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sick·en·ing·ly
1. causing sickness or disgust
lib·er·al
1. broad-minded; especially: not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
2. a political philosophy based on belief in progress Ask me anything
sick·en·ing·ly
1. causing sickness or disgust
lib·er·al
1. broad-minded; especially: not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
2. a political philosophy based on belief in progress Ask me anything
May 25, 2012
May 7, 2012
"While certainly not new in the American debate, the Civil Rights Movement which took off during the 1950s drew a fiery public line between social progressives who wished to rid the American justice and political system of discriminatory laws and conservative traditionalists who refused to lessen their political power based on the widespread southern conviction of white superiority. Social progressives were at a distinct disadvantage. Not only did they lack political power in the southern states, but their means for achieving their goals were diverse and often in conflict with one another – demonstrated most effectively by highlighting the differences between Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolent protests over discriminatory laws and Stokely Carmichael’s often inflammatory cries for “Black Power” and self-determination. Conservative news media, in an effort to put a decisive wedge in the blossoming movement’s followers, spread stories which, at least according to Carmichael, exaggerated the philosophical division within the movement."
— A excerpt from my essay Clashing Ideologies: The Traditionalist and the Progressive, an examination of the historical differences between the left and the right. (via fortuneandglory)
(Source: jonathanwriting.com, via fortuneandglory)
April 23, 2012
"The Constitution, then, illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the blacks, the Indians, the very poor whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law - all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity."
— Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (via smaddox)
April 16, 2012
Everyone has loved or hated (or been) a cheerleader. But before cheerleaders were the cutest girls on campus, they were the cutest guys on campus — and they didn’t shake pom-poms or leap into human pyramids.
In the late 19th century, American football was fairly new — a particularly militaristic and organized adaptation of rugby. As college leagues developed, they attracted riotous young spectators eager for a break from the academic grind. Colleges and high schools were experiencing a major growth spurt because of urbanization and land-grant legislation. As audiences grew bigger, the lone guy rising in the stands to try to start the wave or a cheer couldn’t quite get the job done.
Instead, lone cheerleaders — often called yell leaders or rooter kings — were appointed to take to the field and pep up the crowd, control booing and hammer the school fight song into everyone’s heads. Since almost all students at all schools were men, and since the job of yell leader seemed to demand a charismatic but also martial presence, cheerleaders were men. One of the first was the University of Minnesota’s Johnny Campbell, who first cheered the Golden Gophers in 1898. Universities across the country — from the Ivy League to new state schools in the American South and West — followed suit, as did high schools nationwide.
April 12, 2012
"I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal."
— Robert Owen in his 1816 address to the inhabitants of New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. (via fortuneandglory)
(Source: infed.org, via fortuneandglory)
April 10, 2012
The Most Desolate City on Earth: Gunkanjima, aka ‘Battleship Island’
Utterly abandoned, this former coal-mining site stands like a rotten tooth jutting from the turbulent waters off Nagasaki. A formidable seawall protects a dense warren of empty factory buildings and crumbling apartments. Roofs have blown off or caved in and walls have sloughed off their skins, leaving the skeletal underpinning of buildings visible. Dark hallways and dangerous, twisting staircases abound in M.C. Escherian complexity, leading to ruined vistas with names like “Block 65” and the “Stairway to Hell.” (Top-left and top-right, respectively.)
See more at The Atlantic Cities. [Images: Wikipedia]
January 24, 2012
History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 4
Robert Owen: Social Reformer
There is but one mode by which man can possess in perpetuity all the happiness which his nature is capable of enjoying - that is by the union and co-operation of all for the benefit of each.
And with this words, Robert Owen expressed his vision of utopia, an idea not unfamiliar even in the 18th and 19th centuries in which Owen lived, but made unique by Owen’s ability to personal finance his grand experiments of utopian socialism.
Born in Wales in 1771, Robert Owen worked his way into financial success at a young age. He used his riches as a philanthropist and social reformer - and soon, took to buying up entire communities in Britain with hopes of finding success in his ideas on a small scale, using his money to publicize and promote his ideas to British citizens and politicians. These ideas included ahead-of-their-time reforms of free healthcare, limited work days, prohibiting child labor, mandatory education for children, and continued education for adults - all at the expense of the community as a whole.
Owen was discouraged by his lack of success in Britain, particularly New Lanark. In 1825, Owen decided to take his experiment across the Atlantic, and purchased a community in northwestern Indiana, USA. He named it New Harmony, a proposed “Heaven on Earth,” and sent much of his family there as he traveled back and forth between the two nations, deciding to put his son in charge of running the new experimental utopia. The same ideas used back in Britain were implemented in the new community, which also offered plenty of activities and events to keep up the community’s morale. Soon though, the community - which was filled with intellectuals (“thinkers, not doers”), vagabonds, and others from the edges of society, began to break into numerous sub-communities, effectively destroying Owen’s vision. By 1829, most deemed the community of New Harmony to be a failure.
Owen would live the rest of his life convinced that despite his failures, he had the solution to society’s woes - and on his deathbed, he left the world with these words: “My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded. I have been ahead of my time.”
January 23, 2012
"I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal."
—
Robert Owen in his 1816 address to the inhabitants of New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Indeed, his words ring more true today than ever before.
(via fortuneandglory)
(Source: infed.org, via fortuneandglory)
January 13, 2012
History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 3
Two if by Sealand
What makes a nation? This was the question raised by the Bates family.
