#second sin

[ahumourlessworld]

Ignoring the ignorance by Sebastian Eriksson

“Philosophy is, literally, the love of knowledge; phobosophy is the fear of it. There are obviously more “phobosophers" in the world than philosophers.” - Thomas Szasz, ‘The Second Sin’ (1973) [p. 24]

[silent-words]

I was looking through the "Chant of Light" Dragon Age wikia page, and found the Canticle of Silence with this quote:

The Old Gods will call to you, From their Ancient Prisons they will sing.

Then it goes on to talk about dragons with blackened wings. It occurred to me that it is probably not about the magisters who entered the Golden City (as it is supposed to be), but the Evanuris with their blighted dragons. Gods, imprisoned by Solas, who were not really gods but powerful elven magisters.

It's interesting that Canticle of Silence is among the apocrypha of the Chant of Light.

[mudwerks]

Visit Original Link

mudwerks | Second Sin (2013)

[ahumourlessworld]

“Childhood is a prison sentence of twenty-one years.” - Thomas Szasz, ‘The Second Sin’ (1973) [p. 1]

[ahumourlessworld]

The Tower of Babel by Alexander Mikhalchyk, 2019

“To concepts like suicide, homicide, and genocide, we should add "semanticide"—the murder of language. The deliberate (or quasi-deliberate) misuse of language through hidden metaphor and professional mystification, breaks the basic contract between people, namely the tacit agreement on the proper use of words. Thus it is that the “great" philosophers and politicians whose aim was to control man, from Rousseau to Stalin and Hitler, have preached and practiced semanticide; whereas those who have tried to set man free to be his own master, from Emerson to Kraus and Orwell, have preached and practiced respect for language.” - Thomas Szasz, ‘The Second Sin’ (1973) [p. 22, 23]

[ahumourlessworld]

“The rhetoricians of race are not content with repudiating the oppression of the Negro but acclaim that “black is beautiful"; the rhetoricians of drugs are not content with rejecting false claims about the harmfulness of certain drugs but assert that toxic chemicals “expand the mind"; the rhetoricians of madness are not content with opposing the psychiatric violence inflicted on persons labeled mentally ill but claim that schizophrenia is not a “breakdown" but a “breakthrough.” In short, ours is an age in which partial truths are tirelessly transformed into total falsehoods and then acclaimed as revolutionary revelations.” (p. 23, 24)

[ahumourlessworld]

"If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of the criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.

* * *

Punishment is no longer fashionable. Why? Because—with its corollary, reward—it makes some people guilty and others innocent, some good and others evil; in short, it creates moral distinctions among men, and, to the "democratic" mentality, this is odious. Our age seems to prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility." - Thomas Szasz, ‘The Second Sin’ (1973) [p. 42]

[ahumourlessworld]

Aristoteles bij de buste van Homerus by Rembrandt, 1653

“Human relations are problematic because men are driven by opposing but often equally powerful needs and passions, especially the needs for security and freedom. To satisfy the need for security, people seek closeness and commitment, and the more they attain these, the more oppressed they feel. To satisfy their need for freedom, people seek independence and detachment, and the more they attain these, the more isolated they feel. As in all such things, the wise pursue the golden mean; and the lucky attain it.” - Thomas Szasz, ‘The Second Sin’ (1973) [p. 53]