(DE FR NL)

“although the originators of these systems were, in many respects, revolutionary, their disciples have, in every case, formed mere reactionary sects. They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in opposition to the progressive historical development of the proletariat. …

By degrees they sink into the category of the reactionary or conservative Socialists depicted above, differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous effects of their social science.”

Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party, Brussels 1848, in the internet.

Abb.: Florin Mitroi: V, 1992, im Internet.

(ES DE FR)

“In short, he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them; and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits.”

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: Don Quijote of La Mancha (translation F. Schevill 1926), see Internet source.

Abb.: Pablo Picasso: Don Quixote, 1955

08/93

“Boredom as a factor in human behaviour has received, in my opinion, far less attention than it deserves. It has been, I believe, one of the great motive powers throughout the historical epoch, and is so at the present day more than ever. …

I should say that the machine age has enormously diminished the sum of boredom in the world. … We are less bored than our ancestors were, but we are more afraid of boredom. We have come to know, or rather to believe, that boredom is not part of the natural lot of man, but can be avoided by a sufficiently vigorous pursuit of excitement. … Every housemaid expects at least once a weak as much excitement as would have lasted a Jane Austen heroine throughout a whole novel. As we rise in the social scale the pursuit of excitement becomes more and more intense. … Those who have to earn a living get their share of boredom, of necessity, in working hours, but those who have enough money to be freed from the need of work have as their ideal a life completely freed from boredom. …

A wish to escape from boredom is natural; indeed, all races of mankind have displayed it as opportunity occurred. … Wars, pogroms and persecutions have all been part of the flight from boredom; even quarells with neighbors have been found better than nothing. …

Boredom, however, is not to be regarded as wholly evil. … A life too full of excitement is an exhausting life, in which continually stronger stimuli are needed to give the thrill that has come to be thought an essential part of pleasure. … A certain power of enduring boredom is therefore essential to a happy life.”

aus: Bertrand Russell: The Conquest of Happiness. New York: Signet 1951 [Originalausg. 1930], S.36-39.

Abb.: Oleksiy Sai: Adoration, 2013, im Internet.

10/06

“The more I puzzle over the great wars of history, the more I am inclined to the view that causes attributed to them – territory, markets, resources, the defence or perpetuation of great principles – were not the root causes at all but rather explanations or excuses for certain unfathomable drives of human nature. For lack of a clear and precise understanding of exactly what these motives are, I refer to them as the ‘arrogance of power‘ – as a psychological need that nations seem to have in order to prove that they are bigger, better, or stronger than other nations. Implicit in this drive is the assumption, even on the part of normally peaceful nations, that force is the ultimate proof of superiority – that when a nation shows that is has the stronger army, it is also proving that it has better people, better institutions, better principles, and, in general, a better civilisation.”

aus: J. William Fulbright: The Arrogance of Power. London: Cape 1967 (Am.Orig.-Ausg.1966), S.5.

Abb.: I Made Widya Diputra: Art of War, 2013, indoartnow, im Internet.

12/06

(DE) (NL)

“[Hegel] … planted in the generations leavened by him that admiration for the ‘Power of History’, which transforms practically every moment into a naked admiration of success and leads to idolatrous worship of the factual. For this service people nowadays commonly repeat the very mythological and, in addition, the truly German expression ‘to carry the bill of facts‘

But the person who has first learned to stoop down and to bow his head before the ‘Power of History’, finally nods his agreement mechanically, in the Chinese fashion, to that power, whether it is a government or public opinion or a numerical majority, and moves his limbs precisely to the beat of strings plucked by some ‘power’ or other. …

Create in yourselves a picture to which the future is to correspond, and forget the myth that you are epigones. You have enough to plan and to invent when you imagine that future life for yourselves. But in considering history do not ask that she show you the ‘How?’ and the ‘With what?'”

aus: Friedrich Nietzsche: On the Use and Abuse of History for Life (1874). translated by Ian C. Johnston 1998, Volltext im Internet.

(DE)

“And yet we do know:
Even hatred of baseness
Contorts the features.
Even wrath against injustice
Makes the voice hoarse. Ah, we
Who wanted to prepare the ground for friendship
Were ourselves unable to be friendly.”

out of: Bertolt Brecht: To the Coming Generations. Complete version on the internet under lots of adresses, for example in Berkeley.

Abb.: Sophie Täuber-Arp: Dada-Kopf, 1920, im Internet.

“… What I do question is the ability of the United States or any other Western nation to go into a small, alien, undeveloped Asian nation and create stability where there is chaos, the will to fight, where there is defeatism, democracy where there is no tradition of it, and honest government where corruption is almost a way of life. …

Why, we may ask, are they [the Southern Vietnamese] so shockingly ungrateful? … The answer, I think, is that ‘fatal impact’ of the rich and strong on the poor and weak. Dependent on it though the Vietnamese are, American strength is a reproach to their weakness, American wealth a mockery of their poverty, American success a reminder of their failures. What they resent is the disruptive affect of our strong culture upon their fragile one, an effect which we can no more avoid having than a man can help being bigger than a child. What they fear, I think rightly, is that traditional Vietnamese society cannot survive the American economic and cultural impact. …

The cause of our difficulties in Southeast Asia is not a deficiency of power but an excess of the wrong kind of power … We are still acting like Boy Scouts dragging reluctant old ladies across streets they do not want to cross. We are trying to remake Vietnamese society, a task which certainly cannot be accomplished by force and which probably cannot be accomplished by any means available to outsiders. …”

aus: J. William Fulbright: The Arrogance of Power. London: Cape 1967 (Am.Orig.-Ausg.1966), S.15-18.

Abb.: Corita Kent: Yellow submarine, 1967, im Internet.

12/06