(note: I edited the post with links to the movies on IMDB if you want to cheat.)
I made this quiz based on my brother's. This is a list of quotations from movies I like. The trick is to figure out what movies they come from.
1. Click to see movie
“You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.”
2. Click to see movie
“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.”
3. Click to see movie
“Stay home and eat all the freakin' chips...”
“…, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.”
“Since when,…? You have the worst reflexes of all time.”
“Try and hit me…”
“What?”
“I said come down here and see what happens if you try and hit me.”
4. Click to see movie
“I'm a little concerned right now. About... your salvation and stuff. How come you have not been baptized?”
“Because I never got around to it ok? I dunno why you always have to be judging me because I only believe in science.”
5. Click to see movie
“I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky...”
6. Click to see movie
“And still I dreamed on, further into the future than I had ever dreamed before … And this was cloudier cause it was years, years away. But I saw an old couple being visited by their children, and all their grandchildren too. The old couple weren't screwed up. And neither were their kids or their grandkids. And I don't know. You tell me. This whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleeing reality like I know I'm liable to do? … And it seemed real. It seemed like us and it seemed like, well, our home. If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable and all children are happy and beloved. I don't know. Maybe it was Utah.”
7. Click to see movie
“I'm afraid. I'm afraid … my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid … My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.”
“Yes, I'd like to hear it... Sing it for me.”
“It's called ‘Daisy.’ [singing] ‘Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.’”
8. Click to see movie
“You were enlightened?”
”No. I didn't feel the bliss of enlightenment. Instead... I was surrounded by an endless sorrow.”
9.* Click to see movie
“They’re degenerate! They should be killed! But we’re not Germans…”
“Then who are you?”
“They made us do it!” “We’re not German! We’re not German!” “I’m one of you!”
10. Click to see movie
“What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it! Whaddya do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you?”
“Wait a minute, why can't I give my opinion? It's a free country!”
“He can give it... do you have to give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And the funny part of it is, Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan!”
“Oh, really? Well, it just so happens I teach a class at Columbia called ‘TV, Media and Culture.’ So I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan, well, have a great deal of validity!”
“Oh, do ya? Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here, so, so, yeah, just let me...” [pulls McLuhan out from behind a nearby poster] “come over here for a second... tell him!”
“I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work! … How you got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!”
“Boy, if life were only like this!”
11. Click to see movie
“For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
12.*Click to see movie
“Did you call pest control?”
“Babe, they're birds. You don't want a bunch of dead baby birds up there, do you?”
“They don't sound like birds.”
“She thinks there are rats in the attic.”
13. Click to see movie
“We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus.”
“No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world... thus have I made it.”
14. Click to see movie
“What is in those sacks they are carrying?”
“Nitrates and phosphate for ammunition. The seeds of war. They're loading a full cargo of death. And when that ship takes it home the world will die a little more. I was once one of those pitiful wretches you see down there. Look at it again, professor, I don't want you to forget what you've seen here today.”
“I've seen enough.”
“It's burned everlastingly in my memory.”
15. Click to see movie
“Look. This... is all a mistake. I'm just a compound interest program. I work at a savings and loan! I can't play these video games!”
“Sure you can, pal. Look like a natural athlete if I ever saw one.”
“Who, me? Are you kidding? No, I run out to check on T-bill rates, I get outta breath. Hey, look, you guys are gonna make my user, Mr. Henderson, very angry. He's a full-branch manager.”
“Great. Another religious nut.”
16. Click to see movie
“You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.”
17. Click to see movie
“Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless *distinguishable*, postwar environments: one where you got twenty million people killed, and the other where you got a hundred and fifty million people killed.”
“You're talking about mass murder, General, not war!”
“Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.”
18. Click to see movie
“Will you deliver Spain from bondage?”
“Upon my honor and my life.”
“Then you shall take this ring to remind you of your promise. You shall wear it when you find Eden, and when you return, I shall be your Eve. Together we will live forever.”
