Thursday, May 6, 2010

After watching coverage of rioting in Athens

‘Few men realise,’ wrote Joseph Conrad in 1896, ‘that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.’

3 comments:

DavidW said...

Difficult times indeed. Participants in civil unrest might agree with Martin Luther King’s 1967 statement that “A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard”. Governments are more likely to agree with Phil Gramm who said in 1942 “Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it but nobody wants to do what you have to do to get there”.

John Foster said...

Anarchy or civilization? War or peace? Ideologies balancing on a razors edge fulcrum of mutual compromise.

DavidW said...

And as Jiddu Krishnamurti put it...."All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man". Could be a philosophy A level question - simply add "Discuss".