leaves no room for truth
and reduces relationships.
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Monday, 9 March 2015
How Many of These Injunctions Could Be Applied Now?
Dear Lady Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have—so I feel for you.
1- Live as well as you dare.
2- Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature
low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75° or 80°.
3- Read amusing books.
4- Take the short view of human life—no further than dinner or tea.
5- Be as busy as you can in something that absorbs you.
6- See as much as you can of the friends who respect and like you.
7- See as much as you can of those acquaintances who make you laugh.
8- Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely
—they are always worse for dignified concealment. Beyond friends
be selective who share your low spirits with, lest you be left lower.
9- Enjoy the positive effects that tea and coffee produce upon you.
10- Compare your lot with that of other people.
11- Don't expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12- Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels
and melancholy sentimental people, they are all the sort of thing that is likely
to excite feelings or emotion that does not result in an inner active benevolence.
13- Do good, and endeavour to please yourself through pleasing others to every degree.
14- Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15- Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant.
16- Struggle little by little against idleness.
17- Don't be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18- Keep good blazing fires.
19- Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
Believe me, dear Georgiana, your devoted servant, Rev'd Sydney Smith
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have—so I feel for you.
1- Live as well as you dare.
2- Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature
low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75° or 80°.
3- Read amusing books.
4- Take the short view of human life—no further than dinner or tea.
5- Be as busy as you can in something that absorbs you.
6- See as much as you can of the friends who respect and like you.
7- See as much as you can of those acquaintances who make you laugh.
8- Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely
—they are always worse for dignified concealment. Beyond friends
be selective who share your low spirits with, lest you be left lower.
9- Enjoy the positive effects that tea and coffee produce upon you.
10- Compare your lot with that of other people.
11- Don't expect too much from human life—a sorry business at the best.
12- Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels
and melancholy sentimental people, they are all the sort of thing that is likely
to excite feelings or emotion that does not result in an inner active benevolence.
13- Do good, and endeavour to please yourself through pleasing others to every degree.
14- Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15- Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant.
16- Struggle little by little against idleness.
17- Don't be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18- Keep good blazing fires.
19- Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
Believe me, dear Georgiana, your devoted servant, Rev'd Sydney Smith
Sunday, 8 March 2015
Yours And Mine For The Taking....
 |
| Whatever you take, apply it selectively but generously and it will regenerate more. |
Saturday, 7 March 2015
Collective Irresponciblity (1)
We have no need to fear
the idea of artificial intelligence
for as long as we produce
enough natural stupidity
to overwhelm it with.
the idea of artificial intelligence
for as long as we produce
enough natural stupidity
to overwhelm it with.
Collective Irresponcibility (2)
In my youth the word for heterosexuality
was marriage; there was nothing else.
Both the idea and the word disguised
wanting to be kept-projecting it instead
as the meeting of the needs of others.
When the lies convinced them enough
then people married, then the thin veneer
that held up hope was thinned some more
leaving the newly weds nothing to hide with.
Thus every child grew up by being told
'One day you will be a parent like us,
and you'll depend on a well paid job',
as if it were natural-more than luck
and more than the channeling of cliches.
In more coercive households
children learned through behavior
that the only escape from being bullied
by family was to become a parent,
and the head of a separate household.
Thus the next child to be reared in condescension
will be merely the latest repayment of a debt
which everyone denies is never ending.
was marriage; there was nothing else.
Both the idea and the word disguised
wanting to be kept-projecting it instead
as the meeting of the needs of others.
When the lies convinced them enough
then people married, then the thin veneer
that held up hope was thinned some more
leaving the newly weds nothing to hide with.
Thus every child grew up by being told
'One day you will be a parent like us,
and you'll depend on a well paid job',
as if it were natural-more than luck
and more than the channeling of cliches.
In more coercive households
children learned through behavior
that the only escape from being bullied
by family was to become a parent,
and the head of a separate household.
Thus the next child to be reared in condescension
will be merely the latest repayment of a debt
which everyone denies is never ending.
Friday, 6 March 2015
The Riches Of The Digital Life
We, the creatively unwaged,
tap away at our laptops-
daily doing the best we can
to chip away at the accusations
of sloth by stealth,
which the uncreative and wealthy
use to distance themselves
from the rest of the human race.
tap away at our laptops-
daily doing the best we can
to chip away at the accusations
of sloth by stealth,
which the uncreative and wealthy
use to distance themselves
from the rest of the human race.
The Choice
between heaven and progress
is not that vast-with both
might proves righteousness
as wrong argues with right
through us to make the winner.
The aim is always to bury the lost
in the compost heap of history.
is not that vast-with both
might proves righteousness
as wrong argues with right
through us to make the winner.
The aim is always to bury the lost
in the compost heap of history.
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