Why Great Revolutions will become more Rare.
When social conditions are equal, every man is apt to live apart, centered in himself and forgetful of the public. If the rules of democratic nations were either to neglect to correct this fatal tendency or to encourage it from a notion that it weans men from political passions and thus ward off revolutions, they might eventually produce the evil they seek to avoid, and a time might come when the innordinate passions of a few men, aided by the unintelligent selfishness or the pisillanimity of the greater number, would ultimately compell society to pass through strange vicissitudes.
In democratic communities revolutions are seldom desired except by a minority, but a minority may sometimes effect them. . .
. . . Amid the ruins which surround me shall I dare say that revolutions are not what I most fear from coming generations? If men continue to shut themselves more closely within the narrow circle of domestic interests and to live on that kind of excitment, it is to be apprehended that they may ultimately become inaccessable to those great and powerful public emotions which perturb nations, but which develop them and recruit them. When property becomes so fluctuating and the love of property so restless and so ardent, I cannot but fear that man may arrive at such a state as to regard every innovation an irksome toil, every social improvement as a stepping stone to revolution, and so refuse to move altogether for fear of being moved too far. I dread and I confess it, lest they should at last entirely give way to cowardly love of present enjoyment as to lose sight of the interests of their future selves and those of their descendents and prefer to glide alongthe easy current of life rather than to make, when it is necessary, a strong and sudden effort to higher purpose.
It is believed by some that modern society will always be changing its aspect; for myself, I fear that it will ultimately be too invariably fixed in the same institutions, tha same prejudices, tha same manners, so that mankind will be stopped and circumscribe; that the mind will swing back and forwards forever without begetting fresh ideas; that man will waste his strength in bootless ans solitary trifling, and, though in continual motion, that humanity will cease to advance.
Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
From Jim Uhls' screenplay, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson
**************************************************
It is more than economics; it is more than politics; freedom is also a state of mind. . . and it is being threatened, by our employment, our significant other, by our institutions, and by all who claim to rule us. Worst of all, our freedom is threatened by our own selves in our tendency to delude ourselves with comfort.
Fuck this generation of the milquetoast, the mediocre, and the spoiled! Where a rich man can buy his dick son a job in a company with a friendly donation? (this has happened in the building where I work). Damn it all!
This generation's brightest and most talented are being kept down by plutocracy and nepotism!
I am angry.
Shake this fuck'n world up.
When social conditions are equal, every man is apt to live apart, centered in himself and forgetful of the public. If the rules of democratic nations were either to neglect to correct this fatal tendency or to encourage it from a notion that it weans men from political passions and thus ward off revolutions, they might eventually produce the evil they seek to avoid, and a time might come when the innordinate passions of a few men, aided by the unintelligent selfishness or the pisillanimity of the greater number, would ultimately compell society to pass through strange vicissitudes.
In democratic communities revolutions are seldom desired except by a minority, but a minority may sometimes effect them. . .
. . . Amid the ruins which surround me shall I dare say that revolutions are not what I most fear from coming generations? If men continue to shut themselves more closely within the narrow circle of domestic interests and to live on that kind of excitment, it is to be apprehended that they may ultimately become inaccessable to those great and powerful public emotions which perturb nations, but which develop them and recruit them. When property becomes so fluctuating and the love of property so restless and so ardent, I cannot but fear that man may arrive at such a state as to regard every innovation an irksome toil, every social improvement as a stepping stone to revolution, and so refuse to move altogether for fear of being moved too far. I dread and I confess it, lest they should at last entirely give way to cowardly love of present enjoyment as to lose sight of the interests of their future selves and those of their descendents and prefer to glide alongthe easy current of life rather than to make, when it is necessary, a strong and sudden effort to higher purpose.
It is believed by some that modern society will always be changing its aspect; for myself, I fear that it will ultimately be too invariably fixed in the same institutions, tha same prejudices, tha same manners, so that mankind will be stopped and circumscribe; that the mind will swing back and forwards forever without begetting fresh ideas; that man will waste his strength in bootless ans solitary trifling, and, though in continual motion, that humanity will cease to advance.
Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
From Jim Uhls' screenplay, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson
**************************************************
It is more than economics; it is more than politics; freedom is also a state of mind. . . and it is being threatened, by our employment, our significant other, by our institutions, and by all who claim to rule us. Worst of all, our freedom is threatened by our own selves in our tendency to delude ourselves with comfort.
Fuck this generation of the milquetoast, the mediocre, and the spoiled! Where a rich man can buy his dick son a job in a company with a friendly donation? (this has happened in the building where I work). Damn it all!
This generation's brightest and most talented are being kept down by plutocracy and nepotism!
I am angry.
Shake this fuck'n world up.
Worst of all, our freedom is threatened by our own selves in our tendency to delude ourselves with comfort.
I think that is a very, very important point. We have the choice to circumvent power, control, and domination, and often we choose not to- out of convenience, or to save ten percent on your first purchase, or, or, or. It's signing away your freedom, piece by piece.
I've been out in the sun all day. I wanted to make this coherent but, well, this will have to do for now.
Hope you're well- while being angry.
[Edited on May 27, 2005 11:24PM]