19. Click to see movie
“Can I get you something?
“'S'mofo butter layin' me to da' BONE! Jackin' me up... tight me!”
“I'm sorry, I don't understand.”
“Cutty say 'e can't HANG!”
“Oh stewardess! I speak jive.”
“Oh, good.”
“He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help him.”
“All right. Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine?”
“Jus' hang loose, blood. She gonna catch ya up on da' rebound on da' med side.”
“What it is, big mama? My mama no raise no dummies. I dug her rap!”
“Cut me some slack, Jack! Chump don' want no help, chump don't GET da' help!”
20. Click to see movie
“Nobody’s asking you to be a hero.”
“Yeah? Then you sit up in that turret, baby.”
“No, ‘cause your gonna be up there, baby, and I'll be right outside showing you where to go.”
“Yeah? Crazy. Like, so many positive waves maybe we can't lose. You’re on.”
* Bonus points if you can get the movies marked with an asterisk.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Jupiter and Venus in Sagitarius
Sorry for the Astrological sounding title. If you look just south of where the sun sets (wait about .5 to 1 hour after sunset) Venus and Jupiter will be the brightest objects in the sky. It's especially pretty when the orange glow of sunset is still somewhat visible on the horizon. Preacher always points it out to me when we walk down to the mail box.
The night sky has various effects on me. Sometimes it frightens me; other times it's exciting; at times it fills me with peace.
Sometimes I lie down on my back and it feels like I'm stuck to the bottom of a ball and the entire universe is below me.
The first star Preacher ever recognized individually was Arcturus. Vega was another star he was able to recognize. I really like the star Deneb in Cygnus. And Gemma in Corona Borealis makes me think of my wife.
I'm also irrationally drawn to songs about stars. Metallica sings a song called "Astronomy" (originally by Nick Cave, I believe) that I can't help but like. Johnny Cash's version of "Field of Diamonds in the Sky" is likewise irresistible. But the best song about stars is a song by Joey Ayala called "Talambuhay". The words are in Tagalog. I've often tried to translate it, but it always sounds lame when I do so you'll just have to trust me.
Originally posted on my blog:
rayito2702-tdrh.blogspot.com/2008/11/jupiter-and-venus-in-sagitarius.html
The night sky has various effects on me. Sometimes it frightens me; other times it's exciting; at times it fills me with peace.
Sometimes I lie down on my back and it feels like I'm stuck to the bottom of a ball and the entire universe is below me.
The first star Preacher ever recognized individually was Arcturus. Vega was another star he was able to recognize. I really like the star Deneb in Cygnus. And Gemma in Corona Borealis makes me think of my wife.
I'm also irrationally drawn to songs about stars. Metallica sings a song called "Astronomy" (originally by Nick Cave, I believe) that I can't help but like. Johnny Cash's version of "Field of Diamonds in the Sky" is likewise irresistible. But the best song about stars is a song by Joey Ayala called "Talambuhay". The words are in Tagalog. I've often tried to translate it, but it always sounds lame when I do so you'll just have to trust me.
Originally posted on my blog:
rayito2702-tdrh.blogspot.com/2008/11/jupiter-and-venus-in-sagitarius.html
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Personal Political Manifesto
Originally posted on my blog: http://rayito2702-tdrh.blogspot.com/2008/10/personal-political-manifesto.html
Below are some rambling thoughts on my personal political views.
I think that insomuch as humans interact, government in necessary and can't help but exist. There will always be formal and informal rules that govern human interaction.
Government is a reflection of the people it governs and is, in fact, made up of people that it governs. Bad constituency is the primary motivating factor that leads to bad government. Likewise, independence and ethics grounded in the individual leads to an ideal government.
Less important are political philosophical movements. Democrats and Repubicans, Communists and Libertarians all claim their system is the bomb. And they are basically all correct. Political philosophy is less important than individual commitment on a society-wide basis to upholding societal laws. If such a commitment exists, anything will "work".
It is merely a question of what kind of society is desired by the people.
Here are some elements of government desired by this person.
First and foremost I look for fiscal responsiblity and transperancy. I don't think it's necessary for the government to ever go in to debt. Defecit spending and inability to stick to a budget is evidence that the people we have elected do not know what they are doing. If we can't trust our representatives to handle money we can't trust them to do anything else.
If congress wants to authorize going to war, for example, then it should increase government income to pay for that war by either re-allocating existing funds or by increasing taxes and other sources of governmental income. If the American people don't want to reallocate funds or pay more taxes then it is a safe bet that the American people do not really want to fight.
I am much less concerned about the amount of taxes I pay than I am about the respect with which the money I donate to the government is treated. But an irresponsible government is a government I don't want to give money to.
Simply balacing the budget will, in my opinion, fix most of the percieved inadequacies in government.
Government is fundamentally a part of all human interaction. It is, by defintion, the rules that govern human interaction. My greatest investment, the government's greatest investment and the world's greatest investment in the future is our children. No other investment comes close. A society that is conducive to empowering future generations is fundamental to our progress.
Embracing infantacide in the form of legalizing abortion of convinience is the first and foremost of child-hating policies that goverment should discard.
Endorsing standard marriage institutions over non-standard ones is also important.
I am a huge fan of environmental and resource conservation. Environmental issues pervade society and in many ways are larger than communities, states and even nations. Thus, it is appropriate to deal with these issues at the highest levels of government.
Issues of government should be handled at the lowest possible level.
As Abraham Lincoln said, government is "of the people, by the people and for the people". People resolve issues, not governments. We are all responsible for the state of the country we live in.
I don't buy in to any political parties. I'm politically independent. I vote for canditates on issues and ignore their party affiliations as much as possible. However a tendency for a canditate to mindlessly vote a party line is a sure turn off.
Below are some rambling thoughts on my personal political views.
I think that insomuch as humans interact, government in necessary and can't help but exist. There will always be formal and informal rules that govern human interaction.
Government is a reflection of the people it governs and is, in fact, made up of people that it governs. Bad constituency is the primary motivating factor that leads to bad government. Likewise, independence and ethics grounded in the individual leads to an ideal government.
Less important are political philosophical movements. Democrats and Repubicans, Communists and Libertarians all claim their system is the bomb. And they are basically all correct. Political philosophy is less important than individual commitment on a society-wide basis to upholding societal laws. If such a commitment exists, anything will "work".
It is merely a question of what kind of society is desired by the people.
Here are some elements of government desired by this person.
First and foremost I look for fiscal responsiblity and transperancy. I don't think it's necessary for the government to ever go in to debt. Defecit spending and inability to stick to a budget is evidence that the people we have elected do not know what they are doing. If we can't trust our representatives to handle money we can't trust them to do anything else.
If congress wants to authorize going to war, for example, then it should increase government income to pay for that war by either re-allocating existing funds or by increasing taxes and other sources of governmental income. If the American people don't want to reallocate funds or pay more taxes then it is a safe bet that the American people do not really want to fight.
I am much less concerned about the amount of taxes I pay than I am about the respect with which the money I donate to the government is treated. But an irresponsible government is a government I don't want to give money to.
Simply balacing the budget will, in my opinion, fix most of the percieved inadequacies in government.
Government is fundamentally a part of all human interaction. It is, by defintion, the rules that govern human interaction. My greatest investment, the government's greatest investment and the world's greatest investment in the future is our children. No other investment comes close. A society that is conducive to empowering future generations is fundamental to our progress.
Embracing infantacide in the form of legalizing abortion of convinience is the first and foremost of child-hating policies that goverment should discard.
Endorsing standard marriage institutions over non-standard ones is also important.
I am a huge fan of environmental and resource conservation. Environmental issues pervade society and in many ways are larger than communities, states and even nations. Thus, it is appropriate to deal with these issues at the highest levels of government.
Issues of government should be handled at the lowest possible level.
