假如生活欺骗了你，不要悲伤，不要心急！忧郁的日子里须要镇静：相信吧，快乐的日子将会来临！心儿永远向往着未来；现在却常是忧郁。一切都是瞬息，一切都将会过去；而那过去了的，就会成为亲切的怀恋。– 普希金(Pushkin, 1799-1837), 假如生活欺骗了你, 1825
No one really teaches me how to live my life. So I learn it bit by bit through mistakes.
小时候对未来没有什么梦想，只是觉得时间过得好慢，急着长大，却不知道要长成什么样的一个人。那时候也会遇到挫折和不开心的时候，大多只能自己安慰自己。有两首诗至今记忆犹新。一是李白的《将进酒》，尤其是那句“天生我材必有用”。另一首就是普希金的《假如生活欺骗了你》，“忧郁的日子里须要镇静：相信吧，快乐的日子将会来临！”我是成长在没有宗教的环境中的，那时对于信仰对于历史几乎一无所知，年轻又没有阅历，看不到自己的未来，更看不清历史的方向。因此也就只能用那两首诗来鼓励自己，一步一步地挪下去，做自己能做的事。现在回头看，当时自己那些“天大的”挫折和别人在文革或战争中所经历的磨难相比，简直不值一提，最多算作成长的烦恼而已。
不信宗教，却应该有一点自己的信仰和处世原则，这些将支撑自己度过那些人生中的黑暗时光。除了上面提到的两首诗，还相信其它什么呢？己所不欲，勿施于人。不劳无获。千里之行始于足下。种瓜可能得豆，东成而西就。塞翁失马，焉知非福。不断学习，不断探索。
笃信好学，守死善道。危邦不入，乱邦不居。天下有道则见，无道则隐。邦有道，贫且贱焉，耻也，邦无道，富且贵焉，耻也。– 孔子
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. (人生中遭遇什么并不重要，重要的是如何对待自己的遭遇。) – Epictetus
No man is free who is not master of himself. – Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. – Epictetus
words
frothy, a. made of, covered with, or resembling froth; foamy. playful fivolous in character or content. full of foam or froth, or consisting of froth or light bubbles.
milkshake duck, n. a popular person or thing that turns out to be problematic
frothing, n. exaggerated declamation; rant. a. producing or covered with lathery sweat or saliva from exhaustion or disease
flagellate, v. whip, scourge. to drive or punish as if by whipping. to criticize or reproach severely. he flagellated himself for years over the failure.
opprobrium, n. Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy. Scornful reproach or contempt. A cause of shame or disgrace.
stigma, n. An association of disgrace or public disapproval with something, such as an action or condition: synonym: stain.
meatspace, n. the physical world and environment especially as contrasted with the virtual world of cyberspace
writ large, on a larger scale or in a more prominent manner
eldritch, a. strange or unnatural especially in a way that inspires fear : WEIRD, EERIE.
phallus, n. penis. The sexually undifferentiated tissue in an embryo that becomes the penis or clitoris. A representation of the erect penis as an embodiment of generative power.
ersatz, a. used instead of something else, usually because the other thing is too expensive or rare
rapacious, a. excessively grasping or covetous; living on prey; ravenous. excessively greedy
investing
2026-11-13: As chief economic adviser at Allianz, Mohamed El-Erian, wrote on X the night before Huang resigned, “This is no ordinary CEO. This is no ordinary company. This is no ordinary sector. This is no ordinary time.” El-Erian said it’s hard to see the fallout being contained to just one company. And in a world without Huang, the cult of visionary founder disintegrates. Only the numbers and arguments matter. If they’re still good and compelling, the AI trade only looks more rock solid. Winning without your star player makes your team look good. (Can we say that Huang was the collateral damage from midterm election? Yes. the AI will survive without Huang for sure. but the AI bubble will pop sooner or later because it is really a bubble. in the end, the struggle of politics is the struggle of money.)
