sábado, 25 de junio de 2011
Bertrand Russell.
“I do not pretend that birth control is the only way in which population can be kept from increasing. There are others, which, one must suppose, opponents of birth control would prefer. War, as I remarked a moment ago, has hitherto been disappointing in this respect, but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full. There would be nothing in this to offend the consciences of the devout or to restrain the ambitions of nationalists. The state of affairs might be somewhat unpleasant, but what of that? Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people’s.”
viernes, 24 de junio de 2011
Aurelio Peccei
“If the Club of Rome has any merit, it is that of having been the first to rebel against the suicidal ignorance of the human condition.”
"It is not impossible to foster a human revolution capable of changing our present course."
73 It should, finally, be prepared to disappear when its time is over — nothing is worse than ideas or institutions which outlive their usefulness.
153 ultimately, only better men and better women can make a better world.
"It is not impossible to foster a human revolution capable of changing our present course."
THE HUMAN QUALITY by Aurelio Peccei
INTRODUCTION
1 A LIFE STORY
2 THE CHANGED HUMAN CONDITION
1. Man's Global Empire
17 The second element was Man himself, gathering within his limited shell all the joy and sorrow of life. As soon as he discovered more and began to muse about his body and thoughts and those of his mate and of his offspring, and about birth and death, the mystery expanded embracing also his very self and his destiny. He linked not only Nature but himself, too, with God. But then he went further and imagined Him with human features. He thus came within a short step of quasideification of himself — which contains many seeds of his future troubles.2. Man's New Role
22 The absence in modern man of a sense of responsibility consonant with his new status is all the graver the more powerful he becomes. The fact that he was clever enough, so to speak, to snatch the fire of the gods, but is unable to emulate their mastery and foresight in using it, is now causing the story of the sorcerer's apprentice to be enacted on a mammoth scale. Might without wisdom has made him a modern barbarian possessing tremendous strength but little judgement on how to use it.
3. The Great Disorder Under Heaven
4. Still Greater Changes Ahead
32 This means that most likely the changes ahead in the human system will be even greater than those we have witnessed so far
4 THE CLUB OF ROME
4. Organizing a Non-organization
5 TROUBLES OF GROWTH
78 Initially we had perhaps wanted to say too many things; but we had learnt that it is not possible to say too much all at once — and be paid attention.
80 Reality is too complex for our brain to encompass all of it; models are, as it were, a half-way house, synthetizing reality and simultaneously expanding the brain's capacities, so that it might eventually understand this reality.
5. Time to Think About Goals
125 most people concerned with the future put the emphasis mainly on the negative effects of the present trends, the unresolved problematique, the need for human society to change its course in order to survive; while the concept of health should rather, or also, be taken into account. 'A focus on sickness is primarily based on fear, and behaviour so based is difficult to channel. By contrast, a focus on health can motivate behaviour centred on positive goals where each attainment is a victory, not merely the successful avoidance of evil', he [Ervin Laszlo] wrote later on. Adding: 'Men climb Mt. Everest because it is there, a challenge to human ingenuity and endurance. If they were forced to mountain as a condition for freedom or survival, it would be perceived as a frightful and inhuman task.'146 Adaptation to change is the secret of life; without it, life will become extinct. The marvellous way life adapts, evolves and continues is the result of an elaborate and painful process.
1. Change or Disappear
153 Greatly encouraging is the new consciousness that man, too, can no longer remain exempt and must himself change.153 ultimately, only better men and better women can make a better world.
4. The Right to Procreate
180-181 the right to give birth is not an unqualified birthright, but must be regulated according to the common good.
Herman Daly
“We cannot have too many people alive simultaneously lest we destroy carrying capacity and thereby reduce the number of lives possible in all subsequent time periods.”
Kenneth E Boulding
'The human race is now engaged in what I have called elsewhere "the Great Transition." I distinguish three major conditions of man: precivilized, civilized, and post-civilized. The Great Transition is that from civilization to post-civilized society, the beginnings of which we are seeing in the United States and some other countries. This is the real meaning of "economic development."
All transitions are based fundamental on an increase in knowledge. The transition from precivilized to civilized society rests on the acquisition of the knowledge of agriculture, which gives a food surplus, and of enough political organization to concentrate the food surplus in the cities. The transition to post-civilization is a result of the scientific revolution which got under way in the 17th and 18th centuries. We are still in the middle of this and the end is not in sight.'
