Plutarch

Some memorable quotes from Plutarch's "Lives"

"[I]t was Marius' opinion that daunting objects gain a large number of extra and unreal attributes when they are unfamiliar, while familiarity strips the power to terrify from even inherently frightening things." (Marius)

"[Cato the Elder] even used to say that the only thing he found impressive about Socrates from the old days was that he constantly treated his difficult wife and idiot sons with decency and civility." (Cato the Elder)

"Marius joined forces with the tribune Sulpicius, a man whose consummate villainy was second to none. Rather than asking whether there was anyone who displayed a greater lack of morality, people tended to ask under what circumstances he himself displayed a greater lack of morality than usual." (Sulla)

"[A]narchy is not the result of the commitment, all at once, of a serious crime, but people who fail to be strict about minor matters also destroy the guard that protects more serious concerns." (Aemilius Paullus)

A "GLC Councilor" comments on punk rock…

The 1980 rock/mockumentary "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" features remarks from a purported member of the Greater London Council regarding punk rock generally and the Sex Pistols in particular. As the band's manager brags in the same film about faking and otherwise hyping negative press, the authenticity of the speaker should probably be doubted, but I think whatever the case, the result is a great hatchet piece:

My personal view on punk rock is that it’s nauseating, disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic, and generally nauseating. I think that just about covers it, as far as I’m concerned. I think most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worst of the punk rock groups, I suppose currently, are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating. They are the antithesis of human kind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it. I think the whole world would be vastly improved by their total and utter non-existence.

From the Speech: "Citizenship In A Republic"

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
Delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on April, 23, 1910 

China's Central Organization Department (from Richard McGregor's "The Party")

The [Central Organization Department] is accurately, if blandly, described as the human resources arm of the [Chinese Communist] Party, but this does not do justice to its extraordinary brief and the way it is empowered to penetrate every state body, and even some nominally private ones, throughout the country. The best way to get a sense of the dimensions of the department's job is to conjure up an imaginary parallel body in Washington. A similar department in the US would oversee the appointment of the entire US cabinet, state governors and their deputies, the mayors of major cities, the heads of all federal regulatory agencies, the chief executives of GE, [ExxonMobil], Wal-Mart and about 50 of the remaining largest US companies, the justices on the Supreme Court, the editors of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, the bosses of the TV networks and cable stations, the presidents of Yale and Harvard and other big universities, and the heads of think-tanks like the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation. Not only that, the vetting process would take place behind closed doors, and the appointments announced without any accompanying explanation why they had been made.

Richard McGregor

The Party - The Secret World of China's Communist Leaders (2010, p.72)

Famous Last Words

"These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia; but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any impression."

General Edward Braddock, in reply to Benjamin Franklin, shortly before being mortally wounded in the Battle of Monongahela in 1755 (Franklin devoted several pages of his autobiography to his dealings with the general. Regarding the general's downfall, Franklin noted, "The whole transaction gave us Americans the first suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars had not been well founded."

U2 in Boston

I saw two out of U2's four Boston shows last week. Undeniably fun, my fandom is certainly rekindled. The band is only barely showing its age, it's four guys who are still giving their all, still able to sonically fill an arena without relying on back-up singers or other gimmicks.

Watching from the general-admission section on the floor with a high-energy crowd was great but the acoustics were terrible, even between songs. Conversely, watching from the loge level made for a better listening experience but standing with a largely torpid and emotionless crowd was a profound embarrassment.

Also, my two nights made for an interesting case study on the economics of ticket reselling. U2's fan base has clearly aged with the band and the numbers of fans who would bother to turn up at a sold-out show with only a hope or a prayer have certainly decreased. Perhaps overlooking such demographics, agents reportedly overbought for the Friday and Saturday shows and as a result great tickets were available for less than face value ($40 for a $300 club-level seat, in one instance) shortly before showtime.

Tuesday was a different story altogether; agent/scalper inventory was thin and the buyer's market evaporated. On top of that, a small number of heroin addicts remained willing to buy tickets after the scheduled start of the show with the hopes of flipping any ticket for enough to score a quick fix. That continued until one managed to do so, collapsed at the foot of the Bobby Orr statue, and was resuscitated by paramedics.

Lastly, if you absolutely *had* to buy a $10 hot dog or an $11.50 Bud Light, I suppose you could do a lot worse than those at the TD Garden.

Rock on.

From the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The year following, a treaty being to be held with the Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message to the House, proposing that they should nominate some of their members, to be joined with some members of council, as commissioners for that purpose. The House named the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being commissioned, we went to Carlisle, and met the Indians accordingly.

As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and, when so, are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling any liquor to them; and when they complained of this restriction, we told them that if they would continue sober during the treaty, we would give them plenty of rum when business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise, because they could get no liquor; and the treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the rum; this was in the afternoon: they were near one hundred men, women, and children, and were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter. We found they had made a great bonfire in the middle of the square; they were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting. Their dark-colored bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after and beating one another with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most resembling our ideas of hell that could well be imagined; there was no appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which we took no notice.

