It’s traditional in this space, at the end of a year or the beginning of another, to pass along some sentences of interest gleaned from sources far and wide, the work of other authors, other journalists, that the reader may have overlooked. Food for thought, for consideration, for profound agreement or powerful disagreement — here we go:
“There’s always tension between freedom and fairness. We want less government regulation, but not when it means firms can hire cheap child labor. We want a free market, but not so bankers can deceive investors. Libertarianism, in promoting freedom above all else, pretends the tension doesn’t exist.” — Christopher Beam, New York.
“It has always bothered me during our endless national campaigns when congressional candidates spend millions of dollars and years of their lives trying to persuade voters that he or she, the candidate, loathes Washington, D.C. and the federal government more than his or her opponent does. This is roughly comparable to someone applying to baby-sit your child by emphasizing how much she dislikes children. Many of these Washington-bashing candidates do win, and then spend even more millions of dollars to convince folks back home that their well-being and that of the nation depends upon their being returned to Washington.” — Mark Russell, Creators Syndicate.
“Only recently has Marxism been back on the agenda, placed there, ironically enough, by an ailing capitalism. ‘Capitalism in Convulsion’, a Financial Times headline read in 2008. When capitalists begin to speak of capitalism, you know the system is in dire trouble. They have still not dared to do so in the United States.” — Terry Eagleton, The London Review of Books.
“When you look at the sheer volume of wealth controlled by the top 1 percent in this country, it’s tempting to see our growing inequality as a quintessentially American achievement — we started way behind the pack, but now we’re doing inequality on a world-class level. And it looks as if we’ll be building on this achievement for years to come, because what made it possible is self-reinforcing. Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth. *** The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.” — Joseph Stiglitz, Vanity Fair.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I’m a socialist in economics because I believe that every human being has a right — if you want to put it that way — to a decent living standard. I’m a liberal in politics because I believe in merit. And I therefore believe that one’s position in society ought to be determined on the basis of merit. In culture, I’m a conservative because I believe in judgment, forms, and meanings. So that’s why I can assume a certain logical coherence to the idea of being a socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture.” — Daniel Bell, The Utopian.
“The libraries’ most powerful asset is the conversation they provide — between books and readers, between children and parents, between individuals and the collective world. Take them away and those voices turn inwards or vanish.” — Bella Bathurst, The Observer.
“The danger is not that machines are advancing. The danger is that we are losing our intelligence if we rely on computers instead of our own minds. On a fundamental level, we have to ask ourselves: Do we need human intelligence? And what happens if we fail to exercise it?” — George Dyson, The European.
“Any strategy that involves crossing a valley — accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance — will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure.” — Neal Stephenson, World Policy.
“In nearly all the cases of political evil we witness in the contemporary world, the good guys are not always good, the motives of the bad guys may not be what we (or they) claim, and the failure to understand the motives of both may lead to decisions that wind up increasing suffering.” — Alan Wolfe, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Part of the weakness of current theological warfare is that it is premised on stable, lifelong belief – each side congealed into its rival (but weirdly symmetrical) creeds. Likewise, in contemporary politics, the worst crime you can apparently commit is to change your mind. Yet people’s beliefs are often not stable, and are fluctuating. We are all flip-floppers.” — James Wood, The Guardian.
Thanks to all, and here’s to ‘12! Keep reading!
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Steve Barnes is a native of Pine Bluff.