Thursday
On Books...
Ahhh that was an interesting eve. I had something like 10 questions in hand and managed to get one out. I also had three books in my bag & managed to get one out. The red went down well too. So, after all that world history and politics tonight, let's look at a few books.
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Before he did 1984. This is a true story account of Orwell living it rough. Click on book's title for more.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich
Mentioned before, looking into low wage America and the poverty trap.
Sex, Prejudice and Politics - Junie Morosi
Junie's book about her life. Very 60s but also very interesting to read in this day & age. The most interesting thing about this book is that you learn quite a bit about her life prior to Australia.
Catherine the Great - Henri Troyat
The power & the history & the loves of...
Cold is the Grave - Peter Robinson
"I don't mind them".
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Before he did 1984. This is a true story account of Orwell living it rough. Click on book's title for more.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich
Mentioned before, looking into low wage America and the poverty trap.
Sex, Prejudice and Politics - Junie Morosi
Junie's book about her life. Very 60s but also very interesting to read in this day & age. The most interesting thing about this book is that you learn quite a bit about her life prior to Australia.
Catherine the Great - Henri Troyat
The power & the history & the loves of...
Cold is the Grave - Peter Robinson
"I don't mind them".
Wednesday
From Helen...
"Dark and Stormy Night Contest", wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel:
"As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it."
"Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens."
"With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."
"Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: 'Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep.'"
"Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved."
"Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eeking out a living at a local pet store."
"Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do."
"Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."
"Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word 'fear'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."
"The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, 'You lied!"
"As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it."
"Just beyond the Narrows, the river widens."
"With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned, unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."
"Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: 'Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep.'"
"Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved."
"Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eeking out a living at a local pet store."
"Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do."
"Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."
"Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word 'fear'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies."
"The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, 'You lied!"
Sunday
Personal Identity & Ethics...
A discussion on personal identity. What is it that makes a person the same person over time? And IS that person the same person over time? If this person is not the same over time, then what are the implications for ethics?
These ideas & more are discussed in Derek Parfait's Reasons & Persons.
These ideas & more are discussed in Derek Parfait's Reasons & Persons.
Western Journalist in Egypt says...
In Egypt it is considered abrupt to begin any conversation without at least half of the following:
Good morning.
Good morning to you.
Good morning of light.
Good morning of roses.
Good morning of jasmines (and so on, through the rest of the garden).
And how are you?
Fine, and you?
Fine also, thanks be to God.
Thanks to God.
Welcome, most welcome.
Welcome to you.
(Chorus)
...
In Cairo I often tore home from government offices, pumped up on Turkish coffee, to type up my notes and rush them into print. Only to find, flipping through my notebook, that all I had to write was "Thanks be to God"and "Would you like some sugar with your coffee?"
Taken from Baghdad without a Map by Tony Horwitz
Good morning.
Good morning to you.
Good morning of light.
Good morning of roses.
Good morning of jasmines (and so on, through the rest of the garden).
And how are you?
Fine, and you?
Fine also, thanks be to God.
Thanks to God.
Welcome, most welcome.
Welcome to you.
(Chorus)
...
In Cairo I often tore home from government offices, pumped up on Turkish coffee, to type up my notes and rush them into print. Only to find, flipping through my notebook, that all I had to write was "Thanks be to God"and "Would you like some sugar with your coffee?"
Taken from Baghdad without a Map by Tony Horwitz
Yoko Ono's 1964 Cut Piece
In 1964 Yoko Ono recorded a performance called Cut Piece where members of the audience are invited to cut away pieces of her clothing. While the piece takes place, Ono maintains her equanimity, even when she is nearly naked. Cut Piece is a powerful event demonstrating duality of power and powerlessness, the fate of female innocence in the face of violence. Everyone is implicated in the act of disrobing the artist, whose calm acts as an infinite reproach, even though it is Ono herself who has invited the disrobing.
Picked up in the library $5 bag a book sale.
Picked up in the library $5 bag a book sale.
Saturday
Friday
Change is afoot...