2026-11-12: Mollody Hobson: “I think the reason that it’s gotten frothy from our perspective is you have a lot of people chasing the same things. You also have this willingness to have this level of investment with no clear understanding of the payoff.” She’s talking about dot.com and AI bubble.
2026-11-12: Friday 11-06 NVDA closed at $186.64. During the weekend, the report on Jensen Huang is out. Down 5% in the premarket and closed at $178.67 on Monday (11-09). Then another affair of Huang was reported Wednesday (11-11) and the price is down 8% after-market. Now it’s around $159 (-15%) before market. Will NVDA fire Huang or will Huang resign from NVDA or nothing will happen? Two affairs is changing the course of AI for sure. Jensen Huang resigned to end this drama for NVDA. It will report its earnings on Nov 17 next week.
2026-11-08 Sunday: AI in the near future
Anthropic’s IPO dilemma after the AI sell-off: ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ Though the date of Anthropic IPO is not confirmed, the earliest could be Nov 16, 2026. Its valuation falls to $1.3T after the sell-off last week.
Nvidia’e earning report on Nov 17, 2026.
The news this weekend is that a woman CEO Jensen Huang was having an affair with was allegedly spying on him for the Chinese government. How much will it cost for Jensen Huang and Nvidia? Will it pop the AI bubble? NVDA closed at $186.64 last Friday (2026-11-06).
notes
- 翦一休：在启蒙和浪漫之间
18世纪末到19世纪中叶欧洲的浪漫主义文化运动是对17到18世纪主流的启蒙运动理性主义的反叛。浪漫主义时代的主旋律，可以概括成一曲由英国工业革命、法国政治革命和德国思想革命交织而成的三重奏。
浪漫主义有许多派别。在英国，如果以华兹华斯、柯勒律治和骚塞为代表的“湖畔诗人”算是第一代浪漫主义者的话，稍后的拜伦、济慈和雪莱等人就属于第二代浪漫主义者，他们以对启蒙精神更多的认同而与他们的前辈相区别。德国的情况刚好相反。歌德和席勒虽然促成了德国浪漫主义群体“耶拿圈（the Jena set）”的出现，却和圈内的如施莱格尔兄弟、费希特、谢林等反启蒙年轻成员保持着距离，他们因对启蒙思想的开明态度又被归为“魏玛古典主义”。法国浪漫主义（如雨果、拉马丁）和美国的超验主义（如爱默生、梭罗）。
