Weimar has bequeathed three distinct cautions for the political right of any era about what not to do in comparable situations: join in disseminating a Big Lie; take inadequate action and impose an inadequate penalty after a treasonous uprising; and cement an alliance between traditional conservatives and fascists.
Author: Christopher R. Browning | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
One of the challenging realities of American politics is that while vast numbers of Americans participate in presidential elections, only small minorities of voters actually stay engaged. And the priorities of the two groups are not the same, far from it.
The majority is focused on the things that directly affect their lives — prices, crime, peace. How much do concerns about democracy matter if people … [ Read more ]
Author: David French | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
In life and business, success is about making good trade-offs. It’s not about having it all. It’s about having what matters most. We all value different things. That’s what makes life rich. Opportunity cost is what you give up when choosing; trade-offs are the balancing acts you perform when deciding between competing options. They’re two sides of the same coin—whenever you make a trade-off, … [ Read more ]
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Success / Failure
Wisdom is anticipating the consequences of your choices.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Wisdom
While you’re busy fighting what is, you’re blind to what could be.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subject: Personal Improvement
The lazy lose to the average.
The average lose to the focused.
The focused lose to the obsessed.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
If I hold biases against you, that harms you, absolutely, but it also harms me, and I think this is something that we don’t talk about enough. If I’m biased toward you, this is preventing me from seeing the world clearly. It’s preventing me from really understanding what’s happening. It’s preventing trust between us. It’s preventing us from having a meaningful connection across whatever differences … [ Read more ]
Author: Jessica Nordell | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Facts | Bias, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time.
Author: Winifred Gallagher | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Productivity & Time Management
We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotion — love, antipathy, charity, or malice — and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test … [ Read more ]
Author: Milan Kundera | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Power, Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
At the heart of this murderous self-importance is our troubled relationship to power — the power within and between selves, its confused uses and abuses, its role as a mirror for our emotional incompleteness. Out of it arises the entire dynamic system we call society and all the inner turmoil of discerning where we end and the world begins.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Life & Society, Power
Language is always a matter of intention. No two people could have less in common than when they are saying the same thing, one sincerely and one with snark.
Author: Molly Young | Source: Vulture | Subjects: Communication, Education | Scholarship, Language
[There are three large problems with originalism.] First, it requires judges to be historians — a role for which they may not be qualified — constantly searching historical sources for the “answer” where there often isn’t one there. Second, it leaves no room for judges to consider the practical consequences of the constitutional rules they propound. And third, it does not take into account the … [ Read more ]
Author: Stephen G. Breyer | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: America, International, Law | Legal
A large part of wisdom is knowing what to ignore. A large part of expertise is knowing where to place your attention.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Productivity & Time Management, Success / Failure, Wisdom
It is a question of the spirit. Why are we a nation? We are a nation which must be built up according to a living idea, a great architecture of living people, which shall express the greatest truth of which we are capable… A bad spirit in a nation chooses a bad spirit in a governor. We must begin to choose all afresh, for the … [ Read more ]
Author: D.H. Lawrence | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Articles & Links
The Conservative either wants to bully or to be bullied.
Author: D.H. Lawrence | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
The paradox of progress is that because there is no universal utopia — every utopia is built on someone’s back — there can be no universal progress, no absolute measure of it. Its relativism conceals a euphemism for moving the world in the direction of one’s own desires, relativism laced with myriad hypocrisies.
Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive.
Author: Zadie Smith | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
The social rewards for going with the crowd are felt long before the benefits of going against it are gained. One measure of a person is the degree to which they’ll do the right thing when it goes against popular belief.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Concepts, Ethics | Integrity | Morality, Life & Society, Personal Improvement
Freedom is inherently risky, which is the reason for rules and limits in the first place.
Author: Ellen Willis | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Concepts, Freedom | Liberty, Life & Society
We can embrace marriage, hoping to transcend its contradictions, or reject it, hoping to find something better. Either way, we are likely to be disappointed.
Author: Ellen Willis | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Love, Relationships