Search results

I don't get the point of judging these particular actions as better or worse than one another, that's all. I'm not suggesting that the point of view is simple or right. I'm also not suggesting that only people with this view should or shouldn't be activists. As I say above, activists exist...

chris, that's a fatuous question. Where does either answer get us if we don't know the motives, goals, or effect? Libre, yes, some activists have political goals, on both right and left. But, as a citizen, if you were against going to war in Iraq, for example, and now you feel the...

Re the 'purest form' of altruism--I don't get why this concept matters. Philosophically, altruism is unique to man, whether it is pure or not. I think Libre's original point made a completely negative assessment of all so-called activists. Whereas it's easy to find a motive in a person's...

Oh, have no fear, veggiedog. Libre, Shade, and I are always up for wideranging meaningful discussion! Also, I agree with your statement here. And, further, I think that matching your passionate interests with worthy causes is healthy and fun. Is that self-interest? Yes, perhaps, but of a...

Libre, I appreciate your cynicism. I mean that. But it seems very deep and pervasive. I agree with you that some types of 'activists' are nothing more than middle-class agitators who are bored. The so-called anarchists who disrupt world trade meetings are a good example. They tarred legitimate...

Just go ahead and start something in nonfiction. What philosopher are you reading now?

Groan . . .

I don't agree with this at all. Let's take where I live, which I know quite well. The Hudson River was literally on fire in the 1960s because of all the chemicals dumped into it. The fish and reptile population was extremely low and poison to eat because of sewage and PCBs being dumped...

I have an important issue to get off my head. I hate jokes. I hate those stupid punchline types of jokes. First of all, I can never remember them, and second of all, they are lame. I wish I had a small wristwatch-style groan module that I could turn on when a joke is over.

You're crazy. Ever since I've been coming here, I noticed that you are a bad role model and have bad taste in furniture. Get away from brown, that's my advice. And I hate when my thighs stick to that leather couch. Did you ever smell that couch up close? You should.

I disagree. While there are many activists (and politicians and business owners and investors) who stand to gain a direct benefit from the policies they advocate, there are also many, especially at the grassroots level, who don't. And the benefits that many others might have also extend to the...

Yes, I am indeed. Though it might be a bit soon to count him among the greats. He sure is amusing though, with the necessary dose of pathos. In the pantheon under discussion, he's perhaps one of the lesser gods.

I can't say I've been very enthusiastic about many British writers lately. A decade or so ago I would have said Burgess and Murdoch and Graham Greene, but they're dead. I really don't think McEwan is among the best ever, Ishiguro is downright disappointing in important ways, and I'm not a...

There is NO question that Joyce and Hemingway are part of the literary canon. They, for some, are at its center.

Look at Wiki for details on what I'm talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Ask_Alice As for questioning my bona fides re counterculture, I'll tell you what: I'm 45 and spent most of high school on acid, pot, and ludes. I spent 1979 living rough in California. I then lived in the East...

Shade, it's these definitions that are at the heart of my question. For instance, absurdity has existed for as long as man has existed, but the French Absurdist movement is a specific literary genre, with its own canon. The question is not whether one can define counterculture in general...

But the question isn't old. And I'm glad to see some replies here, rather than in a new thread that just brings up these books. I subscribed to the thread, which is what I do when I really would like the discussion to emerge. Nothing wrong with old threads if they're still fodder for good...

This post has all the intellectual integrity of a mothball. Are you saying these artists of the 50s were not held in high esteem until . . . the 50s? THEY WERE ALL FAMOUS MONEYMAKERS IN THEIR TIME. Who among these artists I mentioned was 'looked down upon' in the 50s? None of them were. None...

Rather than ask here, where you are even more likely to get inaccurate, anecdotal information, why not ask at the RAF Historical Branch? That's why they exist. I would write to them or call them and ask for a list of best sources for this particular info. Here's the link. They might respond...

Looking forward to it!