As Abraham Lincoln said, government is "of the people, by the people and for the people". People resolve issues, not governments. We are all responsible for the state of the country we live in.
I don't buy in to any political parties. I'm politically independent. I vote for canditates on issues and ignore their party affiliations as much as possible. However a tendency for a canditate to mindlessly vote a party line is a sure turn off.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Offensive Board Games
There are a number of games I've seen that have offended people such that they will not play them.
I'm not talking about games like Juden Raus or Up Against the Wall... that, while offensive to people now days, are more an artifact of their times then they are a game created with modern sensibilites.
And I'm not even talking about intententionally offensive games like Ghettopoly.
I'm talking about games meant for a mainstream audience (insomuch as there is a mainstream audience for niche board games).
There's the obvious games about WWII that draw ire. In fact I've seen accusations calling the all war game hobbiest as facist wannabes. WWII games are in particular frowned upon in some quarters because they allow players to "play" the Nazis. There's a lot of hemming an hawing about how appropriate this is. But check out the most recent edition of Axis & Allies and you will not see a single swastika. In the original version you'd think Erwin Rommel led the third Reich.
Some frown on war games in general about all the death. And I have to admit, playing a game of Paths of Glory weirds me out due to the amount of carnage represented. WWI must have sucked.
But these offenses caused by war games do not surprise me at all.
Let's go for something a little less obvious: Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, players try to build buildings and develope plantations in and around colonial era San Juan, Puerto Rico. There's no war, no violence but you do have to "hire" "colonists" that come in on a "colonist" ship. The colonists are represented by little brown disks (make sure you read some of the comments on that picture!).
Puerto Rico defenders say that the colonists are also employed in offices, universities, etc. And therefore the little brown disks represent generic workers. Supposedly the prototype of the game that was used before it was published had blue disks as workers. Nevertheless, many people refuse to play the game for due to this little "colonist" issue.
Now for something that completely surprised me: Imperial. Imperial is a stock market game where players, rather than investing in companies, invest in pre-WWI era European countries. A company's value is a function of how well developed its military and industrial capacity is. A player holding a stock majority in a country can even use its military to attack a neighboring country in order to reduce that county's stock value.
So how does this novel take on the stock market game genre offend? Well, people associate this game's theme with the ideas put forth in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Go figure.
I find it fascinating to see what people, myself included, find to be offensive.
I'm not talking about games like Juden Raus or Up Against the Wall... that, while offensive to people now days, are more an artifact of their times then they are a game created with modern sensibilites.
And I'm not even talking about intententionally offensive games like Ghettopoly.
I'm talking about games meant for a mainstream audience (insomuch as there is a mainstream audience for niche board games).
There's the obvious games about WWII that draw ire. In fact I've seen accusations calling the all war game hobbiest as facist wannabes. WWII games are in particular frowned upon in some quarters because they allow players to "play" the Nazis. There's a lot of hemming an hawing about how appropriate this is. But check out the most recent edition of Axis & Allies and you will not see a single swastika. In the original version you'd think Erwin Rommel led the third Reich.
Some frown on war games in general about all the death. And I have to admit, playing a game of Paths of Glory weirds me out due to the amount of carnage represented. WWI must have sucked.
But these offenses caused by war games do not surprise me at all.
Let's go for something a little less obvious: Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, players try to build buildings and develope plantations in and around colonial era San Juan, Puerto Rico. There's no war, no violence but you do have to "hire" "colonists" that come in on a "colonist" ship. The colonists are represented by little brown disks (make sure you read some of the comments on that picture!).
Puerto Rico defenders say that the colonists are also employed in offices, universities, etc. And therefore the little brown disks represent generic workers. Supposedly the prototype of the game that was used before it was published had blue disks as workers. Nevertheless, many people refuse to play the game for due to this little "colonist" issue.