Our lesson today follows the occupation of an old defensive WWII sea fort of the UK’s by the Bates family beginning in the 1960s and continuing to modern day. Led by former English major Paddy Roy Bates, the Bates family “settled” the abandoned fort in 1967. Soon after, the family declared their new home to be the independent sovereign state known as the Principality of Sealand. Roy subsequently pronounced himself the Prince of Sealand.
The story of Sealand includes heated debates with neighboring countries, drafting a constitution, creating official currency, participation in official national athletic events, tourism and economic development, mercenaries and speedboats and helicopters in an attempted hostage takeover followed by negotiations, shady investors, governments in exile, and catastrophic fires - just to give you a little taste of Sealand’s rich history.
Today, this nation has an estimated population of 27 Sealanders with 0% poverty, 0% unemployment, and $0 in national debt - not to mention a GDP of US$600,000. Perhaps, one might allege, governments throughout the world should take note of Prince Roy’s economic leadership.
January 9, 2012
Midnight in Paris is Woody Allen’s love letter to the writer. Woody’s films have always been divisive (warning: I’m in the love his movies camp), but regardless of one’s feelings, if a person loves literature or considers themselves a writer, I cannot imagine them not loving this film.
The film follows a screenwriter (Owen Wilson) turned novelist during a trip to Paris with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), who one night drunkenly discovers during a midnight wandering of the city that every night at midnight he can travel back to his ideal time period - the 1920s.
The writer protagonist soon meets and becomes intertwined with many famous figures of the era, including F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Josephine Baker, Gertrude Stein, Juan Belmonte, Salvador Dalí, Cole Porter, and T.S. Eliot. It’s a plot so absurd that only Woody Allen could pull it off - and he does. And the more you know and appreciate the characters portrayed in the film, the better and more amusing, I imagine, you will find the film.
If you love the time period, if you love literature or art, if you’re a fan of Woody Allen, do yourself a favor and see this fantastic film.
January 6, 2012
When you think about it, there are really only two options. Either a Palestinian state is created or we go to war again. It’s going to keep happening that way over and over again until each side has its own government and nation.
December 21, 2011
"What use one makes of a historical explanation is a question separate from the explanation itself. Understanding is more often used to try to alter an outcome than to repeat or perpetuate it. That’s why psychologists try to understand the minds of murderers and rapists, why social historians try to understand genocide, and why physicians try to understand the causes of human disease. Those investigators do not seek to justify murder, rape, genocide, and illness. Instead, they seek to use their understanding of a chain of causes to interrupt the chain."
—
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies
And this is why I want to absorb all of the information about everything.
(via fortuneandglory)
December 14, 2011
Obscure History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 1
Simon “The Emerald Gem” Byrne: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England
This is the story of the Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter Simon “The Emerald Gem” Bryne, who lived and fought in the 1820s-30s.
While illegal at the time in England, bareknuckle boxing was supported by many powerful and corrupt individuals who got off on watching people beat each other to bloody pulps with their bare hands. While not much is known about Simon Bryne’s life before England, he had been lured from Ireland to England by the lucrative prize-money - and probably a bit by the glory from the cheering crowds of thousands of spectators.
His career spanned only eight fights, but these fights were brutal, often lasting hundreds of rounds and numerous hours – in fact, his first fight at the age of nineteen lasted 138 rounds over the course of two and a half hours. Police raids, after-fight rioting, and drunken bouts of stupidity were rampant during these fights. Rules were vague and fights often fell to the ground, becoming ragtag wrestling matches, where biting, gouging, and shots to the testicles were frequent. Byrne himself killed a man in a fight - itself leading to a riot resulting in 3 deaths and 20 injuries. Byrne continued fighting and continued winning, before ultimately being defeated at the hand of an opponent at the age of 27 after a three-hour, out of control and bloody fight. The next two days he was in and out of consciousness, reported saying shortly before he died:
“If I should die, it will not be from the beating I received but from mortification. I would rather have died than been beaten in that fight.”
Then indeed, Byrne died, but the gambling sport of bare-knuckle boxing lived on.
December 12, 2011
Obscure History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 1
Simon “The Emerald Gem” Byrne: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England
This is the story of the Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter Simon “The Emerald Gem” Bryne, who lived and fought in the 1820s-30s.
While illegal at the time in England, bareknuckle boxing was supported by many powerful and corrupt individuals who got off on watching people beat each other to bloody pulps with their bare hands. While not much is known about Simon Bryne’s life before England, he had been lured from Ireland to England by the lucrative prize-money - and probably a bit by the glory from the cheering crowds of thousands of spectators.
His career spanned only eight fights, but these fights were brutal, often lasting hundreds of rounds and numerous hours – in fact, his first fight at the age of nineteen lasted 138 rounds over the course of two and a half hours. Police raids, after-fight rioting, and drunken bouts of stupidity were rampant during these fights. Rules were vague and fights often fell to the ground, becoming ragtag wrestling matches, where biting, gouging, and shots to the testicles were frequent. Byrne himself killed a man in a fight - itself leading to a riot resulting in 3 deaths and 20 injuries. Byrne continued fighting and continued winning, before ultimately being defeated at the hand of an opponent at the age of 27 after a three-hour, out of control and bloody fight. The next two days he was in and out of consciousness, reported saying shortly before he died:
“If I should die, it will not be from the beating I received but from mortification. I would rather have died than been beaten in that fight.”
Then indeed, Byrne died, but the gambling sport of bare-knuckle boxing lived on.
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