So the Alice Book Group has morphed into alternating a 'banter week' with a 'chill week' now. Or at least for the moment. Bantering about books one week, followed by flopping around with a film the next. We started off the film week with the delightful The Station Agent.
Thursday
Participating in change is much different from trying to impose it.
Native Wisdom For White Minds by Anne Wilson Schaef
Native Wisdom For White Minds by Anne Wilson Schaef
Tuesday
More...
Thanks for the poem below Patron Saint. You have made me think once more of how great Gibran is. Therefore, I would like to contribute this:
For often have I put my finger in my own wound that I might have the greater belief in you and the greater knowledge of you. And it is with this belief and this knowledge that I say, you are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind. It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, but a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.
- Gibran
For often have I put my finger in my own wound that I might have the greater belief in you and the greater knowledge of you. And it is with this belief and this knowledge that I say, you are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind. It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, but a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.
- Gibran
From Patron Saint
I am mist that cloaks things but never unites them.
I am mist unchanged into rainwater.
I am mist and mist is my loneliness and my being alone and in this is my hunger and my thirst.
My misfortune, however, is that this mist is my reality and that it longs to meet with another mist in the sky, longs to hear the words "You are not alone, there are two of us, I know who you are".
- Gibran
I am mist unchanged into rainwater.
I am mist and mist is my loneliness and my being alone and in this is my hunger and my thirst.
My misfortune, however, is that this mist is my reality and that it longs to meet with another mist in the sky, longs to hear the words "You are not alone, there are two of us, I know who you are".
- Gibran
Sunday
What is an Australian?...
Suggest to an Australian that you spend some time investigating a practical problem in detail and outlining rational procedural patterns and you bore him stiff. 'She'll be right', he will say. 'We'll just give her a go'. Talking too much about what you are doing is 'bullshit'. It's best to get on with the job. (The phrase 'she'll be right' can strike terror in the hearts of people who are trying to run things in Australia. What it means is: 'Don't worry about it. Just let us muck it up for you and leave us in peace.' It is a phrase of unreasonable confidence - like the merely polite Chinese saying 'Yes', which can mean, 'No, but I don't like to say so.')
Taken from The Lucky Country by Donald Horne
Taken from The Lucky Country by Donald Horne
Saturday
Books this Week...
The Lucky Country - Donald Horne
First published in 1964 about Oz in the 60s. The first 2 chapters: 'The Australian Dream' and 'What is an Australian?' are the most interesting parts of the book to read in this day & age. A lot hasn't changed.
Uncommon Wisdom - Fritjof Capra
Capra, who fuses science with eastern mysticism, writes in this book about the conversations he had with people like Werner Heisenberg, Schumacher, Krishnamurti & R.D. Laing. These people deepened his understanding over the years.
Penguin 60s:
The Marquise of O- by Heinrich Von Kleist
Kleist 1799-1811
A Visitation of the Plague - Daniel Defoe
About the Great Plague of 1665.
Madame De Treymes - Edith Wharton
Wharton 1862-1937.
A Taste of Life - Sara Paretsky
Short detective stories
The Pretender - William Shatner
The search for the mysterious Preservers, the supposed master race of beings who seeded the galaxy millions upon millions of years ago to ensure that several humanoid species would evolve and inhabit the stars.
First published in 1964 about Oz in the 60s. The first 2 chapters: 'The Australian Dream' and 'What is an Australian?' are the most interesting parts of the book to read in this day & age. A lot hasn't changed.
Uncommon Wisdom - Fritjof Capra
Capra, who fuses science with eastern mysticism, writes in this book about the conversations he had with people like Werner Heisenberg, Schumacher, Krishnamurti & R.D. Laing. These people deepened his understanding over the years.
Penguin 60s:
The Marquise of O- by Heinrich Von Kleist
Kleist 1799-1811
A Visitation of the Plague - Daniel Defoe
About the Great Plague of 1665.
Madame De Treymes - Edith Wharton
Wharton 1862-1937.
A Taste of Life - Sara Paretsky
Short detective stories
The Pretender - William Shatner
The search for the mysterious Preservers, the supposed master race of beings who seeded the galaxy millions upon millions of years ago to ensure that several humanoid species would evolve and inhabit the stars.
