Demonstrations are parties. People party and then go home. Nothing changes.
Clipping
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books > The Ministry for the Future (Robinson, Kim Stanley)
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books > Qualityland (Kling, Marc-Uwe)
“Correct. We didn’t take into consideration that the digital markets function according to the winner-takes-all principle. That’s different to the nondigital markets.” “An example?” asks Peter. “Let’s say there are two ice-cream parlors on your street. Ice-cream parlor A is a tad better. Where would you go?” “Well, to parlor A.” “But everybody thinks like that. So there’s always a huge queue in front of parlor A. Sometimes they’ve even run out of your favorite flavor before you arrive. And parlor B really is only fractionally less good and not as crowded. Where would you go?” “Parlor B.” “And that’s how the clientele divides itself. Because ice cream can’t be copied and given out to all customers at once. Completely unlike…?” “Digital products,” says Peter. “When you get me to complete your sentences I feel like a stupid schoolboy.” “Rightfully so, rightfully so. Thus, from that we can conclude even if it were only minimally worse, there would be no reason to use the second-best search engine. Winner takes it all. Loser gets nothing. In the digital economy, nobody needs the second-best product, the second-best provider, the second-best social network, the second-best shop, the second-best comedian, the second-best singer. It’s a superstar economy. Long live the superstar, fuck the rest.”
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books > Qualityland (Kling, Marc-Uwe)
the question today is how one can convince humanity to consent to their own survival.”
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books > A Man Called Ove: A Novel (Fredrik Backman)
The two men looked at each other for a moment. Then Sonja’s father nodded. And Ove nodded curtly back. And then they rose to their feet, objective and determined, in the way two men might behave if they had just agreed to go and kill a third man.
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books > The End of Eternity (Isaac Asimov)
Any system like Eternity, which allows men to choose their own future, will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.
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books > Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing (Michael Dregni)
“I came to understand that it’s better to respect the great guitarists than imitate them,” he tells me. “I discovered that it was better to try to create something new than replay their music. This is the essence of jazz.”
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books > Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing (Michael Dregni)
There’s a French Romanes saying, Si khohaimo may patshivalo sar o tshatshimo-There are lies more believable than truth. And there’s another Romani saying that’s a twist on this: A good tale is truer than the truth.
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books > The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk MD)
The more people try to push away and ignore internal warning signs, the more likely they are to take over and leave them bewildered, confused, and ashamed. People who cannot comfortably notice what is going on inside become vulnerable to respond to any sensory shift either by shutting down or by going into a panic—they develop a fear of fear itself. We now know that panic symptoms are maintained largely because the individual develops a fear of the bodily sensations associated with panic attacks. The attack may be triggered by something he or she knows is irrational, but fear of the sensations keeps them escalating into a full-body emergency.
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books > The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk MD)
Semrad taught us that most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people “acknowledge, experience, and bear” the reality of life—with all its pleasures and heartbreak. “The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves,” he’d say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He often said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel.
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books > The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk MD)
The brain-disease model overlooks four fundamental truths: (1) our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring well-being; (2) language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by communicating our experiences, helping us to define what we know, and finding a common sense of meaning; (3) we have the ability to regulate our own physiology, including some of the so-called involuntary functions of the body and brain, through such basic activities as breathing, moving, and touching; and (4) we can change social conditions to create environments in which children and adults can feel safe and where they can thrive.