18世纪末的英国，工业革命正在加速进行，蒸汽机和纺织机的普及使得工厂制度取代了家庭作坊，极大提升了生产规模和生产效率。随之而来的城市化进程迫使大批农村人口涌入城市，导致下层工人阶级居住条件恶化。工业化快节奏生活的压力，唤醒了人们对田园牧歌式的旧日时光的怀念，这为湖畔诗人对自然的赞美提供了丰饶的精神土壤。当自然与生活渐行渐远，歌颂自然的诗歌就成为生活的时尚。
我孤独漫游，像一朵云团\ 漂浮在峡谷和山丘之间\ 蓦然，我看见一丛丛\ 茂密的，金色水仙\ 在湖边，在树下\ 随风摇曳……
法国大革命对浪漫主义的影响深远而复杂。1789年的起义撼动了欧洲的教会与封建秩序，“自由、平等、博爱”的口号激发了浪漫主义者的解放感与叛逆勇气。华兹华斯奔赴革命圣地，结果是与一位法国女子生下一女；年轻的谢林与黑格尔在图宾根大学宿舍高唱《马赛曲》；费希特则宣称这场革命关乎全人类。然而，1793年的恐怖统治与随后的拿破仑战争，让许多人从狂热走向幻灭–以自由为名的革命最终走向了暴力与专制。法国大革命是启蒙思想的首次实践尝试，却以令人失望的结果收场。现在我们已经知道，法国大革命算不上启蒙精神的正确实践。但在当时的人们看来，法国大革命的失败已经证明了整个启蒙运动的失败。正是革命初期激发出来的叛逆精神和革命失败带来的理想幻灭，共同促使浪漫主义者开始探索有别于启蒙思想的另一种价值观。
18世纪末的德国尚未统一，仍是一个由普鲁士、奥地利以及无数小封建领地组成的“神圣罗马帝国”。伏尔泰挖苦地说，这块地方既不神圣，也不是罗马，更谈不上帝国。英国的工业霸权和法国文化光辉都使德国自惭形秽，拿破仑对普鲁士的战争更是一种屈辱。伯林说德国“受伤的民族情感滋养了浪漫主义思潮”，此言不虚。除开产生浪漫主义的地利天时，德国也有人和，因为德国一直是一个善于思辨的民族。从思想史来看，虽然对启蒙理性的首次挑战来自休谟，但真正为浪漫主义奠基的是康德–他回应休谟的质疑，划出了理性运用的界线，揭示出了人未被发现的认知能力。康德之所以把自己的哲学叫做“哥白尼式的革命”，是因为他把探究的焦点从外界转向内心，从盲目崇拜理性转向探索自我。不过，康德与浪漫主义的区别要大于相同，他是浪漫主义一个不情愿的导师。
浪漫主义最生动的注解不是那些伟大的艺术作品，而是两位英国诗人和两位德国文豪之间令人神往的友谊，是它们催生了浪漫主义运动。华兹华斯和柯勒律治在1795年曾有短暂的相遇，彼此都印象深刻。两年后，柯勒律治步行四十英里寻访华兹华斯，随即华兹华斯和妹妹多萝西就搬到柯勒律治居所附近。之后的日子里，两人几乎每天见面，漫步于山丘谷地，讨论诗歌、哲学和法国大革命。1798年，两人合作的《抒情歌谣集》出版。诗集以华兹华斯的诗歌为主，柯勒律治对诗集的贡献是他最著名的长诗《古舟子之歌》。《抒情歌谣集》代表了对18世纪诗歌传统的真正突破，通常被视为英国浪漫主义的开端。人们都同意，华兹华斯与柯勒律治短暂而耀目的友谊是英国文学史上最重要的篇章之一。而他们的友谊恰如其分地表征了浪漫主义运动的特质：热烈、复杂，却不算长久。
歌德和席勒的友谊始于1794年7月耶拿自然研究学会举行的一次讲座，此前两人曾有一面之缘却并无深交。那天两人并排走出会议厅时席勒评论说，植物学似乎是一种“看待自然的碎片化方式”。歌德听了精神为之一振，应和说他倾向于从一种整体的角度来理解自然。顺着这个话题他们边走边聊，来到席勒家。歌德一边继续热切地讲着他的“原型植物”理论（植物的所有形态都由一种原型的叶子发育而来），一边伸出手指在空中为席勒画出那片虚拟的叶子。席勒饶有兴趣地听着看着，却在歌德结束的时候摇摇头说：“那不是经验，那是理念”。这是一个有些突兀却让许多后人拍案叫绝的评论。因为席勒是一个资深的康德主义者，而此时的歌德仍然秉持柏拉图传统的经验和理念的两分法。其实在席勒的康德主义话语中，经验和理念是相辅相成的，歌德的“原型植物”其实是为他的观察数据提供形式的认知框架。那天的讨论以休战告终，双方都不认为自己是胜利者。不过，歌德后来表示，他很久没有享受过这样的“智力乐趣”了。
