Hanna Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism has been widely quoted, lately. To say it’s interesting is an understatement, but I have long felt that she’s over-generalizing the commonalities between Stalinism and Hitlerism.
The US is in the process of reviewing its statuary. [pharyngula]
From The Way of Chuang-Tzu, translated/assembled by Thomas Merton.
From Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or The Bullet” speech:
This, from Malcolm X:
All of the western nations have been caught in a lie; a lie of their pretended humanism.
James Baldwin and Bob Dylan
If you look at the laws passed in the United States from the very beginning of the American republic down to the present day, you’ll find that most of the legislation passed is class legislation that favors the elite, that favors the rich.
All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act.
Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log: