tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9069955.post7868240497353426656..comments2023-10-26T08:02:44.948-04:00Comments on Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State: Malloy To Voters: The Joke’s On YouDon Pescihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11167988001948356357noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9069955.post-31454085379297700882014-12-20T12:59:34.544-05:002014-12-20T12:59:34.544-05:00“’Not now that the election is over, no,’ Malloy s...“’Not now that the election is over, no,’ Malloy said, his face deadpan. Then he laughed.”<br />------<br />Our cynicism and that of our pols is now apparently universally recognized and almost completely accepted. The question for the progressives is now not whether to lie, but only the stylishness of the lying. Malloy down around 3 or 4 on the scale on which Bill Klinton is rated a 10.<br />When will we simply do away with the oaths of office? If we expect our governing class to lie to us in either campaigning or day-to-day governance what's the point of an oath? Better, perhaps, to have forthright dishonest self-government than a self-deceiving dishonest one. At least we won't (have to pretend to)be as disappointed. In stead of asking pols what they're going to do, we just tell them to surprise us.<br />---------<br />“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” <br />― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov<br />-----------<br />You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that you will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Connecticut, so long as you continue a citizen thereof; and that you will faithfully discharge, according to law, the duties of the office of...........to the best of your abilities. So help you God.peter brushnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9069955.post-45042659382772152772014-12-17T17:51:00.995-05:002014-12-17T17:51:00.995-05:00“The death of the spirit is the price of progress....“The death of the spirit is the price of progress. Nietzsche revealed this mystery of the Western apocalypse when he announced that God was dead and that He had been murdered. This Gnostic murder is constantly committed by the men who sacrificed God to civilization. The more fervently all human energies are thrown into the great enterprise of salvation through world–immanent action, the farther the human beings who engage in this enterprise move away from the life of the spirit. And since the life the spirit is the source of order in man and society, the very success of a Gnostic civilization is the cause of its decline.<br />A civilization can, indeed, advance and decline at the same time—but not forever. There is a limit toward which this ambiguous process moves; the limit is reached when an activist sect which represents the Gnostic truth organizes the civilization into an empire under its rule. Totalitarianism, defined as the existential rule of Gnostic activists, is the end form of progressive civilization.” <br />― Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics: An Introduction<br />------------<br />The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.<br />H. L. Mencken<br /><br /><br />peter brushnoreply@blogger.com