'The twentieth century might be described as the crucial central period in the third great transition in the state of mankind. The first great transition was from the paleolithic to the neolithic about ten thousand years ago, which was characterized by the invention of agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the development of a settled life in villages. The second great transition, sometimes called the urban revolution, about five thousand years ago, was characterized by the development of political power and the centralization of the food surplus from agriculture in cities. This is the transition from neolithic agriculture to civilizations. What is underway now is a third great transition, in which civilization is passing away and a new order of society altogether, which I have sometimes called post-civilized but which perhaps deserves the name of the Developed Society, is coming into being. The twentieth century is the crucial midstage of this transition which will determine very largely whether it will be made successful or not.
As agriculture was the great invention of the first transition, political power and cities of the second, so science is the great invention of the third transition. ...... As an organized social phenomenon, however, and as an immense acceleration in the rate of acquisition of knowledge, science begins in Europe and if we want to put a date on it, probably the founding of the Royal Society, 1660 in London, would be as good as any,... It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, however, that the rising volume of scientific knowledge began to effect a major acceleration of technical change. The theory of the steam engine (thermodynamics) was not developed till about 1840, almost a hundred years after the steam engine itself. ... We now face a similar upsurge in the biological industries as a result of the enormous advances in the science of biology. It may well be that in biology we are roughly where we were in nuclear energy about 1900, ... '
'I got very interested in the question as to why some conflicts were creative and some were not because if became very clear that conflict itself wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It could be very creative. But on the other hand, it could also be terribly destructive. Then what was the difference? And is was what got me into the theory of the integrative system. The general theory that I came up with was that if you had conflict within an integrative setting it could be creative.'
'A quarter, perhaps a third, of the human race has moved toward a kind of world superculture of skyscrapers, automobiles, airplanes, and intercontinential hotels. The rest of the human race still remains close to subsistence. ... The development of the superculture is the result of the knowledge explosion, which led not only to new theories and processes, but to new discoveries, especially of fossil fuels and rich ores. In 1859 the human race discovered a huge treasure chest in its basement. This was oil and gas, a fantastically cheap and easily available source of energy. We did, or at least some of us did, what anybody does who discovers a treasure in the basement -- live it up and we have been spending this treasure with great enjoyment.'
'All these mechanical models, like celestial mechanics, not evolutionary models, assum[e] constancy in the parameters of the system. ... This is why all these mechanical models whether Forresters' System_Dynamics or Jorgensen's Data Resources Inc model behave poorly when run backward. In evolutionary systems the parameters (constants) of the equations change constantly and unexpectedly.'
'We all agree that the existing process of rapid growth in world population and production cannot go on for very long, and is not sustainable, especially in so far as it is so dependent on fossil fuels and exhaustable high-grade ores. ... Evolutionary sustainability is the capacity of a system to continue evolution, as a process of increasing complexity and "value" in the genosphere or the nooshphere, know-how sphere, in spite of, or perhaps even because of, catastrophe. The first great evolutionary catastrophe was the creation of the present atmosphere though "oxygen pollution" by the first anaerobic organisms. They did not survive it, but evolution did, and developed the more efficient oxygen breathing organisms.'
'One should not be ashamed of a belief in progress. It is painfully slow and intermittent, interspersed with catastrophes and reversals, but there is a strong case for believing that in the long run it is built into the system, provided there is not an ultimate and irretrievable catastrophe.'
'There are processes, both in simple systems in folk learning and in complex systems in scientific learning, which tend towards the continual elimination of error as time goes on, so that people's images of the world are likely to have an increasing proportion of truth. ... It is the asymmetry between truth and error in the images of the human race that is perhaps the most basic source of societal and cultural evolution.'
'Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure.'
“[Some of this, to be sure, feeds our appetite for the misfortune of others. We like to see other people stumble and fall. Slapstick, and for that matter a lot of comedy, depends on the principle. But loss can also open us up to things that winning, in its glandular, stimulating way, may not. It makes our own disappointments less stinging and stigmatizing. It invites humility, modesty, introspection and change.] Disappointment forces a learning process of some kind upon us, ... success does not.”
All transitions are based fundamental on an increase in knowledge. The transition from precivilized to civilized society rests on the acquisition of the knowledge of agriculture, which gives a food surplus, and of enough political organization to concentrate the food surplus in the cities. The transition to post-civilization is a result of the scientific revolution which got under way in the 17th and 18th centuries. We are still in the middle of this and the end is not in sight.'
