“So the story I’d like to tell is this: Over the past half-century, society has become more individualistic. As it has become more individualistic, it has also become less morally aware, because social and moral fabrics are inextricably linked. The atomization and demoralization of society have led to certain forms of social breakdown, which government has tried to address, sometimes successfully and often impotently. This story, if true, should cause discomfort on right and left. Conservatives sometimes argue that if we could just reduce government to the size it was back in, say, the 1950s, then America would be vibrant and free again. But the underlying sociology and moral culture is just not there anymore. Government could be smaller when the social fabric was more tightly knit, but small government will have different and more cataclysmic effects today when it is not. Liberals sometimes argue that our main problems come from the top: a self-dealing elite, the oligarchic bankers. But the evidence suggests that individualism and demoralization are pervasive up and down society, and may be even more pervasive at the bottom. Liberals also sometimes talk as if our problems are fundamentally economic, and can be addressed politically, through redistribution. But maybe the root of the problem is also cultural. The social and moral trends swamp the proposed redistributive remedies.”
— What Our Words Tell Us - NYTimes.com
(via mythsofmodernity)
Eren Eyüboğlu
(Fonte: onat53, via janpadora-box)
(Fonte: jeffreyandme)
Jeffrey T. Larson
“The media give substance to, and thus intensify, narcissistic dreams of fame and glory, encourage common people to identify themselves with the stars and to hate the ‘herd’, and make it more and more difficult for them to accept the banality of everyday existence.” — Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism
(Fonte: sethorphic, via theweightofemptiness)
“To write a single line of verse one must see many cities, people, things, one must know animals, one must feel birds flying and know the movements flowers make as they open up in the morning. One must be able to think back to roads in unfamiliar regions, unexpected encounters, and partings which one saw coming long before; one must be able to think back to those days in peaceful and secluded rooms, and to those mornings by the sea, to the sea anywhere, to seas, to nights of travel that swept along high above, flying with the stars; to nights of love and passion. And it’s still not enough. Having all sorts of memories is still not enough. For the memories are not what’s essential. It’s only when they become blood within us, become our nameless looks and signs that are no longer distinguishable from ourselves—not until then does it happen that, in a very rare moment, the first word of a verse rises in their midst and goes forth from among them.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke, from The Notebooks Of Malte Laurids Bridge
(via journalofanobody)
(Fonte: jeffreyandme)
(Fonte: alfiusdebux, via christinasanantonio)
SALMO
Cantai a seiva que sobe das raízes,
O arado do tempo cortando o nevoeiro;
Cantai a vida que sangra e incendeia,
Vós todos que lavrais a terra, tecelões e pedreiros
Entrai na força escondida do desejo,
Domadores de cavalos, aguadeiros,
Pois vossas mãos acenderam candeias
E vossos olhos alumiaram a noite
Trazei à taça da vida nova que se anuncia
Os trapos velhos das dores enterradas;
Joalheiros de dedos magoados,
Vós todos que esperais o parto das sementes
Assinalai a pedra onde caístes
E a madeira em que vos crucificaram:
Porque há música nos ritos da tortura
Que canta o dia novo que não tarda
Enquanto não sabemos o caminho,
Cantemos já o dom de caminhar;
Se estamos juntos não teremos medo:
Alguém no invisível nos espera
Plantemos flores à beira do abismo
Há-de haver no deserto um lugar de água
Alguém que nos chame pelo nome
E nos acolhe ao termo da viagem.
José Augusto Mourão
in O Nome e a Forma
(via madamescherzo)