It's not about abortion or infanticide, it's about the comically restrictive property system that prevented, by design, the overwhelming majority of Spartans and Lakonians from fighting in the army, and which progressively decreased the number of men eligible for service independent of any demographic decline.
Great Quotes II: Source and Context are Key
- Thread starter SS-18 ICBM
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Are you sure about that?
Oruc
Reactionary
Nope!
Sure, I know. I'm just being
Oruc
Reactionary
Nope!
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 10,759
whut? (postcount! I hope...)
edit: Very well
edit: Very well
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Book V, Chapter I, Part II. (1776)
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Book V, Chapter I, Part II. (1776)
classical_hero
In whom I trust
“A dead thing goes with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
G.K. Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton
_random_
Jewel Runner
Chesterton is truly a goldmine of quotes:
"I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid."
"For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers. The speeches in our time are more careful and elaborate, because they are meant to be read, and not to be heard. And exactly because they are more careful and elaborate, they are not so likely to be worthy of a careful and elaborate report. They are not interesting enough. So the moral cowardice of modern politicians has, after all, some punishment attached to it by the silent anger of heaven. Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them."
"No one has even begun to understand comradeship who does not accept with it a certain hearty eagerness in eating, drinking, or smoking, an uproarious materialism which to many women appears only hoggish. You may call the thing an orgy or a sacrament; it is certainly an essential. It is at root a resistance to the superciliousness of the individual. Nay, its very swaggering and howling are humble. In the heart of its rowdiness there is a sort of mad modesty; a desire to melt the separate soul into the mass of unpretentious masculinity. It is a clamorous confession of the weakness of all flesh. No man must be superior to the things that are common to men. This sort of equality must be bodily and gross and comic. Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick."
"I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid."
"For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers. The speeches in our time are more careful and elaborate, because they are meant to be read, and not to be heard. And exactly because they are more careful and elaborate, they are not so likely to be worthy of a careful and elaborate report. They are not interesting enough. So the moral cowardice of modern politicians has, after all, some punishment attached to it by the silent anger of heaven. Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them."
"No one has even begun to understand comradeship who does not accept with it a certain hearty eagerness in eating, drinking, or smoking, an uproarious materialism which to many women appears only hoggish. You may call the thing an orgy or a sacrament; it is certainly an essential. It is at root a resistance to the superciliousness of the individual. Nay, its very swaggering and howling are humble. In the heart of its rowdiness there is a sort of mad modesty; a desire to melt the separate soul into the mass of unpretentious masculinity. It is a clamorous confession of the weakness of all flesh. No man must be superior to the things that are common to men. This sort of equality must be bodily and gross and comic. Not only are we all in the same boat, but we are all seasick."
Verarde
Pondering Wearing A Hat
"...What's one of the first things you learned in training to be a Jedi?"
"Don't cut off your own head with a lightsaber."
"After that."
"Your eyes can deceive you. Be mindful of your feelings. Girls are fun but dangerous. Lando has extra cards up his sleeve."
Luke and Ben Skywalker, Outcast by Troy Denning.
"Don't cut off your own head with a lightsaber."
"After that."
"Your eyes can deceive you. Be mindful of your feelings. Girls are fun but dangerous. Lando has extra cards up his sleeve."
Luke and Ben Skywalker, Outcast by Troy Denning.
gangleri2001
Garbage day!!!
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."
Ayn Rand
The perfect description of Spain.
Ayn Rand
The perfect description of Spain.
Ironsided
Flower of happiness
- Joined
- May 25, 2012
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- 1,267
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
It's really just a description of capitalism, generally. Rand is simply having another go at demonstrating that she doesn't understand how the world works, or has ever worked.
"Lupus est Homo Homini" (Man is wolf to man)
Plautus' Asinaria
Recently used it in a short story, in a somewhat altered form: Homo Homini Lupus.
Which i hope is still grammatically correct... Not that ultimately it matters that much, given who utters it in the story
Plautus' Asinaria
Recently used it in a short story, in a somewhat altered form: Homo Homini Lupus.
Which i hope is still grammatically correct... Not that ultimately it matters that much, given who utters it in the story
Communist.
gangleri2001
Garbage day!!!
Well, in that quotation she doesn't explicitly says communism or capitalism. We may suppose she's pretending to describe communism but all she says is that if this happens a society is doomed. And sincerely, I can't see how can that be wrong.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
If she's correct, then we've doomed for several thousand years.
The problem is that if society and the economy were organized as Rand would have them organized, then the outcome would be what she described as the doom of society. That ironic disconnect is what makes it so snarkworthy.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Albert Camus.
Albert Camus.
NickyJ
Retired Narrator
"Nobody - I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hot dog!"
Clint Eastwood.
Clint Eastwood.
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