Manufacturing Consent
And thus when, by a series of measures undertaken everywhere and at the same time—always thanks to the power in its hands at the command of the Government—a certain portion of the people, chiefly the…
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
The Golden Rule
Tzu-Kung asked saying, Is there any single saying that one can act upon all day and every day? The Master said, Perhaps the saying about consideration: ‘Never do to others what you would not like…
The Miracle of Being Awake
Suddenly some force shoved him in the chest, in the side, choked his breath still more, he fell through the hole, and there, at the end of the hole, something lit up. What was done…
How Some Saw Simone
A very Jewish soul. There was something of the Talmud in her. Very stringent in her logic. 206 [W]hat most struck me in her were her nobility, her straightforwardness, the purity of her soul. 218…
He Must Go on, He Can’t Go on, He’ll Go on
Everything was doomed [in 1943]: [Yankev Glatshteyn’s] people, his tradition, its language, his artistic freedom, his chances of contributing to a continuing literature. Even his awesome responsibility as the chronicler of the last days of…
The Canon in the Canon
Of all the gospels, the Sermon on the Mount was the portion that impressed me most, and I studied it more often than any other part. Nowhere else does Christ speak with such solemnity; nowhere…
Instruction for Whenever Watching or Listening to the Day’s News
Half-smile when irritated: When you realise you are irritated, half-smile at once. Inhale and exhale quietly, maintaining the half-smile for three breaths. –Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Being Awake
Drop Pop Culture, Some Say
Miles Davis–why bother with any of it–Jazz, modern musicians, dope addicts, punks–Monk, crooks, killers, Bud Powell, Dizzy’s razor and Dizzy’s scorn & Al Sublette’s scorn–no. Give me the Bodhi men. Don’t even play the radio…
Biden and Putin Would Despise Tolstoy
To destroy governmental violence only one thing is needed: it is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism which alone supports that instrument of violence is a rude, harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling,…
The Rule Is Still Golden
Armies will only be diminished and abolished when people cease to trust governments, and themselves seek salvation from the miseries that oppress them, and seek that safety, not by the complicated and delicate combinations of…