Anti-utopias

This period we are entering could become the sixth mass extinction event in Earth’s history, and the first caused by human activity.

To the extent this is typical, dystopias can be thought of as a kind of surrealism.

Together the two views combine and pop into a vision of History, extending magically into the future.

But why try to demonstrate to learned men something that isknown even to dogs who bark at visitors—sometimes indeedonly at strangers but in the night at everyone?

. Well, then,think about how you behave: when going on a journey, youarm yourself, and try not to go alone; when going to sleep,you lock your doors; even inside your own house you lockyour chests; and you do all this when you know that thereare laws, and armed public officers of the law, to revengeany harms that are done to you. Ask yourself: what opiniondo you have of your fellow subjects when you ride armed?Of your fellow citizens when you lock your doors? Of yourchildren and servants when you lock your chests?

trifles

Every man wants his associates to value himas highly as he values himself; and any sign that he isdisregarded or undervalued naturally leads a man to try, asfar as he dares, to raise his value in the eyes of others

Because of this distrust amongst men, themost reasonable way for any man to make himself safe is tostrike first, that is, by force or cunning subdue other men—asmany of them as he can, until he sees no other power greatenough to endanger him

Competition·: This equality of ability produces equalityof hope for the attaining of our goals. So if any two menwant a single thing which they can’t both enjoy, they becomeenemies; and each of them on the way to his goal (which isprincipally his own survival, though sometimes merely his

that is, more than anyone else except for a few otherswhom they value because of their fame or because theiragreement with •them. It’s just a fact about human naturethat however much a man may acknowledge many others tobe more •witty, or more •eloquent, or more •learned than heis, he won’t easily believe that many men are as •wise as heis; for he sees his own wisdom close up, and other men’s ata distance.

As for •the faculties of the mind: I find that men are evenmore equal in these than they are in bodily strength.

Nature has made men so equal in their physical andmental capacities that, although sometimes we may find oneman who is obviously stronger in body or quicker of mindthan another, yet taking all in all the difference between oneand another is not so great that one man can claim to haveany advantage ·of strength or skill or the like· that can’t justas well be claimed by some others.

Fascistgovernments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable ofobjectively evaluating the force of the enemy

Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition

The critical spirit makesdistinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism

modernism

Italian Futurists

The sun also rises, The roses will bloom

Peace gave me a curious sensation. I had beentold that permanent warfare was the normal condition for a young Italian.

prosthetic God

contention

This contention holds that what we call our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be much happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions.

, Blacks are not a simple, unified groupwith a common life. Like other racial and ethnic groups, they are differenti­a�ed by age, gender, class, sexuality, region, and nationality, any of which in agiven context may become a salient group identity.

metaphy si

There are really as many groups as there are com­binations of people and if we are going to ascribe claims to equal treatment to racial, sexual, and other groups with high visibility, it will be more favoritism not to ascrrbe similar claims to these other groups as well"

-oppression is a central cate­gory _of political discourse. Entering the political discourse in which oppres­sion is a central category involves adopting a general mode of analyzing and evaluating social structures and practices which is incommensurate with the language of liberal individualism that dominates political discourse in the United States.