Sublime
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The Straussian Moment
gwern.netThis is really the form that the dilemma takes. It is not solely a question of keeping the body alive; it is rather how not to be killed. Not to be killed becomes the great end, and morality takes its meaning from that center. Until that center is shifted, nothing real can be accomplished. It is the uncanny and perhaps unwitting recognition of this
... See moreHoward Thurman • Jesus and the Disinherited
One of the most robust findings in criminology is that increasing the severity of punishment has little deterrent effect. People simply aren’t as sensitive to the potential costs of crime as the rational-choice model predicts they should be, and so efforts to reduce it by cracking down have failed to justify the immense fiscal and social costs of
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There is one overmastering problem that the socially and politically disinherited always face: Under what terms is survival possible?
Howard Thurman • Jesus and the Disinherited
Dear Jim,
Thanks for the letter and for the awful, and illuminating, enclosure [about the civilian casualties in Vietnam]. I can well understand your sense of desperation. And the “bleak mood.” And also I am glad that you wrote about it. As you say, there are no clear answers, and you... See more
Thomas Merton’s Letter to a Young Activist – Jim and Nancy Forest
We think that human beings, at least in ethical theory, all have equal rights, and that justice involves equality; Aristotle thinks that justice involves, not equality, but right proportion, which is only sometimes equality
Bertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
Arthur F. Miller Jr. writes: “Understand that you are God’s idea. You will be held accountable for using what he gave you to work with.”4
Erik Rees • S.H.A.P.E.: Finding and Fulfilling Your Unique Purpose for Life
If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.