That of the circulation of water in nature…
The universal consciousness is likened to the ocean – a fluid, undifferentiated mass – and the first stage of creation to the formation of the waves. A wave can be viewed as an individual entity, and yet it is obvious that the wave is the ocean and the ocean is the wave. There is no ultimate separation.
The universal consciousness is likened to the ocean – a fluid, undifferentiated mass – and the first stage of creation to the formation of the waves. A wave can be viewed as an individual entity, and yet it is obvious that the wave is the ocean and the ocean is the wave. There is no ultimate separation.
The next state … would be a wave that hits the rocky shore and withdraws again but leaves a small pool of tidal water. It may take a long time until the next wave comes and reclaims the water that was left there. During that time, the tidal pool is a separate entity, and yet it is an extension of the ocean which, eventually, will return to its source.
What about evaporation I asked?
That’s the next stage…
Imagine water evaporating and forming a cloud. Now the original unity is obscured and concealed by an actual transformation, and it takes some knowledge of physics to realise that the cloud is the ocean and the ocean is the cloud. Yet the water in the cloud will eventually reunite with the ocean in the form of rain.
That’s the next stage…
Imagine water evaporating and forming a cloud. Now the original unity is obscured and concealed by an actual transformation, and it takes some knowledge of physics to realise that the cloud is the ocean and the ocean is the cloud. Yet the water in the cloud will eventually reunite with the ocean in the form of rain.
The final separation… where the link with the original source appears to be completely forgotten, is often illustrated by a snowflake that has crystallised from the water in the cloud, which had originally evaporated from the ocean. Here you have a highly structured, highly individual, separate entity which bears, seemingly, no resemblance to its source. Now you really need some sophisticated knowledge about water to recognise that the snowflake is the ocean and the ocean is the snowflake. And in order to reunite with the ocean, the snowflake has to give up its structure and individuality; it has to go through an ego death, as it were, to return to its source.
Taken from Uncommon Wisdom by Fritjof Capra
Taken from Uncommon Wisdom by Fritjof Capra
Sheika & Rafah did have courage, only they threw it all into religion. I think that was simpler for them than fighting for their rights as human beings. Piety gave them the illusion they had power. I think they believed that if they were very strictly religious, then the men, like the other women, would respect that, and it seemed to work. I’m sure their fierce piety was a matter of personal conviction, but it was also a necessary tactic for them, I think. When you live as a complete dependent, you have to learn how to influence your master: there may be no other way you can survive.
Taken from The Veiled Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin
Taken from The Veiled Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin
I would rather...
"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
– Henry Emerson Fosdick
– Henry Emerson Fosdick
On Going "Unskilled"...
Just read a story on The Chaser link which led me to this story of a guy in America who was an internet CEO who then decided to go and work at McDonalds. As he was a marketing guy he wanted to "experience a profitable, well-oiled, multi-billion-dollar machine" but also because he'd been in the corporate world for too long, he chose to work behind the counter at McDonalds to "get back in touch with the real world".
Reminds me of the book Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. A white academic writer who went & did a years worth of "unskilled" work amongst the working class in the US. What she found was how the work contributed greatly to health problems & how most of her co-workers were working two jobs in an effort to help make ends meet. The book gives great insight into what contributes to the poverty trap.
Reminds me of the book Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. A white academic writer who went & did a years worth of "unskilled" work amongst the working class in the US. What she found was how the work contributed greatly to health problems & how most of her co-workers were working two jobs in an effort to help make ends meet. The book gives great insight into what contributes to the poverty trap.
Friday
Conversations on Books...
These were the books talked about last night.
The Queen’s Slave Trader: John Hawkyns, Elizabeth I & the Trafficking in Human Souls – Nick Hazlewood
Interesting facts but very dryly written.
Damaged Gods by Julie Burchill
UK music writer with wildy running acerbic wit.
