The Art of Tetman Callis

“The adjustment to anthropophagous collectivism is found as often among left-wing political groups as among right-wing groups. Indeed, both overlap: repression and crowd mindedness overtake the followers of both trends. The psychologies tend to meet despite the surface distinctions in political attitudes.” – Theodor W. Adorno, “On Popular Music” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin […]

[Read more →]

“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.” – P.J. O’Rourke (quoted by Clarence Page, “After O’Rourke, who can save conservative comedy now?”) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“We are, doubtless, in the main logical animals, but we are not perfectly so. Most of us, for example, are naturally more sanguine and hopeful than logic would justify. We seem to be so constituted that in the absence of any facts to go upon we are happy and selfsatisfied; so that the effect of […]

[Read more →]

“The findings of science entail that the belief systems of all the world’s traditional religions and cultures—their theories of the origins of life, humans, and societies—are factually mistaken. We know, but our ancestors did not, that humans belong to a single species of African primate that developed agriculture, government, and writing late in its history. […]

[Read more →]

“He, who hearkens with the inner ear, is a man of quick hearing, he who turns his eyes inwards, is a man of clear vision, and he who conquers himself is said to be strong.” – J. J.-L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

On the mountains are the thorny elms,In the low, wet grounds are the white elms.You have suits of robes,But you will not wear them;You have carriages and horses,But you will not drive them.You will drop off in death,And another person will enjoy them.On the mountains is the k’aou,In the low wet grounds is the nëw.You […]

[Read more →]

The sun is in the east,And that lovely girlIs in my chamber.She is in my chamber;She treads in my footsteps, and comes to me.The moon is in the east,And that lovely girlIs inside my door.She is inside my door;She treads in my footsteps, and hastens away.– “Tung fang che jih,” The She King, or, The […]

[Read more →]

The tribulus grows on the wall,And cannot be brushed away.The story of the inner chamberCannot be told.What would have to be toldWould be the vilest of recitals.The tribulus grows on the wall,And cannot be removed.The story of the inner chamberCannot be particularly related.What might be particularly relatedWould be a long story.The tribulus grows on the […]

[Read more →]

“It is a fundamental rule of statutory interpretation to determine and give effect to the intent of the legislature, and the best indicator of that intent is the statutory language, which is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning.” – Justice Pierce, In re Marriage of Stephen A. Calk Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter […]

[Read more →]

In the wild there is a dead antelope,And it is wrapped up with the white grass.There is a young lady with thoughts natural to the spring,And a fine gentleman would lead her astray.In the forest there are the scrubby oaks;In the wild there is a dead deer,And it is bound round with the white grass.There […]

[Read more →]

Dropping are the fruits from the plum-tree;There are seven of them left!For the gentlemen who seek me,This is the fortunate time!Dropping are the fruits from the plum-tree;There are three of them left!For the gentlemen who seek me,Now is the time.Dropt are the fruits from the plum-tree;In my shallow basket I have collected them.Would the gentlemen […]

[Read more →]

“All manner of valuable things lack a price tag not because they have no value, but because it is illegal to sell them.” – United States Attorney Damian Williams, “Sentencing Memorandum of the United States of America,” United States of America v. Stephen M. Calk, December 22, 2021 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email […]

[Read more →]

“The rain is what comes down from above; but when ordinances are numerous as the drops of rain, this is not the way to administer government.” – The She King, or, The Book of Poetry (trans. James Legge) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“We rise at sunrise, / We rest at sunset, / Dig wells and drink, / Till our fields and eat;— / What is the strength of the emperor to us?” – “Song of the peasants in the time of Yaou”, The She King, or, The Book of Poetry (trans. James Legge) Share this… Facebook Pinterest […]

[Read more →]

“There are not only true or false solutions, there are also false questions. The task of philosophy is not to provide answers or solutions, but to submit to critical analysis the questions themselves, to make us see how the very way we perceive a problem is an obstacle to its solution.” – Slavoj Žižek, “Philosophy, […]

[Read more →]

“The changes in advanced democratic societies, which have undermined the basis of economic and political liberalism, have also altered the liberal function of tolerance. The tolerance which was the great achievement of the liberal era is still professed and (with strong qualifications) practiced, while the economic and political process is subjected to an ubiquitous and […]

[Read more →]

“Withdrawal of tolerance from regressive movements before they can become active; intolerance even toward thought, opinion, and word, and finally, intolerance in the opposite direction, that is, toward the self-styled conservatives, to the political Right—these anti-democratic notions respond to the actual development of the democratic society which has destroyed the basis for universal tolerance. The […]

[Read more →]

“In endlessly dragging debates over the media, the stupid opinion is treated with the same respect as the intelligent one, the misinformed may talk as long as the informed, and propaganda rides along with education, truth with falsehood. This pure toleration of sense and nonsense is justified by the democratic argument that nobody, neither group […]

[Read more →]

“Censorship of art and literature is regressive under all circumstances. The authentic oeuvre is not and cannot be a prop of oppression, and pseudo-art (which can be such a prop) is not art. Art stands against history, withstands history which has been the history of oppression, for art subjects reality to laws other than the […]

[Read more →]

“Tolerance cannot be indiscriminate and equal with respect to the contents of expression, neither in word nor in deed; it cannot protect false words and wrong deeds which demonstrate that they contradict and counteract the possibilities of liberation. Such indiscriminate tolerance is justified in harmless debates, in conversation, in academic discussion; it is indispensable in […]

[Read more →]

“Surely there was a time I might have trod / The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance / Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God: / Is that time dead?” – Oscar Wilde, “Hélas” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“A man who sees inaction in action and action in inaction has understanding among men, disciplined in all actions he performs. The wise say a man is learned when his plans lack constructs of desire, when his actions are burned by the fire of knowledge. Abandoning attachment to fruits of action, always content, independent, he […]

[Read more →]

“Literature helps us, as Nietzsche would have put it, to become what we are. The characters and situations that interest us in literature are for the most part characters and situations that capture aspects of ourselves and our situation. Literature helps us make sense of our lives, helps us to fashion an identity for ourselves.” […]

[Read more →]

“Mean while declining from the Noon of Day, / The Sun obliquely shoots his burning Ray; / The hungry Judges soon the Sentence sign, / And Wretches hang that Jury-men may Dine.” – Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“The intellect of man is forced to choose / Perfection of the life, or of the work, / And if it choose the second must refuse / A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.” – William Butler Yeats, “The Choice” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart.” – William Butler Yeats, “Easter 1916” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“Probably a majority of the best English, French, Russian, German, and American novels fall into one of several nonegalitarian classes: novels preoccupied with private themes (as they now strike us) often archaically conceived, such as adultery and manliness (for example, Lawrence, Hemingway, Ford Madox Ford, and Joyce); adventure novels (a class that overlaps the first); […]

[Read more →]

“The classics are full of moral atrocities—as they appear to us today, and sometimes as they appeared to the more enlightened members of the author’s own society—that the author apparently approved of. Rape, pillage, murder, human and animal sacrifice, concubinage, and slavery in the Iliad; misogyny in the Oresteia and countless other works; blood-curdling vengeance; […]

[Read more →]

“Literature helps us understand others. Literature helps us sympathize with their pain, it helps us share their sorrow, and it helps us celebrate their joy. It makes us more moral. It makes us better people.” – Robin West, Narrative, Authority, and Law Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]

“The aesthetic outlook is a moral outlook, one that stresses the values of openness, detachment, hedonism, curiosity, tolerance, the cultivation of the self, and the preservation of a private sphere—in short, the values of liberal individualism.” – Richard A. Posner, “Against Ethical Criticism” Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print

[Read more →]