Aesthetics: Fine Arts: Post-Modern: Laurie Anderson

My educational upbringing, excepting the institutional portions, was largely self-taught. The first types of the humanities to come into my consciousness aside from fiction and literature were products of modernism and post-modernism. And as I have had bits of time over the decades to read history, I can even see the threads of modernism in some of the intellectual achievements of the 17th through the 19th centuries. In the 1980's I discovered more artifacts of this post-modern era in the form of the artist-musician, Laurie Anderson. After a brief biographical search and sample of some of her other works, I conclude that the album, "Big Science", shall remain in my library. The album, like understanding folk literature, must be viewed in context. You must hear the musical portions with the lyrics. In Laurie's case, one should also view the visual performance with the music and lyrics. Because of the RIAA and other associated fascists, it is difficult for me to set forth in this blog a full multimedia representation of some of the songs that I quote here. So get the album.

The following lyrics are from the song, "O Superman":

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.
Hi. I'm not home
right now. But if you want to leave a
message, just start talking at the sound of the tone.
Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you
coming home?
Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me,
but I know you.
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come
as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go.
And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the
hand, the hand that takes.
This is the hand, the hand that takes.
Here come the planes.
They're American planes. Made in America.
Smoking or non-smoking?
And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom
of night shall stay these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds.
'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justive is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. So hold me,
Mom, in your long arms.
In your automatic arms. Your electronic
arms.
In your arms.
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.
Your petrochemical arms. Your military
arms.
In your electronic arms.

Social Philosophy: Liberty: updated quotes list

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I updated my list of random quotes on liberty, freedom, et al. But here is a great list that I am starting to pick from.

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Natural Philosophy: Time: a quick link to...

An internet chronometer.

Social Philosophy: Liberty: a few quotes

Here are a few quotes that I stumbled upon while doing a few quick information surf actions. For my fellow Libertarian types:

"Did you learn how to think or how to believe?"

*******

"The state is made for man, not man for the state.... That is to say,
the state should be our servant and not we its slaves."
- Albert Einstein

"Civilization is the progress of a society toward privacy. The
savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his
tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from man."
- Ayn Rand, 1943

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are
injurious to others."
- Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia

"If they can get you to ask the wrong questions, they don't have to
worry about the answers."
- Thomas Pynchon

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the
freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Kierkegaard

"All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the
indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of
their inherent natural rights. For happily the govenment of the United
States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,
requires only that they who live under its protection should demean [bear]
themselves as good citizens."
- George Washington, "To the Jewish Congregation, New Port, RI", 1790

"Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or
stretched?"
- Thomas Jefferson

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of
one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that
oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the
beginning if it is to be stopped at all."
- H.L. Mencken

"Government is not reason.
Government is not eloquence.
It is force.
And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master"
- George Washington, first US President

"The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is it's inefficiency."
- Eugene McCarthy




"Go to work,
send your kids to school,
follow fashion,
act normal,
walk on the pavement,
watch tv,
save for your old age,
obey the law,

Repeat after me: I am free."




"they tell you cannabis is illegal because you are easier to control and enslave without cannabis." -Anonymous


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Social Philosophy: Individual vs. The State: A Few Thoughts 01

Here are a few thoughts from the Consistency Argument regarding the nature of the State vs. an individual:

Freedom and private property are total, indivisible concepts that are compromised wherever and whenever the State exists.

Since all things are related to one another in our complicated social world, if one man's freedom or private property may be violated (regardless of the justification), then every man's freedom and property are insecure.

The superior man can only be sure of his freedom if the inferior man is secure in his rights.