Prisons we Choose to Live Inside – Doris Lessing
Six Massey lectures based around how we are still controlled by our “innate primitivism” despite the advances made in the social sciences today. Explores war, brutality, racism & religious & political fervour.
Winter in Jerusalem – Blanche D’Apulget
A story about a woman & a city & the emotional & political complexities which created both. Novel set in Israel.
Monkeys in the Dark – Blanche D’Apulget
A novel about a journalist in Sukarno’s Indonesia at a time of great political upheaval. It is about love, politics & betrayal.
Turtle Beach – Blanche D’Apulget
A novel set in Malaysia about a journalist who is thrown in personal & professional conflicts.
The Veiled Kingdom – Carmen Bin Ladin
Written by a Swiss/Persian aristocrat who married Yeslam Bin Laden in 1974. Follows their life together in the US, in Saudi & in Switzerland. Takes you into Saudi when it was first in its boom & the Bin Laden family who were the biggest construction company in Saudi throughout that time. She writes about her pressure to try & live within the social code of Saudi & also of how stifling she found most of it. She writes of her fears for her daughters there & how after Khomeini’s Iranian revolution Saudi became more regressive which surprised her as she was expecting it to open up to the rest of the world at that time as it was experiencing its economic boom.
The Pretender – William Shatner
From Star Trek series
Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth
Star Trek Voyager series
Survive Divorce – Victoria Perrett
(part of a self help series titled 52 brilliant ideas)
Voyagers – Diane Gabaldon
Good for the first 250 pages then not.
Some books still going around & being digested:
In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet & the Ideas that Changed the World – Paul Kriwaczek
Tyrannicide Brief – Geoffrey Robertson
Woman of the Aeroplanes – B. Kojo Laing
How the Mind Works - Stephen Pinker
Morality for Beautiful Girls – Alexander McCall Smith
The Queen’s Slave Trader: John Hawkyns, Elizabeth I & the Trafficking in Human Souls – Nick Hazlewood
Interesting facts but very dryly written.
Damaged Gods by Julie Burchill
UK music writer with wildy running acerbic wit.
Prisons we Choose to Live Inside – Doris Lessing
Six Massey lectures based around how we are still controlled by our “innate primitivism” despite the advances made in the social sciences today. Explores war, brutality, racism & religious & political fervour.
Winter in Jerusalem – Blanche D’Apulget
A story about a woman & a city & the emotional & political complexities which created both. Novel set in Israel.
Monkeys in the Dark – Blanche D’Apulget
A novel about a journalist in Sukarno’s Indonesia at a time of great political upheaval. It is about love, politics & betrayal.
Turtle Beach – Blanche D’Apulget
A novel set in Malaysia about a journalist who is thrown in personal & professional conflicts.
The Veiled Kingdom – Carmen Bin Ladin
Written by a Swiss/Persian aristocrat who married Yeslam Bin Laden in 1974. Follows their life together in the US, in Saudi & in Switzerland. Takes you into Saudi when it was first in its boom & the Bin Laden family who were the biggest construction company in Saudi throughout that time. She writes about her pressure to try & live within the social code of Saudi & also of how stifling she found most of it. She writes of her fears for her daughters there & how after Khomeini’s Iranian revolution Saudi became more regressive which surprised her as she was expecting it to open up to the rest of the world at that time as it was experiencing its economic boom.
The Pretender – William Shatner
From Star Trek series
Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth
Star Trek Voyager series
Survive Divorce – Victoria Perrett
(part of a self help series titled 52 brilliant ideas)
Voyagers – Diane Gabaldon
Good for the first 250 pages then not.
Some books still going around & being digested:
In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet & the Ideas that Changed the World – Paul Kriwaczek
Tyrannicide Brief – Geoffrey Robertson
Woman of the Aeroplanes – B. Kojo Laing
How the Mind Works - Stephen Pinker
Morality for Beautiful Girls – Alexander McCall Smith
Wednesday
Monday
A Fella's Perspective...
There's no such thing as adventure
There's no such thing as romance
There's only trouble
and desire
Hal Hartley "Simple Men"
Thanks Gus.
