PICTURES FROM AMERICA: Search results for passages

Friday, January 6, 2017

quoms: this is (imo) one of the most impressive and deeply insightful passages from Debt: The First... 14

this is (imo) one of the most impressive and deeply insightful passages from Debt: The First 5,000 Years, and something i wanted to share with the most of you who aren’t going to sit down and read the whole book. it’s going under a read more because it is just a smidge long, but do read it

When dealing with conquistadors, we are speaking not just of simple greed, but of greed raised to mythic proportions. This is, after all, what they are best remembered for. They never seemed to get enough. Even after the conquest of Tenochtitlán or Cuzco, and the acquisition of hitherto-unimaginable riches, the conquerors almost invariably regrouped and started off in search of more treasure.

Moralists through the ages have inveighed against the endlessness of human greed, just as they have against our supposedly endless lust for power. What history actually reveals, though, is that while humans may be justly accused of having a proclivity to accuse others of acting like conquistadors, few really act this way themselves. Even for the most ambitious of us, our dreams are more like Sindbad’s: to have adventures, to acquire the means to settle down and live an enjoyable life, and then, to enjoy it. Max Weber of course argued that the essence of capitalism is the urge–which he thought first appeared in Calvinism–never to settle down, but to engage in endless expansion. But the conquistadors were good medieval Catholics, even if ones usually drawn from the most ruthless and unprincipled elements of Spanish society. Why the unrelenting drive for more and more and more?

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Friday, June 26, 2015

Sayings by Thomas B. Reed in the New York Sun 11

New York Sun
December 14, 1902
Page 28

SAYINGS BY THOMAS B. REED.
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MORE EXAMPLES OF THE WIT OF THE LATE SPEAKER.
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Sarcasm Inspired by His Dislike of Gen. Harrison – Comments on Debate in Congress – Mr. Reed’s Suppressed Humor – Uprightness of His Character.

To everybody in Washington who had intimate acquaintance with the late Thomas B. Reed his aversion for the late President Harrison was well known. In December, 1892, after Harrison had been defeated for reelection by Cleveland Mr. Reed attended a dinner in Washington.
Before the seating of the party a friend greeted Mr. Reed in the reception room. After a few trifling remarks the friend ventured to express some regrets to Mr. Reed upon the defeat of his party.
The big Speaker heard the condolences with a serious face. Then his features relaxed, he swung back his arms and clapped his hands behind over the spikes of his black coat, and with the most amicable drawl responded:
“Thank you. But curses are not all unmixed; they come to us sandwiched with benefactions. This election we have just had, and which my party has lost, is not without its compensations for defeat. To me personally the outcome is gratifying, for it gives me the great satisfaction of knowing that for four years I can go to the White House to call upon the President of the United States without invoking the aid of the police to preserve the peace.”
This bitterness of Mr. Reed’ feeling toward President Harrison tinged most of his comments upon that statesman. Neither appeared to desire or attempt to reach an amicable attitude toward the other.
If Harrison did not indulge in severe remarks about Reed it was not because he did not feel and resent his criticism, but rather that a very high sense of regard for the dignity of his office restrained him. Mr. Reed was not constantly indulging in open sarcasm at Harrison’s expense, but he seldom let pass a private opportunity to convey his opinion that Harrison was a narrow and puny person.

HARRISON AND CHILE

An instance was made known on the day Harrison sent to the Congress his message carrying an ultimatum to Chile growing out of the controversies incidental to the revolution in that country, resulting in the overturning of President Balmaceda. Chile had been addressed sharply by the Department of State, with urgent representations about the importance of prompt reparation for various offences against American rights and honor, and the replies were provoking tardy and unsatisfactory.
To bring Chile to a definite position it was deemed to be wise and necessary to intimate that further disregard of the demands of the United States would compel the Government to resort to strenuous measures to support its demands. The message meant compliance with our demands on the alternative of war.
While the message of the President was being read in Congress came the news that Chili [sic] had accepted the remonstrances of our Minister and agree to repair the damages inflicted upon the national honor and the persons and property of our citizens in Chile.
Mr. Reed listened to the message without a frown and without applause. When the silver-tongued Breckinridge of Kentucky boldly intimated, during the brief debate on the question of reference, that the President had sent his ultimatum to Chile after he had learned that Chile had yielded to the arguments of our Minister, Mr. Reed was not one of the Republicans who defended the Administration.
After adjournment of the House a newspaper correspondent seeking opinions about the message went to Mr. Reed, then occupying a seat on the floor.
“Nothing,” was his reply to an inquiry as to what he thought of the message, particularly with reference to the passages touching the Chilean question,” nothing—for publication.”
He was urged to express his opinion for the private gratification of the newspaper man. His eyes snapped with a mixed fire as he unfolded his heart, with the injunction: “If you publish what I have said to-morrow, I’ll come to your office and kill you.”
His view of the message was given in a low voice, packed with infinite scorn:
“I do not think the President ought to have written such a message to those little Chileans. They do not wish to fight us; we do not want to fight them. What we ought to do is to charter a ship, not too large or too safe, put Harrison on board of it and send him down to fight the Chileans. He’s just about their size.”