![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo"Become the change you seek"
Or even better
"Be the change you seek"
That came into my head because I'd been listening to Russell Brand handing out tit-bits from the stoic philosophers. There was one from Marcus Aurelius which went something like (and since it's a translation the exact wording hardly matters) "Don't waste time talking about what constitutes goodness, just live it..."
Same thought, different formulation I don't know who first wrote or spoke the version at the top of the page because the thought itself is as old as the hills. It's one of the core truths. Everything starts with the self. You want a kinder world? Then be kind. You want a fairer world? Then be fair. You don't need to preach kindness and fairness, just embody them- and the kindness and the fairness will radiate out and people will align with it because it's attractive.
"You say you'll change the Constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know know it's gonna be
Alright"
That's John Lennon's version.
In the same podcast Brand was recommending we read Ivan Illych. I'd heard the name, but I had a mental image of a granite-faced ideologue, possibly heavily bearded like Marx and Engels, who threw bombs when he wasn't pontificating. I looked him up. Turns out he was a gentle, ascetic Austrian priest. His book Deschooling Society sounds like something we all ought to be aware of.
Like it's the fountainhead of much that I currently believe.
So we've ordered a copy
Stoics, alternative comedians, rock gods, Catholic thinkers- they're all saying the same thing....
Or even better
"Be the change you seek"
That came into my head because I'd been listening to Russell Brand handing out tit-bits from the stoic philosophers. There was one from Marcus Aurelius which went something like (and since it's a translation the exact wording hardly matters) "Don't waste time talking about what constitutes goodness, just live it..."
Same thought, different formulation I don't know who first wrote or spoke the version at the top of the page because the thought itself is as old as the hills. It's one of the core truths. Everything starts with the self. You want a kinder world? Then be kind. You want a fairer world? Then be fair. You don't need to preach kindness and fairness, just embody them- and the kindness and the fairness will radiate out and people will align with it because it's attractive.
"You say you'll change the Constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know know it's gonna be
Alright"
That's John Lennon's version.
In the same podcast Brand was recommending we read Ivan Illych. I'd heard the name, but I had a mental image of a granite-faced ideologue, possibly heavily bearded like Marx and Engels, who threw bombs when he wasn't pontificating. I looked him up. Turns out he was a gentle, ascetic Austrian priest. His book Deschooling Society sounds like something we all ought to be aware of.
Like it's the fountainhead of much that I currently believe.
So we've ordered a copy
Stoics, alternative comedians, rock gods, Catholic thinkers- they're all saying the same thing....
no subject
Date: 2021-11-23 02:03 pm (UTC)James Nayler:
'There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end. Its hope is to outlive all wrath and contention, and to weary out all exaltation and cruelty, or whatever is of a nature contrary to itself'.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-23 02:28 pm (UTC)