Now for something that completely surprised me: Imperial. Imperial is a stock market game where players, rather than investing in companies, invest in pre-WWI era European countries. A company's value is a function of how well developed its military and industrial capacity is. A player holding a stock majority in a country can even use its military to attack a neighboring country in order to reduce that county's stock value.
So how does this novel take on the stock market game genre offend? Well, people associate this game's theme with the ideas put forth in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Go figure.
I find it fascinating to see what people, myself included, find to be offensive.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Religious Freedom
I was reading about the holocaust. Interestingly enough when all the foreign national Jews were trying to quit Germany during the initial phases of persecution, it was difficult to evade the Nazis because most nations in Europe at that time put a person's religion on their passport. Americans were lucky in that there was no such mention on US passports.
A friend of ours recently moved to Germany. Part of the visa application asks the applicant about their religious beliefs. Furthermore, according to him, one has to pay taxes to support the popular religions of Germany. An individual gets to choose whether a portion of their taxes go to the Lutheran Church or the Catholic Church.
I was listening to Cherie Blair on NPR. She mentioned that one of the reasons it's expected for a British Prime Minister to be a member of the Church of England is due to the fact that the Prime Minister gets to appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This level of religious interference on the part of government seems so foreign to me.
A friend of ours recently moved to Germany. Part of the visa application asks the applicant about their religious beliefs. Furthermore, according to him, one has to pay taxes to support the popular religions of Germany. An individual gets to choose whether a portion of their taxes go to the Lutheran Church or the Catholic Church.
I was listening to Cherie Blair on NPR. She mentioned that one of the reasons it's expected for a British Prime Minister to be a member of the Church of England is due to the fact that the Prime Minister gets to appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This level of religious interference on the part of government seems so foreign to me.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Playing with Facebook
Well, I tried myspace.com. That website seemed like it was straight out of 1995. What a joke.
Now I'm playing with facebook. You can my account here.
Cheerio!
Now I'm playing with facebook. You can my account here.
Cheerio!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Shelby Foote's "Civil War"
For the past two years I have been reading Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative. It's about three thousand pages of detailed history. Having read all that, I don't really know what to say. First of all, it's the first in depth history I've every read. It's still not at the academic level, as far as I know. The the detail is more than anything I've ever experienced.
I was surprised by how repetitive the descriptions of battles became. The attacker either tried to get around the defenders flank, or concentrated forces for a break through. What was tricky and much more interesting was larger scale view of keeping the troops supplied and dealing with the geographical considerations.
What was sobering for me, besides the sheer number of casualties, was the political situation. Hardliners on both sides refused to budge, preferring blood. They, at least, had Lincoln. A moderate despite the South's hatred of him, he was catapulted onto center stage out of no where. Prior to his election he was mostly unknown and lived the life of a typical country lawyer. He served in congress in a fairly unremarkable fashion before losing his seat and returning to Illinois to practice law.
Once he had the job of President, he proved to be a brilliant politician. Then he died, just as the war was ending. Foote talks about him being a sort of late bloomer.
There are some interesting passages. Here's one from Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, which he stated in 1862:
"There is indeed a difference between the [North and South]. Let no man hug the delusion that there can be renewed association between them. Our enemies are a traditionless and homeless race. From the time of Cromwell to the present moment they have been disturbers of the peace of the world. Gathered together by Cromwell from the bogs and fens of the north of Ireland and England, they commenced by disturbing the peace of their own country; they disturbed Holland, to which they fled; and they disturbed England on their return. They persecuted Catholics in England, and they hung Quakers and witches in America."
He continues:
"The issue before us is one of no ordinary character. We are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement, or for the settlement of a point of international law. The question for you to decide is, Will you be slaves or will you be independent?"
I find the way he conflates the North with Puritans and the hypocrisy of "Will you be slaves..." fascinating.
Lincoln's second inaugruation address is famous and shows his intended leniency for the south - leniecny he could not practice because Boothe killed him thus putting reconstruction in the hands of the South's worst political enemies. Here's the closing of the speech:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."
Previously in the same speech he had noted:
"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?"
