The Petty Souled
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle wrote about the megalopsychos, a term that Nassim Taleb translates as "the great-souled," a condition that excludes all pettiness. What's the opposite of the megalopsychos? I don't know, but it's on display in Seattle these days, where school and park authorities are removing all references to "Easter Eggs" and requiring use of the term "Spring Spheres." Such pettiness is derisory, except these people actually have a modicum of power. They use tax dollars to impose their secularist Spring Spheres on the Seattle public, all the while thinking they're merely open-minded partisans of First Amendment thinking. The pettiness combined with petty power makes it frustrating. But most of all, it's laughable. * * * * * * * Serfdom. Today's serfs? Students coming out of college with student loans. They're tied to jobs they don't like because they're tied to loans they can't shake. The more student loans, the more colleges increase tuition. The more federal grants aimed to reduce tuition burdens, the more colleges increase tuition. Colleges are perhaps the greatest parasites in our society. And that's saying a lot: the competition for greatest parasite is fierce. And these great parasites feed on the blood of today's serfs. . . . So what started this mini-rant? In general, I'm hoping that, if I repeat such things often enough, the truth will start to spread. But in particular, this good piece at Zero Hedge. Check it out. * * * * * * * Fear Food. Costco sells emergency food supplies. The cost of the supply kits have gone up 47% in the past six months. Inflation? Opportunism? You be the judge. Link. * * * * * * * USSR Anecdotes. "Ronald Reagan loved collecting stories from the old USSR. Here's one: Communist Party boss Leonid Brezhnev was trying to impress his peasant mother with his massive Kremlin office. She shook her head in disbelief. He took Mama to his apartment, but she looked really worried. Then he brought her to his hunting lodge. She clammed up. Finally, he showed her his dacha on the Black Sea. She wailed in fear. "Leosha! Leosha! What will you do if the reds come back." * * * * * * * New York. If you go to New York, don't go to Liberty Island or Ellis Island. You have to take the subway all the way down to Battery Park (though Battery Park is kinda cool). You then have to get there a half-hour early, then pass through two rounds of security (no belts allowed, but you get to keep your shoes on). You're then jammed onto a ferry with seating for, I'm guessing, only 1/3rd of the passengers. And then you only get to go into the Lady's crown if you arranged your tickets weeks (or months) ahead of time, and the process for arranging crown tickets is a real hassle (credit cards and the names/ages of everyone in your group, filtered through a worker with English as a second language). The park workers who operate the Statue of Liberty are great, and the actual trip to the crown is neat, but everything else about the trip is a real drag.
