history, windy thoughts and some quotes

the intellectual individual as an entrepreneur: carrying an idea out into a material reality.

building institutions that last beyond our lives. ("think tank" et cetera)

the creation of space for individuals to participate, breathe, speak, etc.

race - economics-based, psycho-cultural fear, fear of other/difference
-----segregation keeping black individuals in the same places (community)...now a distance, a spreading out...

"the cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is."

History is important: Past Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote a history of Austrian and English relations stating that "history is the memory of the states" which one might optimistically say assumes a unity within the state. But history is usually the winner's story. Camus suggested that in "a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners."

Howard Zinn said: "to think history-writing must aim simply to recapitulate the failures that dominate the past is to make historians collaborators in an endless cycle of defeat. If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare."

History as CREATIVE.

My darlings Foucault and Nietzsche also emphasize this - focusing on the discontinuities, the ruptures in history. Not falling into the trap of assuming a continuity or an ultimate Truth. Knowing there are moments where things abruptly shifted, trying to determine what factors came into play, what episodes created conditions upon which a foundation for "something different" was built..? What are the key events? That is, what are the moments where power shifts so that one party loses it and another party wins it?

Lastly, the ultimate problem with Nietzsche: too much importance placed on hardness, isolation, individuality. Not enough compassion, love, forgiveness, etc. I think maybe i'm becoming soft in my old youth. But I feel more happy, stronger, more confident, moving in this direction, using the words of many to begin to construct a philosophy of my own, rather than living the philosophy of one, or a few, others. I'm changing directions, changing thought patterns. I've analyzed my self and what i believe to be my strengths and weaknesses. Now I'm moving into another domain. One which i feel alien to, but which tastes like lettuce i plucked out of the earth with my own hands. It tastes godly and makes me feel alive. it's spiritual.
The wind is thrashing outside my room and i will go to bed soon. New days are ahead which are going to be filled very differently, not only in terms of activity, but also in terms of thought. More love.
And criticism...
Criticism as a species of love.
a species?...

i'm also digging on a lot of quotes i've been reading this evening or in the past few day...

Churchill said: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. "

Cornel West: "You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people, if you don't serve the people. "

MLK: "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent. "

malcolm x: "Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. "