Ask the philosophers: the 11 greatest philosophical quotations

Posted on February 6, 2007 by raincoaster

Hobbes. Bet you didn't expect that, eh?

But they left out my favorite, from Camus: “It is the obligation of the intelligent to oppress the stupid, otherwise they will take over the world.”

Too late. That’s what three decades of Relativism gets you.

Here, from Mental Floss via Neatorama, are the 11 greatest philosophical quotations, with arguably enlightening commentary. Bonus pronounciation guide, for those of you who prefer to pronounce things as if you were still living in Bavaria…here’s a tip: I was born near Paris, but I pronounce it “Pare-iss” not “Pay-ree” because I do not live in France. I do not pronounce Indonesia with five syllables either, although you do once you’re there. That goes double for idiomatic English names (eg “It’s spelt ‘SMITH’ but has been pronounced “Williams” since the Battle of Hastings…”) If you do not live in France or Germany or Worcestershire or Bandaniera either, making a point of pronouncing things like the natives do simply makes people write you off (correctly) as one of those beret-wearing pretentiati. And when raincoaster here tells you you’re being pretentious, you know you’re out of bounds.

Ahem.

3. “The life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” – Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
Referring to the original state of nature, a hypothetical past before civilization, Hobbes saw no reason to be nostalgic.

Whereas Rousseau said, “Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains,” Hobbes believed we find ourselves living a savage, impossible life without education and the protection of the state. Human nature is bad: we’ll prey on one another in the most vicious ways. No doubt the state imposes on our liberty in an overwhelming way. Yet Hobbes’ claim was that these very chains were absolutely crucial in protecting us from one another.

PSA: 12 Midnite’s Money-Grubbing Cash & Carry Art Sale

Posted on February 5, 2007 by raincoaster

12 MIDNITE: Political Pop art pioneer, lowbrow legend and hot rod hooligan hosts sale of vintage art thought long lost

Feb. 5, 2007
Vancouver:
12 MIDNITE, Canada’s best known unknown arist has a checkered history of shifting gears on his career. Coming to the forefront of the thriving political street art movement, by the mid 80s his name became synonomous with gritty urban pop art. Since that time he has been an established member of the elite society of Lowbrow legends, moving through graffiti to pop painting and neon art, running galleries, a hot rod shop and back, while popping up irregularly with guitar in hand, to front an ever-shifting band of punk ex-patriots to shock and amaze fans and foes with his beer-drenched tales of misadventure before disappearing in a blur of flat black and throaty exhaust.
On one magical night only, February 17th, Midnite will host a MONEY-GRUBBING sale of long-lost art: paintings, prints, drawings, graffiti and neon from the early days to fund his latest album, “SWEET TURNS SOUR” at LUCKY RED, on the bitter end of Vancouver’s historic chinatown.
Those who cough up over 200 dollars will recieve an advance copy of the album along with the smug satisfaction of knowing that BUYING ART MAKES YOU COOL!

12 MIDNITE’S MONEY-GRUBBING CASH AND CARRY ART SALE
Saturday, February 17th: 8PM
LUCKY RED: Union at Main…on the bitter end of chinatown
www.12midnite.com
midnite at telus dot net

Too Much Coffee Man, an introduction

Posted on February 4, 2007 by raincoaster

Reading engtech’s post on his favorite web comics reminded me of my old fave from the deepest, darkest Nineties, Too Much Coffee Man, which I find is now an opera that is packing them in like espresso in a portafilter! TMCM was one of my favorite comics, back when I had a 9-5 or actually it was with Starbucks so it was more like a 5:30am-6:30pm, but whatever, and could afford to buy dead trees.

I am reminded at this juncture of perhaps the most absurd of the various absurdities of working in a cubicle farm. I had a TMCM toque which I treasured for its hip coffeeness and relevance, and I thought it would look cute and edgy sitting on top of my filing cabinet, so that is where I put it.

And every morning it would be on my desk.

At first I thought the cleaners were moving it, although dusting the top of the cabinets every day seemed a bit extreme to me. But after awhile I realized it was happening even when the cleaners had not been in. So I began to test things.

I pinned it to my cube wall. Nothing. I put it on my chair. Nothing. I pinned it on the outside of my doorway: bingo, it was on my desk in the morning.

Turns out that the head of HR didn’t like to see anything poking up above the level of the top of the cubes, nor anything outside the cubes other than slate grey tweed: the only person who could violate this rule was the admittedly artistic and very powerful head of the training department. My boss was staying late every night just to move my toque.

There’s the title of my forthcoming business book, right there:
WHO MOVED MY TOQUE.

Back to TMCM. He would show up in some of the gimme papers in Portland cafes, but the trip to Oregon sort of offset the freebie-ness of the comics themselves, so I had to give it up and start spending fifteen minutes’ pay at the comic shop for the colour issues.

While the title character himself seems to have long since gone to that Great Compost Bucket in the Sky, the comic and the aesthetic and the dream live on.

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5 reasons why I blog

Posted on February 3, 2007 by raincoaster

I got tagged for the 5 Reasons Why I Blog meme by Jeremy Jacobs, and answering it will be my entry in the engtech Blog Contest #1.

Do you remember when you were in elementary school and in English class once a week they would write five topics on the board and you would have to pick one of the topics and write a story about it? (oh, and also how they would give you lists of all kinds of different words you were supposed to learn {although I always wondered and worried, secretly, that if they knew I already knew those words they would penalize me in some way, so I played dumb. I would rule in a concentration camp!} and then use in a sentence? Well being literalminded-like, I used to use them all in one gargantumungous sentence, the Sentence That Wouldn’t Die!, the Energizer Bunny of sentences, and that used to piss my teachers off no end but they never did tighten up the wording of the assignment, so what’s with that, eh? I ask you) But quite a lot of the time I wouldn’t like any of the story subjects listed and even might have had a story or two that I wanted to write anyway and thought, like any good, lazy person, why should I write two including one I don’t want when I can write one that I do want instead? Indeed.

So, inevitably after every writing-the-titles-on-the-blackboard moment, the teacher would sit at his desk and brace himself for my approach.

“Do you mind if…” I’d always start, and usually it would go smoothly from there.

“What would happen if I said no?” asked Mr. Lindsay once, in a sudden and inexplicable fit of empowerment.

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quiz: which Japanese subculture are you?

Posted on February 3, 2007 by raincoaster

This looks encouraging. All the more reason to save my pennies and/or look for tips on stowing away on Toyota cargo ships.

You Are a Henna Gaijin!

You’re not Japanese, but you wish you were!

You can use chopsticks with your eyes closed, and you’ve memorized hundreds of Kanji.

You even answer your phone “moshi moshi.”

While the number of anime videos you’ve seen is way higher than the number of dates you’ve been on, there’s hope.

Play the sexy, mysterous gaijin, and you’ll have plenty of Japanese meat.

What’s Your Japanese Subculture?

	raincoaster on Goodbye, Robert Redford
	raincoaster on Goodbye, Robert Redford
	HL fotoeins on Goodbye, Robert Redford
	sfr on Goodbye, Robert Redford
	Vincent G on The Wolf Covid Briefing Bingo

raincoaster

49 degrees latitude, 360 degrees attitude!

Category Archives: Politics

Ask the philosophers: the 11 greatest philosophical quotations

PSA: 12 Midnite’s Money-Grubbing Cash & Carry Art Sale

Too Much Coffee Man, an introduction

quiz: which Japanese subculture are you?

Don't keep it to yourself!

Don't keep it to yourself!

Don't keep it to yourself!

Don't keep it to yourself!

Don't keep it to yourself!