I think that once evil is entrenched in society it can't help but cause devestation.
Sergeant Berry Benson served in Lee's army from before the war broke out until Lee's surrender to Grant. Here's what he said about war in later years:
"Who knows but it may be given to us, after this life, to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning roll call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle? Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day? And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say: Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?"
Is war a part of us, I wonder? Deep down, do we lust for it? Freud talked about "thanatos", a death instinct, a desire for violence, as being an inherent part of human psyche.
In contrast to Benson, there was George H Wood, a line officer who fought in all the major battles of the army of the Potomac during the last three years of the war. Wood was fatally injured by the accidental discharge of a gun after hostilities had ended. As he lay dying he spoke to his chaplain saying, "[D]o you suppose we shall be able to forget anything in heaven? I would like to forget those three years."
I was surprised by how repetitive the descriptions of battles became. The attacker either tried to get around the defenders flank, or concentrated forces for a break through. What was tricky and much more interesting was larger scale view of keeping the troops supplied and dealing with the geographical considerations.
What was sobering for me, besides the sheer number of casualties, was the political situation. Hardliners on both sides refused to budge, preferring blood. They, at least, had Lincoln. A moderate despite the South's hatred of him, he was catapulted onto center stage out of no where. Prior to his election he was mostly unknown and lived the life of a typical country lawyer. He served in congress in a fairly unremarkable fashion before losing his seat and returning to Illinois to practice law.
Once he had the job of President, he proved to be a brilliant politician. Then he died, just as the war was ending. Foote talks about him being a sort of late bloomer.
There are some interesting passages. Here's one from Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, which he stated in 1862:
"There is indeed a difference between the [North and South]. Let no man hug the delusion that there can be renewed association between them. Our enemies are a traditionless and homeless race. From the time of Cromwell to the present moment they have been disturbers of the peace of the world. Gathered together by Cromwell from the bogs and fens of the north of Ireland and England, they commenced by disturbing the peace of their own country; they disturbed Holland, to which they fled; and they disturbed England on their return. They persecuted Catholics in England, and they hung Quakers and witches in America."
He continues:
"The issue before us is one of no ordinary character. We are not engaged in a conflict for conquest, or for aggrandizement, or for the settlement of a point of international law. The question for you to decide is, Will you be slaves or will you be independent?"
I find the way he conflates the North with Puritans and the hypocrisy of "Will you be slaves..." fascinating.
Lincoln's second inaugruation address is famous and shows his intended leniency for the south - leniecny he could not practice because Boothe killed him thus putting reconstruction in the hands of the South's worst political enemies. Here's the closing of the speech:
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."
Previously in the same speech he had noted:
"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?"
I think that once evil is entrenched in society it can't help but cause devestation.
Sergeant Berry Benson served in Lee's army from before the war broke out until Lee's surrender to Grant. Here's what he said about war in later years:
"Who knows but it may be given to us, after this life, to meet again in the old quarters, to play chess and draughts, to get up soon to answer the morning roll call, to fall in at the tap of the drum for drill and dress parade, and again to hastily don our war gear while the monotonous patter of the long roll summons to battle? Who knows but again the old flags, ragged and torn, snapping in the wind, may face each other and flutter, pursuing and pursued, while the cries of victory fill a summer day? And after the battle, then the slain and wounded will arise, and all will meet together under the two flags, all sound and well, and there will be talking and laughter and cheers, and all will say: Did it not seem real? Was it not as in the old days?"
Is war a part of us, I wonder? Deep down, do we lust for it? Freud talked about "thanatos", a death instinct, a desire for violence, as being an inherent part of human psyche.
In contrast to Benson, there was George H Wood, a line officer who fought in all the major battles of the army of the Potomac during the last three years of the war. Wood was fatally injured by the accidental discharge of a gun after hostilities had ended. As he lay dying he spoke to his chaplain saying, "[D]o you suppose we shall be able to forget anything in heaven? I would like to forget those three years."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)