Reads tagged with “politics”
The Best of Brain Pickings 2019
Love, poetry, friendship, solitude, and lots of trees.
Dostoyevsky, Just After His Death Sentence Was Repealed, on the Meaning of Life
“To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task.”
Abraham Lincoln on Equality, the Slippery Slope of Exclusion, and How Nationalism Betrays the Nation’s Founding Ideals
A prescient admonition against the infinite regress of “except.”
Patti Smith on Love, Loss, Dreams, and Mending the Broken Realities of Life
“One cannot ask for a life, or two lives. One can only warrant the hope of an increasing potency in each man’s heart.”
Art, Atheism, and the Freedom of Expression: Frida Kahlo’s Searing Protest Letter to the President of Mexico
A spirited defense of “public freedom of expression and opinion, the means of progress of every free people.”
Favorite Books of 2019
From the hidden universe beneath our feet to delight as a countercultural force of courage and resistance, by way of Patti Smith, Toni Morrison, and the Greek myths.
Bertrand Russell on How to Heal an Ailing and Divided World
“What is needed in our very complex modern society is calm consideration, with readiness to call dogmas in question and freedom of mind to do justice to the most diverse points of view.”
Losing the Birds, Finding the Words: Eve Ensler’s Extraordinary Letter of Apology to Mother Earth
“I am the reason the birds are missing… I am made of dirt and grit and stars and river, skin, bone, leaf, whiskers and claws. I am a part of you, of this, nothing more or less. I am mycelium, petal pistil and stamen… I am energy and I am dust. I am wave and I am wonder. I am an impulse and an order.”
The Great Czech Playwright Turned Dissident Turned President Václav Havel on Hope
“Hope… is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”
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