10-02-2022, 11:10 AM
"And this I believe; that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion or government which limits or destroys the individual.
This is what I am & what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.
Surely I can understand this, & I hate it & I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost."
East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
"He dropped his eyes but he could feel the relief on the part of the Bacons. It was not laziness if he was a rich man. Only the poor were lazy. Just as only the poor were ignorant. A rich man who didn’t know anything was spoiled or independent."
East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
"The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely & perplexed as one. And from this first ‘we’ there grows a still more dangerous thing:”I have a little food” plus “I have none”.
The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. Its wool. It was my mother’s blanket – take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning – from ‘I’ to ‘we."
The grapes of wrath, John Steinbeck.
‘If he’ll take twenty five, I’ll do it for twenty. ‘No, me. I’m hungry. I’ll work for fifteen. I’ll work for food.
And this was good, for wages went down & prices stayed up. The great owners were glad & they sent out more handbills to bring more people in. And wages went down & prices stayed up. And pretty soon now we’ll have serfs again.
And now the great owners invented a new method. A great owner bought a cannery. And when the peaches & pears were ripe he cut the price of fruit below the cost of raising it. And as cannery owner he paid himself a low price for the fruit & kept the price of canned goods up & took his profit.
And the companies, the banks worked at their own doom & they did not know it. The fields were fruitful, & starving men moved on the roads.
The granaries were full & the children of the poor grew up rachitic, & the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides. The great companies did not know that the line between hunger & anger is a thin line. And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents & spies, for blacklists, for drilling.
On the highways the people moved like ants & searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment."
The grapes of wrath, John Steinbeck.
'If by force you make a creature live & work like a beast, you must think of him as a beast, else empathy would drive you mad.’
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
‘He doesn’t belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but not clever enough to live in peace with itself.’
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
This is what I am & what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for that is one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.
Surely I can understand this, & I hate it & I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost."
East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
"He dropped his eyes but he could feel the relief on the part of the Bacons. It was not laziness if he was a rich man. Only the poor were lazy. Just as only the poor were ignorant. A rich man who didn’t know anything was spoiled or independent."
East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
"The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely & perplexed as one. And from this first ‘we’ there grows a still more dangerous thing:”I have a little food” plus “I have none”.
The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. Its wool. It was my mother’s blanket – take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning – from ‘I’ to ‘we."
The grapes of wrath, John Steinbeck.
‘If he’ll take twenty five, I’ll do it for twenty. ‘No, me. I’m hungry. I’ll work for fifteen. I’ll work for food.
And this was good, for wages went down & prices stayed up. The great owners were glad & they sent out more handbills to bring more people in. And wages went down & prices stayed up. And pretty soon now we’ll have serfs again.
And now the great owners invented a new method. A great owner bought a cannery. And when the peaches & pears were ripe he cut the price of fruit below the cost of raising it. And as cannery owner he paid himself a low price for the fruit & kept the price of canned goods up & took his profit.
And the companies, the banks worked at their own doom & they did not know it. The fields were fruitful, & starving men moved on the roads.
The granaries were full & the children of the poor grew up rachitic, & the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides. The great companies did not know that the line between hunger & anger is a thin line. And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents & spies, for blacklists, for drilling.
On the highways the people moved like ants & searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment."
The grapes of wrath, John Steinbeck.
'If by force you make a creature live & work like a beast, you must think of him as a beast, else empathy would drive you mad.’
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
‘He doesn’t belong to a species clever enough to split the atom but not clever enough to live in peace with itself.’
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)