Sucks wang. Camel wang. But that doesn't turn wrong into right or stupid into smart. ↗

— Jim Butcher

#responsibility #right-and-wrong #ethics

...there are people who try to look as if they are doing a good and thorough job, and then there are the people who actually damn well do it, for its own sake. ↗

— John D. MacDonald

#thoroughness #work-ethic #ethics

Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong. ↗

— John Ralston Saul

#government #morals #ethics

I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me: and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum of human cities torture. ↗

— George Gordon Byron

#epic-poetry #poetry #verse #torture

Political writing in our time consists almost entirely of prefabricated phrases bolted together like the pieces of a child's Meccano set. It is the unavoidable result of self-censorship. To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox. ↗

— George Orwell

#orthodoxy #orwell #politics #writing #censorship

The media are desperately afraid of being accused of bias. And that's partly because there's a whole machine out there, an organized attempt to accuse them of bias whenever they say anything that the Right doesn't like. So rather than really try to report things objectively, they settle for being even-handed, which is not the same thing. One of my lines in a column—in which a number of people thought I was insulting them personally—was that if Bush said the Earth was flat, the mainstream media would have stories with the headline: 'Shape of Earth—Views Differ.' Then they'd quote some Democrats saying that it was round. ↗

— Paul Krugman

#conservatism #conservatism-in-the-us #democratic-party-united-states #economics #flat-earth

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#writing #mankind

Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device' And in the master's chambers, They gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the beast Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back To the place I was before 'Relax,' said the night man, 'We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, But you can never leave ... ↗

— The Eagles

#california #gluttony #greed #shallowness #sin