从浪漫主义的观点来看，康德-拉普拉斯星云说所探索的那个星空，或者哈勃望远镜中展示的那个星空，与梵高的《星空》里表现的那个星空，本是不同的对象。科学反映世界，艺术展现自我。撇开科学的“真理”和诗歌的“真实”区别何在的专门讨论，浪漫主义者的充满情感的世界图景的认知意义就在于，它们意在表明艺术本质上是一种不同于科学的人类精神活动。
和情感一样，想象力同样也是浪漫主义叙事的最重要的概念之一。情感是内指的，想象力是外向的；情感激发想象力，想象力深化情感体验，两者相辅相成。
柯勒律治在《忽必烈汗》中描写的宫帷帐幕异域风情都是想象力丰富的神来之笔：在上都，忽必烈汗\ 下令建造一座宏伟的乐宫：\ 那里，圣河阿尔夫流淌，\ 穿过人类无法测量的洞穴，\ 注入没有阳光的海洋。
浪漫主义的想象力是思想和情绪的一种定向的投射，投射的方向是在投射之前预知的。投射是一种放大，它的发生是随机的。投射本身并不改变现实，但它改变现实给人的感受，而且很可能带给人某种现实自身所能给与的感受以外的某种新的感受—这就是人们常把想象力视为创造力源泉的原因。
没有想象力，这灵性之爱无法续存\ 而想象力，其实\ 不过是绝对力量的别名–\ 那是明澈的洞见，浩瀚的心智\ 以及至高境界的理性
爱因斯坦在1929年的一次采访中说到：“想象力比知识更重要，因为知识局限于已知，而想象力包容未来的一切。”这些例子无不说明，科学发现高度依赖想象力作为设计假说、构建理论、突破现有感官数据的认知动力。它们也证明了想象力如何驱动理论创新。
诗歌和诗人在浪漫主义时代享有的显赫的地位和荣耀。雪莱在诗中写道：诗人在某种意义上是大地的先知，他们用自己的光芒照亮尚未显现的事物。诗人是世界未被承认的立法者。诺瓦利斯说：我们肩负重任，肩负着改造世界的使命。这类表达当然并非诗人的夸张和狂妄，它们其实反映了诗歌在那个时代更为核心的社会作用。
法国诗人戈蒂耶: 在黑暗教堂闪烁的彩窗中，夕阳的火焰燃烧又熄灭，在古老的拱顶下，沉默沉睡，一阵冷风滑过，带着旧日的和弦。
在《色彩学》中歌德写道：光是自然的生命，色彩是它的呼吸。他们（指牛顿派）用玻璃的刀切割光的身体，却不知道他们伤害了它的灵魂。济慈也在《拉弥亚》中也对牛顿光学进行了谴责：天堂里曾经有一道庄严的彩虹\ 我们知道她的脉络，她的质地\ 她被列入了杂物的乏味清单\ 哲学将剪去天使的翅膀\ 用规则和线条征服一切奥秘
文艺复兴和启蒙运动以来自然科学为人类带来的巨大进步和福祉，使我们对科学造福人类的前景深信不疑。然而，正如玛丽·雪莱提醒我们的那样：科学本身虽无善恶，但一旦被误用或滥用，便可能带来灾难性的后果。对科学理性保持必要的警觉与反思，能使我们变得更加清醒而富于远见。
康德是启蒙时代和浪漫主义时代之间的过渡。康德认为，我们所认识的世界（现象界）是由人类心智的先天结构（如时间、空间和范畴）在感觉材料上构建的，而独立于我们认知的“物自体”是不可知的。他承认外部世界提供感觉，也强调心智在塑造经验中的主动角色。他的名言是：“没有内容的思想是空洞的，没有概念的直觉是盲目的。”因此，我们的世界，正如深谙康德哲学的华兹华斯概括的，是一种“一半创造，一半感知”的存在。这个世界，也就是艾布拉姆斯在《镜和灯》中所说的被“灯”照亮的世界。至于那超出灯光所及之处是什么，康德则认为无人可知。
受康德先验哲学启发，费希特也强调心智的建构作用，但对康德的现象界/物自体的二元论抱有不满。他在康德形而上学的先验认知主体与道德实践中的自主道德主体之间看到了不一致，决定把康德能动的道德主体推广到形而上学领域。由此他提出“绝对自我”的概念，认为自我“无条件地假定自身存在”，而“非我”（如自然、他人）仅作为自我的对立物存在。这种“自我哲学”消解了康德的“物自体”不可知性，主张世界因自我的行动而可知，为浪漫主义的个体主义提供了哲学基础。
谢林的名言是：自然是可见的精神，精神是不可见的自然。“只要我自己与自然是同一的，我就能理解什么是活生生的自然，就像我理解我自己一样。”这是一个令人激动的想法，激发了浪漫主义艺术家无穷的灵感。即使在今日，仍有许多人从中汲取精神滋养。
