Letters to the Editor
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Russ Allbery
John D. Rockefeller, Sr, the one who generated the fortune, was a bigoted, nasty piece of garbage. He gave nothing to anyone. His son, John D, Jr was the philanthropist.
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Be careful what you pretend to be...
Reminds me of a quote from Kurt Vonnegut, "Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be," which I discovered here -- http://www.syntheticzero.com/politics.oct2001.php -- and the post makes a similar argument about politics:
"I don't expect that much from our government. I don't expect it to generate a utopian society, or to avoid grabbing for power or monetary influence, or to stop pandering to corporate interests. What I expect is that these activities will be moderated, or limited, or constrained, to a certain degree. So, to me, the question is not whether there are ulterior motives for our actions (there _always_ are), but to what extent are these ulterior motives being constrained, and why?
"To me, politics is not about achieving ideological purity, but it has to do with memes that get circulated within what is essentially a complex system. I do not believe in 'the' reason we're doing things --- I don't think there is ever a single reason, or an underlying 'real' truth. Every story about what we're doing is both right and wrong. However, there is something important about the official reasoning, especially in a society with some degree of voter feedback, and that is that whatever we do has to in the end roughly be constrained to what is acceptable to the official reasoning.
"In other words, in a society with some voting feedback (I will avoid the word 'democracy' since this implies a level of control by the people that is, of course, only a fantasy), the government does not have to be good, but it has to avoid violating the norms of our society to the point that it becomes obvious that the official story (for example, the story that we're a 'free' country) is a sham. In other words, our leaders do not have to really be fighting for justice and freedom, they just have to appear to be doing so..."
By the way, I also recently came across another quote -- http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502780.html :P
"Be what you would seem to be -- or, if you'd like it put more simply -- Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." -- The Duchess in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
Cheers!
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@Portlander
Thank you for the correction on Rockefeller. I knew I should have done some research last night before adding random names I'd heard of on to Carnegie (who was the only one I was certain about -- he spoke a great deal about the culture of philanthropy).
I'll keep that in mind for the future.
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Setting Boundaries
We become what we practice to be. Just as a musician or a writer starts out with one mindset and limited experience, as he practices to be whom he wants to become, he progressively becomes more similar to that person.
Many times, his attitude and philosophy are radically different from the ones he began with. A shy 17-yr-old computer geek is not made into the Marine on the recruiting poster merely by wishing it or saying it. He becomes a Marine by dedicated practice and 13 weeks of intense training. He is transformed into an entirely different person, physically and mentally.
It may be that mandated force of habit has the power to transform even the unwilling. Remember that resolution you made a month ago to run 5 miles every day, even though you hate to run? If you have kept to that promise, your attitude and body are likely significantly different today. Your perspective and self-image are changed.
But there is one benefit from public promises - it draws attention and closer scrutiny to the actions of the offender, and he will be much more likely to follow the rules in the future, because now the boundaries have been clearly defined.
Of course, the exception to that rule is the idgit in the White House. He just destroys the evidence and moves his secret torture chambers to new locations.