Limitless Fire

Zinn, Howard, Terrorism and War, Seven Stories Press, 2002.

page 22 “In war the evil of the means is certain and the achievement of the end, however important, is always uncertain. That is, war always sets off a chain of events that are unpredictable. For instance, in World War II, you could not be certain that you would defeat fascism. You might be fairly certain that you would defeat Hitler and Mussolini; but you could not be certain that you would be doing away with all the elements of fascism, with militarism, racism, imperialism, and violence. In fact, after 50 million deaths, that did not happen. Considering those issues, and thinking about the prospects for the human race given the horrific technology of war, persuaded me that there could no longer really be a war that we could call just. I decided that whatever problems we faced, whatever tyranny we faced, whatever world situation we faced, whatever act of aggression we faced, we had to come up with a solution other than the mass killing of human beings.”

OBSERVATION: In order to make any reasonable assessment of information it is necessary to be literate. Literacy means several things, and especially requires the ability to read and comprehend facts, data, ideas, etc. While the internet, mass media, publicity and marketing drive a large percentage of available data, it is important to read beyond these content delivery systems. Books, whether in the form of ebooks, or print, and the ability to select, and discern value in content is paramount to any developed understanding of complex issues. Teachers, and the value they provide the world, access to genuine data, the ability to understand, cross-reference, and make conclusions about issues and ideas provides positive action. The statistics regarding illiteracy in the world, and the resultant damage caused by illiteracy are both issues underlying many of the social ills facing the human population. It is necessary for all of us to take the time to learn, to apply Kohlberg, and his ideas about behavior above simple self interest in order to make the world a healthier place to live.

Buy a book today: read it, comprehend it, pass it along!

Harold Bloom, How To Read and Why, Scribners, 2000.

“Because my ideal reader, for half a century has been Dr. Samuel Johnson, I turn next to my favorite passage in his Preface to Shakespeare: This, therefore, is the praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirror of life; that he who has mazed into his imagination in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him may here be cured of his delirious ecstasies by reading human sentiments in human language, by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world and a confessor predict the progress of the passions….Let me extend Johnson by also urging us to recognize the phantoms that the deep reading of Shakespeare will exorcise. One such phantom is the death of the Author; another is the assertion that the self is a fiction; yet another is the opinion that literary and dramatic characters are so many marks upon a page. A fourth phantom, and the most pernicious, is that language does the thinking for us…..I urge you to find what truly comes near to you, that can be used for weighing and considering. Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads.”

OBSERVATION: Certain individuals help us understand the process of profound understanding, they help us see with the mind, perceiving realms beyond the commonplace, unmasking the mysteries hiding behind various surfaces.