There's no such thing as romance
There's only trouble
and desire
Hal Hartley "Simple Men"
Thanks Gus.
Advice from Renegade Woman...
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
Thank you Renegade Woman
Thank you Renegade Woman
Sunday
When in the Future They Look Back on Us...
I think when people look back at our time, they will be annoyed at one thing more than any other. It is this - that we do know more about ourselves now than people did in the past, but that very little of this knowledge has been put into effect... People to come will marvel at it, as we marvel at the blindness and inflexibility of our ancestors.
Taken from Prisons We Choose to Live Inside by Doris Lessing
Taken from Prisons We Choose to Live Inside by Doris Lessing
Saturday
Question on Time...
In our last gathering, a question was asked about how does time work.
Maybe this will help (maybe not).
From a Malaysian love song:
Biar masa berganti masa
It means "let time pass by" but the literal translation, & this is where it gets interesting, claims "time replaced by time".
Does this help?
Credit here goes to:
http://ok-lah.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_ok-lah_archive.html
Maybe this will help (maybe not).
From a Malaysian love song:
Biar masa berganti masa
It means "let time pass by" but the literal translation, & this is where it gets interesting, claims "time replaced by time".
Does this help?
Credit here goes to:
http://ok-lah.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_ok-lah_archive.html
Friday
From what he knew...
From what he knew of their religion, it was a man's creed. There was but one God, they cried... Theirs was no pantheon of old paganism, or trinity of modern subtleties. God was God! that was all. Mohammad was the messenger of God! Their mosques were miracles of space and coolness and quiet beauty. They had no doubts as to who was Father, and what was the exact position of the Son. Nor did they ever flirt with the powers of darkness, as did the Eastern Christians. To them Lucifer was "Satan who was stoned."
Taken from Crusades by Donn Byrne
Taken from Crusades by Donn Byrne
Into the Future....
Thought for the day ....
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.
Thanks for that Renegade Woman
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.
Thanks for that Renegade Woman
Conversations on Books....
These were some of the books brought up in conversation last night.
Ian Thorpe: The Biography - Greg Hunter
A book Thorpey hasn't read but reviews say it is worth reading.
Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes
About a woman looking for a sea change in mid-life.
Hazel's Journey: A Personal Experience of Alzheimer’s - Sue Pieters-Hawke
Written by her daughter. Available in the Bob Hawke Priministerial Library at UniSA where Blanche D'Apulget is a key adviser.
Crusade - Donn Byrne
I wondered when this book was written. I thought the 1940-50s. It turns out it was written in 1928, the same year the author died in a car accident. An Irish-American writer who was born in 1889 & wrote historical fiction, set in Crusader times with the Knights Templar. Very interesting to read the angle on the Middle East that was written at this time. It is centred in a time of chivalry & politeness which is still very evident today in the Gulf when compared to brash western society.
Chasing Mammon: Travels in Pursuit of Money - Douglas Kennedy
Book about stockmarkets & the people in them around the world.
Preserver: Star Trek- William Shatner
Captain Kirk is left with no choice.....
Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabaldon
historical romance/time-travel fiction
Ian Thorpe: The Biography - Greg Hunter
A book Thorpey hasn't read but reviews say it is worth reading.
Under the Tuscan Sun - Frances Mayes
About a woman looking for a sea change in mid-life.
Hazel's Journey: A Personal Experience of Alzheimer’s - Sue Pieters-Hawke
Written by her daughter. Available in the Bob Hawke Priministerial Library at UniSA where Blanche D'Apulget is a key adviser.
Crusade - Donn Byrne
I wondered when this book was written. I thought the 1940-50s. It turns out it was written in 1928, the same year the author died in a car accident. An Irish-American writer who was born in 1889 & wrote historical fiction, set in Crusader times with the Knights Templar. Very interesting to read the angle on the Middle East that was written at this time. It is centred in a time of chivalry & politeness which is still very evident today in the Gulf when compared to brash western society.
Chasing Mammon: Travels in Pursuit of Money - Douglas Kennedy
Book about stockmarkets & the people in them around the world.