'The twentieth century might be described as the crucial central period in the third great transition in the state of mankind. The first great transition was from the paleolithic to the neolithic about ten thousand years ago, which was characterized by the invention of agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the development of a settled life in villages. The second great transition, sometimes called the urban revolution, about five thousand years ago, was characterized by the development of political power and the centralization of the food surplus from agriculture in cities. This is the transition from neolithic agriculture to civilizations. What is underway now is a third great transition, in which civilization is passing away and a new order of society altogether, which I have sometimes called post-civilized but which perhaps deserves the name of the Developed Society, is coming into being. The twentieth century is the crucial midstage of this transition which will determine very largely whether it will be made successful or not.
As agriculture was the great invention of the first transition, political power and cities of the second, so science is the great invention of the third transition. ...... As an organized social phenomenon, however, and as an immense acceleration in the rate of acquisition of knowledge, science begins in Europe and if we want to put a date on it, probably the founding of the Royal Society, 1660 in London, would be as good as any,... It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, however, that the rising volume of scientific knowledge began to effect a major acceleration of technical change. The theory of the steam engine (thermodynamics) was not developed till about 1840, almost a hundred years after the steam engine itself. ... We now face a similar upsurge in the biological industries as a result of the enormous advances in the science of biology. It may well be that in biology we are roughly where we were in nuclear energy about 1900, ... '
'I got very interested in the question as to why some conflicts were creative and some were not because if became very clear that conflict itself wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It could be very creative. But on the other hand, it could also be terribly destructive. Then what was the difference? And is was what got me into the theory of the integrative system. The general theory that I came up with was that if you had conflict within an integrative setting it could be creative.'
'A quarter, perhaps a third, of the human race has moved toward a kind of world superculture of skyscrapers, automobiles, airplanes, and intercontinential hotels. The rest of the human race still remains close to subsistence. ... The development of the superculture is the result of the knowledge explosion, which led not only to new theories and processes, but to new discoveries, especially of fossil fuels and rich ores. In 1859 the human race discovered a huge treasure chest in its basement. This was oil and gas, a fantastically cheap and easily available source of energy. We did, or at least some of us did, what anybody does who discovers a treasure in the basement -- live it up and we have been spending this treasure with great enjoyment.'
'All these mechanical models, like celestial mechanics, not evolutionary models, assum[e] constancy in the parameters of the system. ... This is why all these mechanical models whether Forresters' System_Dynamics or Jorgensen's Data Resources Inc model behave poorly when run backward. In evolutionary systems the parameters (constants) of the equations change constantly and unexpectedly.'
'We all agree that the existing process of rapid growth in world population and production cannot go on for very long, and is not sustainable, especially in so far as it is so dependent on fossil fuels and exhaustable high-grade ores. ... Evolutionary sustainability is the capacity of a system to continue evolution, as a process of increasing complexity and "value" in the genosphere or the nooshphere, know-how sphere, in spite of, or perhaps even because of, catastrophe. The first great evolutionary catastrophe was the creation of the present atmosphere though "oxygen pollution" by the first anaerobic organisms. They did not survive it, but evolution did, and developed the more efficient oxygen breathing organisms.'
'One should not be ashamed of a belief in progress. It is painfully slow and intermittent, interspersed with catastrophes and reversals, but there is a strong case for believing that in the long run it is built into the system, provided there is not an ultimate and irretrievable catastrophe.'
'There are processes, both in simple systems in folk learning and in complex systems in scientific learning, which tend towards the continual elimination of error as time goes on, so that people's images of the world are likely to have an increasing proportion of truth. ... It is the asymmetry between truth and error in the images of the human race that is perhaps the most basic source of societal and cultural evolution.'
'Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure.'
“[Some of this, to be sure, feeds our appetite for the misfortune of others. We like to see other people stumble and fall. Slapstick, and for that matter a lot of comedy, depends on the principle. But loss can also open us up to things that winning, in its glandular, stimulating way, may not. It makes our own disappointments less stinging and stigmatizing. It invites humility, modesty, introspection and change.] Disappointment forces a learning process of some kind upon us, ... success does not.”
miércoles, 22 de junio de 2011
The Club of Rome.
"a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity
“This is the way we are setting the scene for mankind’s encounter with the planet. The opposition between the two ideologies that have dominated the 20th century has collapsed, forming their own vacuum and leaving nothing but crass materialism.
