May Day, but no anarchy in the UK.
`I oppose vandalism, and that is why we oppose capitalism, because capitalism causes vandalism, it's a vandalistic society. That's why we in the Socialist Labour Party support demonstrations against global capitalism and its evil.' -- Arthur Scargill
Mill criticised Bentham's view on people for being predominantly selfish, but look at him, he thinks most people are stupid!
`"People don't need to buy goods so much," explains North Korean journalist Sin Song Chal. "Our government supplies the essentials through the public distribution system. There may be less quantity compared to the past, but we equalise the rich and the poor.'
--`The People's Paradise crumbles', in The Guardian, 03/May/2001.
`They say that justice delayed is justice denied, and folks, I don't believe that for a minute. Justice delayed is still justice and we've got it here in Birmingham, Alabama.'
--Doug Jones, US attorney
`Klansman who bombed church gets life sentence, 38 years on',
in The Guardian, 03/May/2001.
I need to study more about British, American and Japanese constitutions. Sometimes I feel like I'm putting my foot in the wrong place.
`The military functionary is paid for being shot at. The civil functionary is paid for being spoken and written at. The soldier, who will not face musquetry, is one sort of coward. The civilian, who will not endure obloquy, is another.' --- Jeremy Bentham
Went to Hampstead Heath. Got mud on my shoes.
`History has taught us that the continued stay of presidents in office
has built them into dictators and that dictators often survive by
resorting to large scale abuse.'
--- Derrick Chaala, general secretary of Zambian trade union confederation
Finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Excellent novel.
`Injustice arises when equals are treated unequally, and unequals are
treated equally.'
--- Aristotle
Don't you sometimes feel like your life is a complete failure and you're a creep and all that? Well, personally I do.
1. The problem with my handwriting is that I can't read it myself.
2. No! Philosophy is real.
3.
Is Israel real?
Yes, it is.
Israel is real.
According to Gordon Brown the Chancellor, the objective of the Labour government is to create a Britain "where there is opportunity for all those who take responsibility" according to their talents -- regardless of their birth or background.
But the problem is one's talents are inextricably intertwined with their birth or background...
Studying Mill's view on representative democracy.
`When we were on the radio, a lady called up and said why don't you polygamists go out into the desert and start your own town away from us decent folk. I said the polygamists already did that -- it's called Salt Lake City.' -- Tom Green, a Mormon polygamist
Studying for essays. Tough.
Played squash for an hour.
We have to understand that classical music doesn't have the impact of pop music; it was written for a different time and that time has passed. We are trying to cling on to it, but not to the extent that I believe it could be the pop music of its day.
Vanessa-Mae, `A change of tempo', in the Guardian (G2) 15/May/2001.
It was in particular Christian Puritanism after the Reformation that added the final touch to western attitudes to sex. Puritanism regards sex as an evil attendant on the expulsion from Eden. At its extreme, it teaches that husbands and wives sin if they enjoy their conjugal duty to reproduce. The generalisation of this miasma of prudery spread in Europe from the 17th century until its apogee in the 19th. One of the most striking illustrations of the folly it provoked is the British Museum's decision to chip off all the penises on Greek statues in its possession, to save the blushes of its Victorian visitors.
A.C. Grayling, `Close enounters of the rude kind', in the Guardian (G2), 17/May/2001.
Yesterday, I went to Japan Festival in Hyde Park. Here's a couple of photos.
The gas-guzzling US has 5% of the world's population yet is responsible for 40% of fossil fuel consumption.
`Simply the wrong policy', The Guardian, 19/May/2001.
This American way of living, as we all know, cannot be enjoyed universally.
The greatest issue in this election, indeed the greatest issue before our country, is whether Britain is to remain a free, independent nation state or whether we are to be dissolved in a federal Europe. There are no half-measures, no third ways and no second chances. [...]
To surrender the pound, to surrender our power of self-government, would betray all [that] the past generations down the ages lived and died to defend.---Lady Thatcher, `Thatcher says never to single currency', in The Guardian, 23/May/2001.
Is it true that Elvis once came third in an Elvis lookalike competition? If it is, this poses a serious philosophical question of (his) personal identity.
I'm freaking out! Three essays in less than one month!
Just my luck!
I've got no time to read Bridget Jones's Diary.
Watched In the Mood for Love. Excellent film.
We had Bob Dylan's 60th birthday recently, and next comes Marilyn Monroe's 75th birthday (although there is a bit of difference here: one is long dead and the other is a living dead).
Getting old is surely a depressing thought, since there's no doubt that being young is a value in itself (with plentiful of perks for good-looking people). Sooner or later we lose this precious thing. We get old. If we haven't acquired by then some other valuable assets like being wise or knowledgeable or skillful or whatnot, we'll end up being rubbish, the scam of the earth.
So the moral of the story is, you can either lavishly use up all your resources and die young, or pick up a guitar and practice singing with or without a harmonica hanging down on your neck.
"God bless Margaret Thatcher!" Conservatives shouted. "Boo! Out, out, out!" others shouted. "But she is out!" one of the Tories raged.
---Simon Hoggart's Sketch, in The Guardian, 30/May/2001.