Doing Your Duty

And I thank you,
I thank you
for doing your duty,
you keepers of truth,
you guardians of beauty.
Your vision is right,
my vision is wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging
the air with my song.

 — Leonard Cohen 'A Singer Must Die'

Doing

Do you like what you’re doing?
Would you do it some more?
Or will you stop once and wonder
What you’re doing it for?
…
Do you hope to find new ways
Of quenching your thirst?
Do you hope to find new ways of doing
Better than your worst?
 — Nick Drake 'Hazy Jane I'

Suspension Of Disbelief

It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought
without accepting it.

 — Aristotle

One More Mystery Explained

The 38th ISFC Organising Committee

Estupidez

It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful.
 — Anton LaVey

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
 — Albert Einstein

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
  — Anonymous (often attributed to Albert Einstein)

The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity.
 — Voltaire

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
 — Albert Camus

Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realise half of them are even stupider!
 — George Carlin

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
 — Harlan Ellison

O Lunatics Tomou O Controle Do Asilo

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Hegemonic Discourses

Rigour is just a means of oppressing the non-rigorous.
Consistency is just a means of oppressing the inconsistent.
Logic is just a means of oppressing the illogical.
Knowledge is just a means of oppressing the ignorant.
Honesty is just a means of oppressing the dishonest.

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A Sense I Didn't Know

I never realised

the lengths I'd have to go
All the darkest corners of 

a sense I didn't know

 — Ian Curtis 'Twenty-Four Hours'

Hold That Thought

When you read a book, you hold another's mind in your hands.
— James Burke

Desiderative Projection

But the new theology of the heart dispenses with argument; it cannot be refuted, because it does not profess to prove its points. At bottom, the only reason offered for its acceptance is that it allows us to indulge in pleasant dreams. This is an unworthy reason…
 — Bertrand Russell 'The History Of Western Philosophy' (p669)

The Teacup Of Belief

The Meaning Of Life

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
— William Shakespeare 'MacBeth'

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts …
— William Shakespeare 'As You Like It'

Laketown

Fundamental Disagreements

Thales: everything is made of water
Anaximenes: the fundamental substance is air
Pythagoras: all things are numbers
Xenophanes: all things are made of earth and water
Heraclitus: fire is the fundamental substance

Heraclitus: everything changes
Parmenides: nothing changes

Empedocles: all change is governed by chance and necessity
Anaxagoras: mind as the primary cause of physical changes
Democritus: cause and effect (mechanism)

The Way Of The World

Rousseau was mad but influential,
Hume was sane but had no followers.
 — Bertrand Russell 'The History Of Western Philosophy' (p646)

Pencils Lead

Old Ideas

all things come from a single primal substance
worlds and animals evolved (humans from fish)
 — Anaximander [610–546 BCE]

survival of the fittest
all change is governed by chance and necessity, not purpose
 — Empedocles [490–430 BCE]

Ravaging The English

Halliday = holy day.

It is said this name had its origin in the slogan (war-cry) of a Gælic clan residing in Annandale, who made frequent raids on the English border.

On these occasions they employed the war-cry of 'A holy day!' — every day being holy, in their estimation, that was spent in ravaging the enemy's country.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857).

Formica & Silica

A Moral

The pursuit of truth, when it is whole-hearted, must ignore moral considerations; we cannot know in advance that the truth will turn out to be what is thought edifying in a given society.

 — Bertrand Russell 'The History Of Western Philosophy' (p95)

Celtic Gals

Irish Language (Gaeilge)
gal: a stranger
gael: an irishperson
gaol: a relative
geal: bright (cf galaxy)

Toponyms

galloway (scotland)

galway (ireland)
gaul (france)
portugal
galicia (spain, poland, ukraine)
galatia (turkey)

wallacia (romania)
wales (britain)
cornwall (england)

Names
wallace
walsh

His Highness

He prescribes the subject

he proscribes outsiders 

his terms have a golden ring. 

He wants to find some order 

quantifying chaos 

in words that all the children sing. 

He tabulates the lexicon 

vocabulary minimised 

bow down to the Jargon King. 

All questions become so simple 

if we eat the inane answer 

if we all agree to ju-ju speak 

we fit into the formula 

we all without exception 

approve the rule. 

We don't understand 

he must be clever 

he must be clever 

he must be right 

he must be right 

we don't understand 

Closed the ranks and barricades 

imposed the secret language 

complexity all catch-phrased 

word-drugged any anguish 

pigeon-holed allusions 

shut the vault behind us 

It's an obvious conclusion 

we'll be the chattels of His Highness. 

Bow down to the Jargon King 

and his minion code-words. 

Here comes the reign

— Peter Hammill 'The Jargon King'

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