…in just one perfect sentence:
Its culture melds a ruthless pursuit of profit with a Panglossian and narcissistic belief in its own virtue.
Comments closedCategory: word power
In light of the first comment in response to it, you may like to explore the following – all apropos, in various ways, whether directly so, or indirectly.
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Most commonly-held notions about this southern African language are simply wrong.
Ironically, those notions are the fruit of prejudice.
Many who sneer at the language do so because they believe Afrikaans is somehow “tainted” – a “white” tongue, still stubbornly clung to by a “racist” minority.
In fact, in South Africa today, the majority of “first language” speakers of Afrikaans are not white people, not Afrikaners.
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Something very harmful and maybe irreversible is happening to human attention in our digital age. Not just distraction or addiction; social media companies are inducing people to give up their autonomy. The power to shape people’s attention is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few companies. It takes a real effort to assert and defend what John Stuart Mill called “the freedom of mind.” There is a possibility that once lost, people who grow up in the digital age will have difficulty in regaining it. This may have far-reaching political consequences.
Comments closed…and Ira.
George Gershwin wrote this song’s music, his brother Ira the words, for a 1932 opera. A flop on debut, it is now a landmark. Its most tender number – Summertime – is probably the best-loved 20th century song. Its sardonic song is less popular; I have heard only several hundred covers of It Ain’t Necessarily So!
Comments closedOctober 28 post (click here) will lead you to the full text of a remarkable piece of investigative journalism in The New Yorker.
Last night its author Patrick Radden Keefe spoke at length to Australia’s national broadcaster.
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(almost certainly, you will be surprised to discover where I took this post’s photos)
Unstructured, unsupervised time for play is one of the most important things we have to give back to kids if we want them to be strong and happy and resilient.
2 Comments(a): One of America’s great philanthropic dynasties.
(b) The initial author and a prime beneficiary of the epidemic. (the epidemic of opioid addiction. Purdue Pharma – the Sacklers’ family company – developed and agressively marketed OxyContin, which they misrepresented as a “safe” painkiller)
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According to the first such detailed study/guesstimate, a relative newcomer to our ancient land kills more than one million Australian birds, each day.
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