It is a law of Nature that any vacuum will be filled and therefore eliminated unless this is physically prevented. “Nature,” as the saying goes, “abhors a vacuum.” And people, as children of Nature, can only feel uncomfortable, even though they may not recognize that they are living in a vacuum. How then is the vacuum to be eliminated?
It would seem that humans need a common motivation, namely a common adversary, to organize and act together in the vacuum; such a motivation must be found to bring the divided nations together to face an outside enemy, either a real one or else one invented for the purpose.
New enemies therefore have to be identified.
New strategies imagined, new weapons devised.
The common enemy of humanity is man.
In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself'`
“Man possesses, for a small moment in his history, the most powerful combination of knowledge, tools, and resources the world has ever known. He has all that is physically necessary to create a totally new form of human society - one that would be built to last for generations. The two missing ingredients are a realistic, long-term goal that can guide mankind to the equilibrium society and the Human Will to achieve that goal.”
“If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.”
"our only hope is to transform humanity into a global interdependent sustainable society, based on respect and reverence for the Earth."
“The Earth has cancer and the cancer is Man.”
"we are facing an imminent catastrophic ecological collapse"
Selection Quotes.
"Ram, ass, and horse, my Kyrnos, we look over
With care, and seek good stock for good to cover;
And yet the best men make no argument,
But wed, for money, runts of poor descent.
So too a woman will demean her state
And spurn the better for the richer mate.
Money’s the cry. Good stock to bad is wed
And bad to good, till all the world’s cross-bred.
No wonder if the country’s breed declines-
Mixed metal, Kyrnos, that but dimly shines."
-
Theognis of Megara on eugenics and dysgenics, circa 520 B.C.
"Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children."
- William Penn. Some fruits of solitude, in reflections and maxims relating to the conduct of human life. 1693
"Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally."
– Francis Galton, first cousin and associate of Charles Darwin, circa 1883
"Galton’s eccentric, sceptical, observing, flashing, cavalry-leader type of mind led him eventually to become the founder of the most important, significant and, I would add, genuine branch of sociology which exists, namely eugenics."
-
John Maynard Keynes. Eugenics Review. 1946
"Natural selection must be replaced by eugenical artificial selection. This idea constitutes the sound core of eugenics, the applied science of human betterment."
- Theodosius Dobzhansky. Heredity and the Nature of Man. 1964
"There is no permanent status quo in nature; all is the process of adjustment and readjustment, or else eventual failure. But man is the first being yet evolved on earth which has the power to note this changefulness, and, if he will, to turn it to his own advantage, to work out genetic methods, eugenic ideas, yes, to invent new characteristics, organs, and biological systems that will work out to further the interests, the happiness, the glory of the God-like being whose meager foreshadowings we the present ailing creatures are."
- Herrman J. Muller, 1935 (an associate of Sir Julian Huxley)
"Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind…. Any group of farmers who permitted their best stock not to breed, and let all the increase come from the worst stock, would be treated as fit inmates for an asylum…. Some day we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizens of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type. The great problem of civilization is to secure a relative increase of the valuable as compared with the less valuable or noxious elements in the population… The problem cannot be met unless we give full consideration to the immense influence of heredity…"
- Theodore Roosevelt to Charles B. Davenport, January 3, 1913, Charles B. Davenport Papers, Department of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
"I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feebleminded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them… The emphasis should be laid on getting desirable people to breed…"
Roosevelt, “Twisted Eugenics,” in The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, op. cit., National Edition, XII, p. 201.
The spectre of Hitler has led some scientists to stray from "ought" to "is" and deny that breeding for human qualities is even possible. But if you can breed cattle for milk yield, horses for running speed, and dogs for herding skill, why on Earth should it be impossible to breed humans for mathematical, musical or athletic ability? Objections such as "these are not one-dimensional abilities" apply equally to cows, horses and dogs and never stopped anybody in practice.
With care, and seek good stock for good to cover;
And yet the best men make no argument,
But wed, for money, runts of poor descent.
So too a woman will demean her state
And spurn the better for the richer mate.
Money’s the cry. Good stock to bad is wed
And bad to good, till all the world’s cross-bred.
No wonder if the country’s breed declines-
Mixed metal, Kyrnos, that but dimly shines."
-
Theognis of Megara on eugenics and dysgenics, circa 520 B.C.
"Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children."
- William Penn. Some fruits of solitude, in reflections and maxims relating to the conduct of human life. 1693
"Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally."