艾布拉姆斯对华兹华斯的《序曲》和黑格尔的《精神现象学》进行了平行解读，发现这两部作品都试图表达一种有机的、进化的人类精神之旅。而且对旅行的目的地，两位作者得出了相似的结论：黑格尔说，凡是现实的都是合理的；华兹华斯说，如果理解正确，我们都会欣然。
启蒙运动和浪漫主义的关系应当怎么看。我相信，以对启蒙和理性的重申来结束关于浪漫主义的讨论是恰当的，这不仅是因为科学造福人类，也是因为浪漫主义本身固有的局限性。我们已经看到，浪漫主义的核心主张是强调情感、诗意、想象力、自我表达和个性塑造的重要性。这种主张对于个体的自我实现固然重要，但我们必须十分警惕有人把这种信条搬入社会治理和国家设计之中。一个浪漫主义者成为政治领袖，往往会给人类带来灾难，这是历史给我们所有人的教训。另外，自我实现的界限在哪里？是否所有自我实现的要求都是合理的？所有人的自我实现的要求如何相容？自我实现和社会进步以及现代性的关系如何？如此等等的问题我相信都是正当的，同时我相信浪漫主义的叙事迄今对这些问题提供的答案并不令人满意。因此，推进启蒙和弘扬理性，今天是将来也许仍然是一项未竟的事业。问题只是，我们应当怎样在启蒙和浪漫之间保持平衡？
罗蒂指出了思想史上两种人类需求：一种强调自我实现和个性发展，这是“自我创造”的需求。重视这种需求的代表人物包括尼采、海德格尔和福柯等人。另一种是寻求共识、避免残忍的人类需求，称为“人类团结”的需求，得到杜威、哈贝马斯等人的支持。罗蒂所说的“自我创造”对应于私人领域，强调个体通过文学、哲学或艺术等等进行独特的自我表达和个性塑造，这是浪漫主义的主张；而“人类团结”则对应于公共领域，涉及社会正义、道德责任和政治安排，体现启蒙主义的价值。他反对将私人领域的自我创造直接应用于公共领域，因为这可能导致政治上的激进主义并危害社会团结。同样，公共领域的规范不应搬入私人领域，因为这会压抑人的创造力。
Microsoft exchange down on Nov 12, 2026 for a long time.
Outlook outage: Microsoft reports ‘issues’ with Teams and email
谢基立：国服中山装
(中山装)这种直翻衣领、上下左右有对称的两对贴袋、五颗纽扣的服装，便在荣昌祥呢绒服装店诞生了。据史料记述，袋盖采用倒笔架形，显示中国人注重文化知识，五颗纽扣象征当时推行的“五权宪法”，四个口袋寓意礼、义、廉、耻“国之四维”。 后背不破缝，是国家和平统一的含义。
- 老礁：探魂——访贝尔格莱德“南斯拉夫博物馆”
1980年铁托逝世，然后苏联解体，冷战结束，世界局势遽变，组成南斯拉夫的各个共和国和不同民族本就有的深远历史矛盾和纠葛，没有了铁托的铁腕和圆熟的政治手段，爆发了内战和大规模屠杀，先是斯洛文尼亚与克罗地亚率先宣布独立，马其顿和平公投宣布独立，波黑宣布独立后，波黑内波斯尼亚人、塞族和克族之间的政治与军事冲突全面升级，爆发了极为惨烈的波黑战争，导致数十万人伤亡，至此，南斯拉夫社会主义联邦共和国实际上已经瓦解，原来的六个加盟共和国各自走上了不同的道路。1992年4月，留在联邦内的塞尔维亚和黑山两个共和国宣布组成南斯拉夫联盟共和国（简称“南联盟”）， 塞尔维亚境内的科索沃自治省阿尔巴尼亚族人寻求独立，引发武装冲突，科索沃危机在1998年升级为大规模武装冲突。北约于1999年3月24日至6月10日以制止人道主义灾难为理由，对南联盟发动了持续78天的军事空袭，第二南斯拉夫最终走向了坟墓，留下的遗踪就剩下这座位于贝尔格莱德西郊的小博物馆了。
The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. … But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. – Plessy, 163 U.S. at 559 (Harlan, J., dissenting).