The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giving us that disturbance, they sent three of their old counselors to make their apology. The orator acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon the rum; and then endeavored to excuse the rum by saying: "The Great Spirit, who made all things, made everything for some use, and whatever use he designed anything for, that use it should always be Put to. Now, when he made rum, he said,' Let this be for the Indians to get drunk with,' and it must be so." And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea-coast.

Benjamin Franklin
Passy, 1784

Note to Self

Now whenever I hear any one advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of another, I pity the individual who would do this. I know that the one who makes this mistake does so because of his own lack of opportunity for the highest kind of growth. I pity him because I know he is trying to stop the progress of the world, and because I know that in time the development and the ceaseless advance of humanity will make him ashamed of his weak and narrow position. One might as well try to stop the progress of a mighty railroad train by throwing his body across the track, as to try to stop the growth of the world in the direction of giving mankind more intelligence, more culture, more skill, more liberty, and in the direction of extending more sympathy and more brotherly kindness.

...

No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward.

Booker T. Washington
Up From Slavery (1901)

More from "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier"

Time thus passed on to the nineteenth of April, when we had general orders read which satisfied the most skeptical, that the war was over, and the prize won for which we had been contending through eight tedious years. But the soldiers said but very little about it, their chief thoughts were more closely fixed upon their situation as it respected the figure they were to exhibit upon their leaving the army and becoming citizens. Starved, ragged and meagre, not a cent to help themselves with, and no means or method in view to remedy or alleviate their condition; this was appalling in the extreme. All that they could do, was to make a virtue of necessity and face the threatening evils with the same resolution and fortitude that they had for so long a time faced the enemy in the field.

Joseph Plumb Martin
West Point, April 1783

From "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier"

At one time it snowed the greater part of four days successively, and there fell nearly as many feet deep of snow, and here was the keystone of the arch of our starvation. We were absolutely, literally starved. I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except a little black birch bark which I gnawed off a stick of wood, if that can be called victuals. I saw several of the men roast their old shoes and eat them, and I was afterwards informed by one of the officer's waiters that some of the officers killed and ate a favourite little dog that belonged to one of them. If this was not "suffering" I request to be informed what can pass under that name; if suffering like this did not "try men's souls," I confess that I do not know what could.

Joseph Plumb Martin
Staten Island, January 1780

Quid Pro Quo

Don't "friend", "link", "ping", or even talk to me without first following me on Twitter. See the real Beijing (with a sprinkle of investor relations expertise).

Just Caught the Fever

My television in Stockholm gets only four channels and I had not thought to check for any Olympic coverage until today. After four hours, I think it's safe to say I'm hooked. In fact, I'm almost ready to recognize short track speed skating as a "real" event (compared to "ski cross" anyway).

I have always found Olympic coverage in the States to be virtually unwatchable, and skimming the TV listings for my hometown, it looks like this year would have been no different. The "glamor" events are sliced, diced, and saved for prime time where they are sandwiched between numerous ads and lengthy athlete "profiles".

Here I'm getting non-stop coverage--much of it live--across three channels. Ads are few and far between, and events are shown in their entirety. Extended replays and highlight reels are used to fill in any dead spots. For example, I watched Bode Miller win gold in the super combined as it happened, and then two or three hours later, during a break in the biathlon coverage, the final four runs of the combined were replayed, followed by a brief interview with Miller himself.

I realize NBC pays a lot of money to package its Olympic coverage however it likes, and I know the economics of foreign broadcasters are far different, but I also know that 1) the Olympic coverage I've seen in China, Thailand, and now Sweden blows U.S. coverage right out of the water, 2) U.S. viewers are held hostage while the rest of the world celebrates an "unadulterated" Olympics, and 3) U.S. sponsors are essentially subsidizing all of this great coverage that is viewable everywhere but the media capital of the universe. Incredible.

Don't call it "Passachusetts"

Whew.

Mid-Terms

I'm told that most law schools do not bother with mid-terms. At most schools you cram as much information as your brain will hold for a semester and then show up for an all-or-nothing final exam. That's the plan for one of my classes, Civil Procedure, but my Torts and Contracts professors gave us mid-term exams this week Depending on how I did, they might not count more than 10% towards my final grades, but at least I won't walk blindly into finals week.

The typical law school exam requires analysis. Knowing the relevant law is only a starting point. In fact, professors assume you know the law inside and out by exam time. The real test is applying the law to a given set of facts and arguing both sides of the situation. Quickly.

I've worked hard this semester and did the best I could, so that's good enough for me (for now, at least). The highs of law school are heady, while the lows can be crushing. Deciphering a judicial opinion that at first was as impenetrable as grantite can be incredibly satisfying -- until the next cryptic opinion forces you to climb from the depths of ignorance all over again.

We'll see how much of what I've learned is reflected in my scores, but I can pat myself on the back (as should every 1L) for being able to attack complex legal problems after just seven weeks of classes. And if honing my test-taking skills is my biggest challenge, I think I'll be OK.

Semantics

Have met a few 30-somethings in the last week. Apparently I missed the chance to meet several more at a mixer for "non-traditional" students during orientation week. I knew about it, but assumed "non-traditional" was the politically correct term for, well, NON-traditional students. Whose "traditions" are we talking about anyway? I'm not sure I'm not offended by the term.