– Francis Galton, first cousin and associate of Charles Darwin, circa 1883
"Galton’s eccentric, sceptical, observing, flashing, cavalry-leader type of mind led him eventually to become the founder of the most important, significant and, I would add, genuine branch of sociology which exists, namely eugenics."
-
John Maynard Keynes. Eugenics Review. 1946
"Natural selection must be replaced by eugenical artificial selection. This idea constitutes the sound core of eugenics, the applied science of human betterment."
- Theodosius Dobzhansky. Heredity and the Nature of Man. 1964
"There is no permanent status quo in nature; all is the process of adjustment and readjustment, or else eventual failure. But man is the first being yet evolved on earth which has the power to note this changefulness, and, if he will, to turn it to his own advantage, to work out genetic methods, eugenic ideas, yes, to invent new characteristics, organs, and biological systems that will work out to further the interests, the happiness, the glory of the God-like being whose meager foreshadowings we the present ailing creatures are."
- Herrman J. Muller, 1935 (an associate of Sir Julian Huxley)
"Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind…. Any group of farmers who permitted their best stock not to breed, and let all the increase come from the worst stock, would be treated as fit inmates for an asylum…. Some day we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty of the good citizens of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type. The great problem of civilization is to secure a relative increase of the valuable as compared with the less valuable or noxious elements in the population… The problem cannot be met unless we give full consideration to the immense influence of heredity…"
- Theodore Roosevelt to Charles B. Davenport, January 3, 1913, Charles B. Davenport Papers, Department of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
"I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feebleminded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them… The emphasis should be laid on getting desirable people to breed…"
Roosevelt, “Twisted Eugenics,” in The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, op. cit., National Edition, XII, p. 201.
The spectre of Hitler has led some scientists to stray from "ought" to "is" and deny that breeding for human qualities is even possible. But if you can breed cattle for milk yield, horses for running speed, and dogs for herding skill, why on Earth should it be impossible to breed humans for mathematical, musical or athletic ability? Objections such as "these are not one-dimensional abilities" apply equally to cows, horses and dogs and never stopped anybody in practice.
I wonder whether, some 60 years after Hitler’s death, we might at least venture to ask what the moral difference is between breeding for musical ability and forcing a child to take music lessons. Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me. But hasn’t the time come when we should stop being frightened even to put the question?"
-
Richard Dawkins
-
Richard Dawkins
Jeff Cooper.
“Remember the first rule of gunfighting... "have a gun."”
“The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail... the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation.”
“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.”
"Weapons compound man's power to achieve; they amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."
When driving in our current urban battle zones, remember that when a car
stops suddenly in front of you and two people get out simultaneously, you go
to Condition Orange. This is particularly true if you have rear-ended the
car in front of you slightly with your bumper. This is a pre-planned
car-jacking technique. Bear it in mind!
From Chechnya via Time magazine:
"They are simply afraid of us. We saw it in their eyes during battle. They
have very strong weapons - but not very strong spirits."
As always, it is the man, not the gun, that wins.
Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 11
September 1996
I have often preached that the proper antidote to fear is anger, and I see
no reason to change my opinion on this. However, there is another mental
condition that serves as well or possibly better, and that is concentration.
I have discussed this matter at great length with people who are in a
position to know, and I am not without experience of my own, and I can state
positively that when you find yourself facing deadly danger, your ability
to concentrate every mental faculty upon doing what needs to be done to save
yourself leaves no room for fear. If it happens that return fire is the best
solution to your danger, you are fortunate, because if you have organized
yourself properly your total preoccupation with your front sight and trigger
control will have become automatic; and therefore you cannot fear your
enemy's bullet since you are simply too busy concentrating on hitting him.
'This fashionable buzz word "sensitivity" is beginning to gall. I do not see
sensitivity as the necessary attribute of a considerable man. We may search
through history for manifestations of sensitivity in the great without
particular success. Pericles, Xenophon, Socrates, Caesar, and so on down
through Washington, Napoleon, Roosevelt, and Churchill were not distinguished
for sensitivity. Thinness of the skin seems to be one of the paramount
troubles of the age.'
A recent report from Africa informs us that a Bantu hunter of our
acquaintance was recently set upon after dark by an armed robber. Our friend
cut him down neatly and went on about his business. Naturally, I am not going
to furnish any details about the nationality or locality of our friend. In
cases like this, the less the authorities know, the better. Years ago in our
Balsas expedition we were forcefully informed by our permit issuing
authorities in Mexico City that if we had occasion to knock off a bandit, we
were by no means to report the matter. Just get the body out of sight in the
bushes and get on with your business.
