Archives for July 2024

"When two do the same thing, they do not do the same thing.” Ernst Bloch (Heritage of Our Time) "President Nixon: You think, you think we want to, want to go this route now? And the – let it hang out, so to speak? Dean: Well, it's, it isn't really that – Haldeman: It's a limited hang out. Dean: It's a limited hang out. Ehrlichman: It's a modified limited hang out." Whitehouse Tapes (March 22, 1973) "As to the question whether it is the illness that generates the crime or whether the crime, by its very nature, was always accompanied by something like an illness, [Raskolnikov] still felt unable to resolve the issue". Fyodor Dostoyevski (Crime and Punishment) After a week in … [Read more...]

"Although the term, mark, is commonly applied to a person who is given short-lived expectations by operators who have intentionally misrepresented the facts, a less restricted definition is desirable in analyzing the larger social scene. An expectation may finally prove false, even though it has been possible to sustain it for a long time and even though the operators acted in good faith. So, too, the disappointment of reasonable expectations, as well as misguided ones, creates a need for consolation. Persons who participate in what is recognized as a confidence game are found in only a few social settings, but persons who have to be cooled out are found in many. Cooling the mark out is one … [Read more...]