#log

Violent ideologies speak their own language; core concepts are translated to maintain the system while appearing to support the people. Under carnism, for instance, democracy has become defined as having the freedom to choose among products that sicken our bodies and pollute our planet, rather than the freedom to eat our food and breathe our air without the risk of being poisoned. But violent ideologies are inherently undemocratic, as they rely on deception, secrecy, concentrated power, and coercion--all practices that are incompatible with a free society. While the larger system, or nation, may appear democratic, the violent system within it is not. This is one reason we don't recognize violent ideologies that exist within seemingly democratic systems; we simply aren't thinking to look for them. ↗

— Melanie Joy

#democracy #freedom-of-choice #violent-ideologies #food

I recently asked more than seventy eminent researchers if they would have done I their work differently if they had thought Darwin's theory was wrong. The responses were all the same: no. I also examined the outstanding biodiscoveries of the past century: the discovery of the double helix; the characterization of the ribosome: the mapping of genomes; research on medications and drug reactions: improvements in food production and sanitation; the development of new surgeries; and others. I even queried biologists working in areas where one would expect the Darwinian paradigm to have most benefited research, such as the emergence of resistance to antibiotics and pesticides. Here, as elsewhere, I found that Darwin's theory had provided no discernible guidance, but was brought in, after the breakthroughs, as an interesting narrative gloss. ↗

— Philip S. Skell

#darwin #darwinism #evolution #macro-evolution #macroevolution

I had always intended to make a living out of playing blues. But I never admitted it to myself. I don't suppose I could have given a logical reason for it ever becoming possible to do so. ↗

— Alexis Korner

#always #becoming #blues #could #ever

The professional study of economics has become ideological brainwashing. It is a defense of the excesses of the capitalist system. ↗

— David Korten

#brainwashing #capitalist #defense #economics #excesses

You can browse to your heart's content but it's hard work and not easy on the feet unless you do it through catalogs or the Internet, and I like to touch and try on the things I buy. ↗

— Judith Krantz

#buy #catalogs #content #easy #feet

There's the push and pull you put on yourself and the push and pull the world puts on you. Most of the time, the world's going to win out, because it's just logical that you should be more successful and more motivated. You can always be more. ↗

— John Krasinski

#because #going #just #logical #more

One gets into a strange psychological, almost hypnotic, state of mind while on the firing line which probably prevents the mind's eye from observing and noticing things in a normal way. ↗

— Fritz Kreisler

#eye #firing #gets #hypnotic #into

Half a million women die each year around the world in pregnancy. It's not biology that kills them so much as neglect. ↗

— Nicholas D. Kristof

#biology #die #each #half #kills

We must consider the distinctive characters and the general nature of plants from the point of view of their morphology , their behavior under external conditions, their mode of generation, and the whole course of their life. ↗

— Theophrastus

#characters #conditions #consider #course #distinctive

I won't compare ants and people, but ants give us a useful model of how single members of a community can become so organized that they end up resembling, in effect, one big collective brain. Our own exploding population and communication technology are leading us that way. ↗

— Lewis Thomas

#become #big #brain #collective #communication