Note that the state of Louisiana has opened the season on "car jackers" -
under proper controls, of course. The consensus of the legislature was that
if someone chooses to approach a driver, gun in hand, that is sufficient
reason to assume that he is a legitimate target. One commentator wailed that
this amounts to no less than "a license to kill." Well, sure. Car jackers
are not yet an endangered species, but it is high time that we made them so.
More than two thousand years ago Aristotle opined that most of the human
race has essentially the soul of a slave. A recent Associated Press poll
recorded that fifty-four percent of those questioned seemed willing to trade
liberty for security. The sad fact is that one cannot trade the one for the
other. You can surrender your liberty, but what you get in turn is never a
significant increase in your security.
Following is a sentence passed by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County,
Ohio, via Mike Royko:
When you slithered out of your hole that day, and you spewed your venom
all over this defenseless 12-year-old girl, you made this court's top 10
hit list. In a way, the best sentence this court could give would be no
sentence at all, because if you left this courtroom I don't think you
would be alive 10 minutes. You are nothing but a weed, a weed among
wheat... And when we have a weed, it's my job to eradicate the weed,
because if you don't you will choke the wheat. Therefore, I'm going to
take you off the streets for just as long as I possibly can. It means
you aren't even eligible for parole until you're 92. That leaves only
one more count, aggravated robbery... You stole this little girl's bra
as a souvenir, probably to brag about it to your friends later on. Well,
I'm going to give you a souvenir of Trumbull County justice. And that
is, you will receive a maximum sentence of 10 to 25 on the aggravated
robbery for the stealing of that bra. And I hope that if you last 25
years in prison that you remember that you remember that souvenir."
Get this scum out of here!
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 1, No. 9
October 1993
“The will to survive is not as important as the will to prevail... the answer to criminal aggression is retaliation.”
“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.”
"Weapons compound man's power to achieve; they amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."
When driving in our current urban battle zones, remember that when a car
stops suddenly in front of you and two people get out simultaneously, you go
to Condition Orange. This is particularly true if you have rear-ended the
car in front of you slightly with your bumper. This is a pre-planned
car-jacking technique. Bear it in mind!
From Chechnya via Time magazine:
"They are simply afraid of us. We saw it in their eyes during battle. They
have very strong weapons - but not very strong spirits."
As always, it is the man, not the gun, that wins.
Jeff Cooper From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 11
September 1996
I have often preached that the proper antidote to fear is anger, and I see
no reason to change my opinion on this. However, there is another mental
condition that serves as well or possibly better, and that is concentration.
I have discussed this matter at great length with people who are in a
position to know, and I am not without experience of my own, and I can state
positively that when you find yourself facing deadly danger, your ability
to concentrate every mental faculty upon doing what needs to be done to save
yourself leaves no room for fear. If it happens that return fire is the best
solution to your danger, you are fortunate, because if you have organized
yourself properly your total preoccupation with your front sight and trigger
control will have become automatic; and therefore you cannot fear your
enemy's bullet since you are simply too busy concentrating on hitting him.
'This fashionable buzz word "sensitivity" is beginning to gall. I do not see
sensitivity as the necessary attribute of a considerable man. We may search
through history for manifestations of sensitivity in the great without
particular success. Pericles, Xenophon, Socrates, Caesar, and so on down
through Washington, Napoleon, Roosevelt, and Churchill were not distinguished
for sensitivity. Thinness of the skin seems to be one of the paramount
troubles of the age.'
A recent report from Africa informs us that a Bantu hunter of our
acquaintance was recently set upon after dark by an armed robber. Our friend
cut him down neatly and went on about his business. Naturally, I am not going
to furnish any details about the nationality or locality of our friend. In
cases like this, the less the authorities know, the better. Years ago in our
Balsas expedition we were forcefully informed by our permit issuing
authorities in Mexico City that if we had occasion to knock off a bandit, we
were by no means to report the matter. Just get the body out of sight in the
bushes and get on with your business.
Note that the state of Louisiana has opened the season on "car jackers" -
under proper controls, of course. The consensus of the legislature was that
if someone chooses to approach a driver, gun in hand, that is sufficient
reason to assume that he is a legitimate target. One commentator wailed that
this amounts to no less than "a license to kill." Well, sure. Car jackers
are not yet an endangered species, but it is high time that we made them so.
