Currently doing my History reading. Good stuff mentioned by Howard Zinn.
Here are the Vietnamese complaints against the French:
"They have enforced inhuman laws.... They have built more prisons than schools. They have mercilessly slain our patriots, they have drowned uprisings in rivers of blood. They have fettered public opinion.... They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw materials....
They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people, especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty...
...from the end of last year, to the beginning of this year...more than two million of our fellow-citizens died of starvation....
The whole Vietnamese people, animated by a common purpose, are determined to fight to the bitter end against any attempt by the French colonialists to reconquer their country."
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Chapter 9: Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom
I am currently reading my US History Textbook A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. It is really good for a textbook.
Yeah. Chapter summary due Tuesday. Better begin reading it. teehee.
Government support of slavery was over practicality: Cotton production was increased dramatically (a thousand tons to a million tons) as slave labor grew (from 500k slaves to 4 million slaves) from 1790 to 1860. Full-scale rebellion or war necessary to end the slavery system. John Brown was hung in 1859 in attempt to start a small-scale rebellion.
Liberation became profitable as plantations turned to new cotton lands, but law went unenforced as slaves were still necessary for production. About 250k slaves were imported illegally after Civil War.
(page 172)
Yeah. Chapter summary due Tuesday. Better begin reading it. teehee.
Government support of slavery was over practicality: Cotton production was increased dramatically (a thousand tons to a million tons) as slave labor grew (from 500k slaves to 4 million slaves) from 1790 to 1860. Full-scale rebellion or war necessary to end the slavery system. John Brown was hung in 1859 in attempt to start a small-scale rebellion.
Liberation became profitable as plantations turned to new cotton lands, but law went unenforced as slaves were still necessary for production. About 250k slaves were imported illegally after Civil War.
(page 172)
Impressive Brad Pitt Quote?
I'm in love with him in Ocean's 11-13. But now I like him that much more.
"Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right to life. Let us be outraged, let us be loud, let us be bold."
"Let us be the ones who say we do not accept that a child dies every three seconds simply because he does not have the drugs you and I have. Let us be the ones to say we are not satisfied that your place of birth determines your right to life. Let us be outraged, let us be loud, let us be bold."
Friday, August 24, 2007
More More More + Some of Walden
And probably my last batch from Thoreau cuz I'm gonna be busy busy busy with class readings.
K. Some favorite quotes:
"I saw yet more distinctly the state in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."
"I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to?"
Walden
"Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits."
"I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wold, that they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wold, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can."
"But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost."
"Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its their fruits cannot be picked by them."
"Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath."
Some live on another's brass.
"I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro slavery..."
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."
"It is never too late to give up our prejudices."
K. Some favorite quotes:
"I saw yet more distinctly the state in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."
"I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to?"
Walden
"Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits."
"I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wold, that they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wold, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can."
"But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost."
"Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its their fruits cannot be picked by them."
"Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath."
Some live on another's brass.
"I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro slavery..."
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."
"It is never too late to give up our prejudices."
Saturday, August 18, 2007
More Thoreau (Civil Disobedience)
True place for a just man is the prison...in that place where the state places all those who are not with her, but against her.
"If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person."
Thoreau states that he can afford to resist allegiance and the penalty of disobedience would be less than that of obedience.
He wrote a note that he would not be paying to be a member of which he didn't sign up. He was left alone afterwards.
He had not payed poll-tax for 6 years and was put in jail for one night. He wondered on why he should be placed in jail, as if it were the best way to attain his service. He was punished physically since he was not learning anything from it. He lost all respect and pitied the State.
"Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses."
"They force me to become like themselves."
"When I meet a government which says to me, 'Your money or your life,' why should I be haste to give it my money?"
His cell mate was in for burning a barn, which he claim he hadn't done. He was let out of prison because someone intervened for him and payed the tax.
"If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person."
Thoreau states that he can afford to resist allegiance and the penalty of disobedience would be less than that of obedience.
He wrote a note that he would not be paying to be a member of which he didn't sign up. He was left alone afterwards.
He had not payed poll-tax for 6 years and was put in jail for one night. He wondered on why he should be placed in jail, as if it were the best way to attain his service. He was punished physically since he was not learning anything from it. He lost all respect and pitied the State.
"Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses."
"They force me to become like themselves."
"When I meet a government which says to me, 'Your money or your life,' why should I be haste to give it my money?"
His cell mate was in for burning a barn, which he claim he hadn't done. He was let out of prison because someone intervened for him and payed the tax.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Some more Thoreau from Civil Disobedience.
Men vote for an election candidate for being the only available candidate, which makes him as well off as a foreigner voting.
"The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by htose who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own cannot act and authrity he disregards and sets at naught..."
If you are cheated by your neighbor, you are not satisfied unless you mention that money or ask to have it payed back. You also make sure it is payed back in full and for the situation never to occur again.
On unjust laws, he asks if they should be obeyed, or if they should be ignored until they no longer exist.
If man who has no land refuses to pay the government, he is put in jail and not released until those who placed him there decided to do so. But if someone were to steal 9x that, he would soon be released.
"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go...but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."
"A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong."
He states how if one honest man were to be locked up in jail for ceasing to hold slaves, then it would be Abolition.
"For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever."
"A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight."
"If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man--not to make any invidious comparisons--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich."
"Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it."
"The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor."
Men vote for an election candidate for being the only available candidate, which makes him as well off as a foreigner voting.
"The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by htose who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own cannot act and authrity he disregards and sets at naught..."
If you are cheated by your neighbor, you are not satisfied unless you mention that money or ask to have it payed back. You also make sure it is payed back in full and for the situation never to occur again.
On unjust laws, he asks if they should be obeyed, or if they should be ignored until they no longer exist.
If man who has no land refuses to pay the government, he is put in jail and not released until those who placed him there decided to do so. But if someone were to steal 9x that, he would soon be released.
"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go...but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."
"A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong."
He states how if one honest man were to be locked up in jail for ceasing to hold slaves, then it would be Abolition.
"For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever."
"A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight."
"If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man--not to make any invidious comparisons--is always sold to the institution which makes him rich."
"Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it."
"The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor."
Friday, August 10, 2007
Civil Disobedience
Just started reading Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.
It's about how much better the government is when it governs least, and how one should question it and its motives.
Some favorite quotes (that are also relevant to present-day):
"The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail may also at last be brought against a standing government."
"Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure."
"But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."
It's about how much better the government is when it governs least, and how one should question it and its motives.
Some favorite quotes (that are also relevant to present-day):
"The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail may also at last be brought against a standing government."
"Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure."
"But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government."
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