book: Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot, and Peter Hutchison, 2024
book: Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life, by George Monbiot, 2013
渴望自由
渴望和激情是人心未死的证明。对自由的渴望和追求自由的激情可以被压制，但不会死灭。
Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame. Where there is a flame, someone’s bound to get burned. But just because it burns doesn’t mean you’re gonna die. You’ve gotta get up and try, try, try …
everything you need to build one is on github and aliexpress.
- 林兆彬：中共真正惧怕的，是镜子里那个年轻的自己
革命成功之后，革命者最怕的，就是下一个革命者。1919年五四运动「外争国权，内除国贼」，其核心是学生对权威的反抗。1935年的一二·九运动亦是如此，北平学生游行反对华北自治，姚依林、黄华、蒋南翔是当时的学运领袖。中共害怕学运，因为它了解学运的核心是质疑体制。五四把矛头指向北洋政府卖国，一二·九质疑国民党的不抵抗，1989年批评中共腐败。为何中共对所谓「勾结外国势力」如此敏感？ 因为他们深知，决定中国过去百年命运的关键正是外国势力，亲身体会过外国势力怎样改变中国的历史进程，对于这种力量防范之严密，正是源于对自身崛起历史的认知。
Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco: Disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
Freedom and liberation are an unending task.
For my generation this question is irrelevant: we immediately understood the moral and psychological meaning of the Resistance. For us it was a point of pride to know that we Europeans did not wait passively for liberation. And for the young Americans who were paying with their blood for our restored freedom it meant something to know that behind the firing lines there were Europeans paying their own debt in advance.
If by totalitarianism one means a regime that subordinates every act of the individual to the state and to its ideology, then both Nazism and Stalinism were true totalitarian regimes.
If the Nazi architect was Albert Speer, there was no more room for Mies van der Rohe. Similarly, under Stalin’s rule, if Lamarck was right there was no room for Darwin.
Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist. Take away imperialism from fascism and you still have Franco and Salazar. Take away colonialism and you still have the Balkan fascism of the Ustashes. Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism (which never much fascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celtic mythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) and you have one of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola.
I think the praise that people give you on the internet is real, and the opprobrium and stigma is real always also. The internet is real life. You can log off, but you can leave most situations in meatspace also. The fact that you can leave a situation does not make the situation unreal or false.
You are small and that is the reality. You are small no matter how big you feel.
It’s too easy to say the internet sucks, the phones suck. The internet sucks in exactly the same way that everything else sucks. The problem is not that the internet or the phones apps are uniquely awful but that they are awfully like everything and everywhere else, and they didn’t used to be. They used to be an escape — because they used to be, effectively, a subculture. Before the internet became the culture, or the culture took over the internet, it was on the television.
It would be an error, as I see it, to associate fascism with hatred.
Fascism trafficks in a politics of frustration and resentment. These are ordinary and mundane emotions, and that is why they are so effective. It is for that reason that fascism lies whisperingly close to the populace so very much of the time.
The outgroup is not hated, they are resented for existing. Certain people want to destroy nonbinary people, not because they hate us, but because they resent our existence and what it implies. Resentment is not related to hatred, it is not even a form of anger: it is a form of envy.
Anxiety plays a significant role here also. For the fascist. This can be hard to recognise in its guise beneath the frothing of extremists, but everyone likes to dress up. I think the real origin of fascism is a desire for safety and control so great that it begins to claim dominion over others. We all recognise the validity of using any measure necessary in service of self defense; fascism has its root in being threatened by life itself, thus making all manner of violence against it always sanctioned and necessary.