More than two thousand years ago Aristotle opined that most of the human
race has essentially the soul of a slave. A recent Associated Press poll
recorded that fifty-four percent of those questioned seemed willing to trade
liberty for security. The sad fact is that one cannot trade the one for the
other. You can surrender your liberty, but what you get in turn is never a
significant increase in your security.
Following is a sentence passed by Judge W. Wyatt McKay of Trumbull County,
Ohio, via Mike Royko:
When you slithered out of your hole that day, and you spewed your venom
all over this defenseless 12-year-old girl, you made this court's top 10
hit list. In a way, the best sentence this court could give would be no
sentence at all, because if you left this courtroom I don't think you
would be alive 10 minutes. You are nothing but a weed, a weed among
wheat... And when we have a weed, it's my job to eradicate the weed,
because if you don't you will choke the wheat. Therefore, I'm going to
take you off the streets for just as long as I possibly can. It means
you aren't even eligible for parole until you're 92. That leaves only
one more count, aggravated robbery... You stole this little girl's bra
as a souvenir, probably to brag about it to your friends later on. Well,
I'm going to give you a souvenir of Trumbull County justice. And that
is, you will receive a maximum sentence of 10 to 25 on the aggravated
robbery for the stealing of that bra. And I hope that if you last 25
years in prison that you remember that you remember that souvenir."
Get this scum out of here!
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 1, No. 9
October 1993
martes, 21 de junio de 2011
Miyamoto Musashi.
“Do nothing which is of no use.”
“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
“All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.''
"The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things."
"It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet"
'Under the sword lifted high, There is hell making you tremble. But go ahead, And you have the land of bliss.'
"You can only fight the way you practice"
"The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them"
"Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom."
"You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain"
"If you wish to control others you must first control yourself"
"If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you"
"The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions"
"All men are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them"
"The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win"
"Never stray from the Way."
"When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy...attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last."
"I dreamt of worldly success once."
“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
“All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this.''
"The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things."
"It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet"
'Under the sword lifted high, There is hell making you tremble. But go ahead, And you have the land of bliss.'
"You can only fight the way you practice"
"The ultimate aim of martial arts is not having to use them"
"Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom."
"You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain"
"If you wish to control others you must first control yourself"
"If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you"
"The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions"
"All men are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them"
"The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win"
"Never stray from the Way."
"When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy...attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last."
"I dreamt of worldly success once."
lunes, 20 de junio de 2011
Survivalist jokes.
'We're not surrounded,Sir-we're in a target-rich environment.'
'You might be a survivalist if:
- You have emergency rations stored for your pets, and you view your pets as potential emergency rations.
- You've ever served MREs at a dinner party.
- You've made a range card for your neighborhood.
-You have 30,000 rounds of ammo stashed away, and you consider this to be inadequate.
- You know where the best defensive positions and lines of fire are on your property.
- You start evaluating people according to 'skill sets'.
'You might be a survivalist if:
- You have emergency rations stored for your pets, and you view your pets as potential emergency rations.
- You've ever served MREs at a dinner party.
- You've made a range card for your neighborhood.
-You have 30,000 rounds of ammo stashed away, and you consider this to be inadequate.
- You know where the best defensive positions and lines of fire are on your property.
- You start evaluating people according to 'skill sets'.
Henry David Thoreau
'Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.'
'Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.'
'We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.''While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.''You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.'
'Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.'
'We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.''While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.''You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.'
Francis Galton.
"It has now become a serious nescessity to better the breed of the human race. The average citizen is too base for the everyday work of modern civilization."
'Individuals appear to me as partial detachments from the infinite ocean of Being, and this world as a stage on which Evolution takes place, principally hitherto by means of Natural Selection, which achieves the good of the whole with scant regard to that of the individual.
Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective.
This is precisely the aim of Eugenics. Its first object is to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock.'
'The instincts and faculties of different men and races differ in a variety of ways almost as profoundly as those of animals in different cages of the Zoological Gardens; and however diverse and antagonistic they are, each may be good of its kind. It is obviously so in brutes; the monkey may have a horror at the sight of a snake, and a repugnance to its ways, but a snake is just as perfect an animal as a monkey. The living world does not consist of a repetition of similar elements, but of an endless variety of them, that have grown, body and soul, through selective influences into close adaptation to their contemporaries, and to the physical circumstances of the localities they inhabit.'
'With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment.
Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.'
'Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally. '
'Individuals appear to me as partial detachments from the infinite ocean of Being, and this world as a stage on which Evolution takes place, principally hitherto by means of Natural Selection, which achieves the good of the whole with scant regard to that of the individual.
Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective.
This is precisely the aim of Eugenics. Its first object is to check the birth-rate of the Unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of their children. Natural Selection rests upon excessive production and wholesale destruction; Eugenics on bringing no more individuals into the world than can be properly cared for, and those only of the best stock.'
'The instincts and faculties of different men and races differ in a variety of ways almost as profoundly as those of animals in different cages of the Zoological Gardens; and however diverse and antagonistic they are, each may be good of its kind. It is obviously so in brutes; the monkey may have a horror at the sight of a snake, and a repugnance to its ways, but a snake is just as perfect an animal as a monkey. The living world does not consist of a repetition of similar elements, but of an endless variety of them, that have grown, body and soul, through selective influences into close adaptation to their contemporaries, and to the physical circumstances of the localities they inhabit.'
'With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment.
Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed.'
'Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally. '
Margaret Mead.
'A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.'
'Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.'
'Many societies have educated their male children on the simple device of teaching them not to be women.'
'Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation'.
'The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.''We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.''We have nowhere else to go... this is all we have.'
'Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.'
'Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.'
'Many societies have educated their male children on the simple device of teaching them not to be women.'
'Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation'.
'The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.''We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.''We have nowhere else to go... this is all we have.'
'Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.'
sábado, 18 de junio de 2011
Behaviourism.
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
sábado, 11 de junio de 2011
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988[1]) was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union. A communist, he served as an NKVD and KGB operative.[2]
In 1963, Philby was revealed to be a member of the spy ring now known as the Cambridge Five, the other members of which comprised Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing secret information to the Soviet Union. His activities were moderated only by Joseph Stalin's concern that he might be a double agent.[3] Philby was an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from 1946 to 1965.
Born in Ambala, Punjab, British India, Philby was the son of St. John Philby, a member of the Indian Civil Service and, later, a civil servant in Mesopotamia, a well-known author of Orientalist, a convert to Islam,[4] and an advisor to Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia.
Nicknamed "Kim" after the eponymous young Indian spy of Rudyard Kipling's novel, Philby attended Aldro prep school. Following in the footsteps of his father, he continued to Westminster School, which he left in 1928 at the age of 16. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history and economics. Whilst at Cambridge, he was a member of the Labour Club, and canvassed for the Labour candidate for Cambridge in the 1931 election. He graduated in 1933 with a 2:1 degree in economics.[5]
Upon Philby's graduation, Maurice Dobb – a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and tutor in economics – introduced him to the World Federation for the Relief of the Victims of German Fascism in Paris. The World Federation was one of innumerable fronts operated by the German Communist Willi Münzenberg, a member of the Reichstag who had fled to France in 1933.[6] Dobb, himself a Communist sympathiser, also placed Philby in contact with the Comintern underground in Vienna, Austria.
To betray,you must first belong.
Kim Philby.
In 1963, Philby was revealed to be a member of the spy ring now known as the Cambridge Five, the other members of which comprised Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross. Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing secret information to the Soviet Union. His activities were moderated only by Joseph Stalin's concern that he might be a double agent.[3] Philby was an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from 1946 to 1965.
Born in Ambala, Punjab, British India, Philby was the son of St. John Philby, a member of the Indian Civil Service and, later, a civil servant in Mesopotamia, a well-known author of Orientalist, a convert to Islam,[4] and an advisor to Ibn Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia.
Nicknamed "Kim" after the eponymous young Indian spy of Rudyard Kipling's novel, Philby attended Aldro prep school. Following in the footsteps of his father, he continued to Westminster School, which he left in 1928 at the age of 16. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history and economics. Whilst at Cambridge, he was a member of the Labour Club, and canvassed for the Labour candidate for Cambridge in the 1931 election. He graduated in 1933 with a 2:1 degree in economics.[5]
Upon Philby's graduation, Maurice Dobb – a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and tutor in economics – introduced him to the World Federation for the Relief of the Victims of German Fascism in Paris. The World Federation was one of innumerable fronts operated by the German Communist Willi Münzenberg, a member of the Reichstag who had fled to France in 1933.[6] Dobb, himself a Communist sympathiser, also placed Philby in contact with the Comintern underground in Vienna, Austria.
To betray,you must first belong.
Kim Philby.
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