Preserver: Star Trek- William Shatner
Captain Kirk is left with no choice.....
Drums of Autumn - Diana Gabaldon
historical romance/time-travel fiction
Thursday
In Response, from Turkmenistan....
The article:
There is a feature article on Turkmenistan in Saudi Aramco's latest edition.
You'll find this article in links section on this blog.
The response:
In response to that article are links sent in from Turkmenistan below.
http://www.gundogar.org/
http://www.watan.ru/
(for those navigationally challenged, press the English button)
Thanks for that from a lovely person.
There is a feature article on Turkmenistan in Saudi Aramco's latest edition.
You'll find this article in links section on this blog.
The response:
In response to that article are links sent in from Turkmenistan below.
http://www.gundogar.org/
http://www.watan.ru/
(for those navigationally challenged, press the English button)
Thanks for that from a lovely person.
Wednesday
On Enlightenment....
“The thing is we say we want to be Enlightened, but we don’t really. Only bits of us want to be Enlightened. The ego which thinks how nice, comfortable and pleasant it would be. But to really drop everything & go for it! We could do it in a moment but we don’t do it. And the reason is we are too lazy. We are stopped by fear & lethargy – the great inertia of the mind. The practice is there. Anyone on the Buddhist path certainly knows these things. So how is it we’re not Enlightened? We have no one to blame but ourselves. This is why we stay in Samsara because we always find excuses. Instead we should wake ourselves up. The whole Buddhist path is about waking up. Yet the desire to sleep is so strong. However much we say we will awake in order to help all sentient beings we don’t really want to. We like dreaming.”
From Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie
From Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie
On Mass Media...
DB: Let’s talk a little about the mass media in the US. You write that “thanks to America’s ‘free press’ sadly, most Americans know very little” about the US government’s foreign policy.
AR: Yes, it’s a strangely insular place, America. When you live outside it, and you come here, it’s almost shocking how insular it is. And how puzzled people are – and how curious, now I realise, about what other people think, because it’s just been blocked out. Before I came here, I remember thinking that when I write about dams or nuclear bombs in India, I’m quite aware that the elite in India don’t want to know about dams. They don’t want to know about how many people have been displaced, what cruelties have been perpetrated for their own air conditioners and electricity. Because then the ultimate privilege of the elite is not just their deluxe lifestyles , but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience. And I felt that that was the case here too, that maybe people don’t want to know about Iraq, or Latin America, or Palestine, or East Timor, or Vietnam, or anything, so that they can live this happy suburban life. But then I thought about it. Supposing you’re a plumber in Milwaukee or an electrician in Denver. You just go to work, come home, you work really hard, and then you read the paper or watch CNN or Fox News and you go to bed. You don’t know what the American government is up to. And ordinary people are maybe too tired to make the effort, to go out & really find out. So they live in this little bubble of lots of advertisements & no information.
Taken from The Chequebook & the Cruise-Missile by Arundhati Roy
AR: Yes, it’s a strangely insular place, America. When you live outside it, and you come here, it’s almost shocking how insular it is. And how puzzled people are – and how curious, now I realise, about what other people think, because it’s just been blocked out. Before I came here, I remember thinking that when I write about dams or nuclear bombs in India, I’m quite aware that the elite in India don’t want to know about dams. They don’t want to know about how many people have been displaced, what cruelties have been perpetrated for their own air conditioners and electricity. Because then the ultimate privilege of the elite is not just their deluxe lifestyles , but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience. And I felt that that was the case here too, that maybe people don’t want to know about Iraq, or Latin America, or Palestine, or East Timor, or Vietnam, or anything, so that they can live this happy suburban life. But then I thought about it. Supposing you’re a plumber in Milwaukee or an electrician in Denver. You just go to work, come home, you work really hard, and then you read the paper or watch CNN or Fox News and you go to bed. You don’t know what the American government is up to. And ordinary people are maybe too tired to make the effort, to go out & really find out. So they live in this little bubble of lots of advertisements & no information.
Taken from The Chequebook & the Cruise-Missile by Arundhati Roy
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