The problem is not hatred. I do not mind if people hate me. I don’t like it, but it doesn’t affect me very much. I hate a lot of people, and not always for excellent reasons, but that is my business. What matters is what I feel entitled to do with that hate.
Excessive desire for safety is far more dangerous because it feels so right and so righteous.
I don’t like that quote from Toni Morrison and various other people about how in real life goodness and good people are interesting and beautiful, while real life evil is boring and tedious, etc — I think this is a misreading of Arendt (but a popular one, and anyway maybe I’m wrong and Arendt did literally mean that) — and the problem with this take is that it isn’t true. Real evil is extremely exciting (in destruction instead of construction?).
And Jean Amery wrote about this: The banality of evil is a fantasy in itself. (At The Mind’s Limits, P25). Smashing things and people up is always exciting. The thing that is not exciting is the long slow slide into the consequences of the smashing.
book: Jean Amery (1912-1978), At the mind’s limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and its Realities, 1966.
I think we argue about the Elon Musk nazi salute because we can’t argue about the Elon Musk USAID thing, because the meaning of the Elon Musk USAID thing is unequivocal, and we do not want to be intimate with that meaning.
“Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons - doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.” (Eco, same again). I will put emphasis on non-standard: fascism is a homogenising impulse. Cf. safety and control.
The shrugging off of this burden in the conservative — the radical contention that what matters is not history but my opinion about history however unhinged and even fabricated it may be — is the start of fascism. Fantasy life is bizarre, charged, incoherent, ridiculous; it is extraordinarily dangerous to have it enter into politics more than a minimal amount.
It is we, the intellectuals, who foolishly believe a person should or kind of “must” have some kind of motivating coherent ideology or even some fuller set of thoughts and opinions and desires beyond pure and simple domination (“winning”).
Naivety about this is sustained in part because it is too horrifying to consider. One of the things i noticed about how abuse functions on a variety of scales is that the eagerness of the victim to believe they are NOT in an abusive situation carries quite a lot of the water.
“if [trans people, intellectuals, etc] behaved better, or conducted ourselves more thoughtfully, they wouldn’t hate and persecute us” man come on. some of you need to go into therapy/analysis tout suite. the reason fascists hate intellectuals is that they hate the idea of evidence. the reason they hate queer people is that they hate freedom.
Fascism is a horror of life and vulnerability. We have said that. Now it’s time to stitch the things together. I will start. Thus, let us see that the crime committed by the people of USAID was to see and care about vulnerability, and the crime committed by the recipients of USAID was to be vulnerable at all. Need, human need, our need for each other, our mutual interdependence, is abhorrent.
Dying, or more specifically being subject to death at an unknown and yet appointed hour, is the ultimate vulnerability. Such a process — that thing, as an experience — must be prohibited. Thus, fascism is a suicidal position that is taken up to avoid or combat failure and decay. Degeneration, ageing, contact with outside forces be they cultural or biological has to be strictly prohibited.
In fact the fascist right wing scorns and disdains Charlie Kirk for the same reason that they disdain the troops — he got killed, and the troops can die. Getting killed is weakness and failure.
One of the reasons hatred is actually not associated with fascism is that hatred requires caring about beliefs. But the fascist personality does not have beliefs, it has desires, or perhaps more accurately appetites, the thing that Freud called drives. It will profess to have whatever beliefs necessary or useful for the furthering of these drives, nothing more. For this reason fascists are not galled or ashamed by their own hypocrisy — it means nothing to them, what matters is the rapacious desire for power, and that is constant. We more lowly mortal humans are ashamed of our hypocrisy because we take our beliefs seriously, not just intellectually but emotionally they matter to us. We liberal democrats are particularly concerned with legitimacy; there is nothing for which the fascist cares less. If I can kick you, I kick you. That is all the legitimacy I need.