“History and geology show what an eyeblink it's been since our current, comfortable culture came about. And yet that culture is using up absolutely everything at a ferocious rate.” ShowsCultureComfortableRateCurrentsGeology Book:Earth Source: Earth
“The human brain became large by natural selection (who knows why, but presumably for good cause). Yet surely most "things" now done by our brains, and essential both to our cultures and to our very survival, are epiphenomena of the computing power of this machine, not genetically grounded Darwinian entities created specifically by natural selection for their current function.” KnowsHumansDoneCultureCausesNaturalBrainEssentialsSurvivalMachinesFunctionCurrentsEntityGroundedSelectionNatural SelectionHuman BrainComputingGood Causes Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“My current novel, Pallas, is all about that culture war - in fact it's been called the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Sagebrush Rebellion - and yet what I hear all too often from libertarians is that they don't read fiction.” WarFactsCultureFictionNovelCurrentsLibertarianRebellionTomsUnclesCabinsUncle Tom Author:L. Neil Smith
“There is a strong current in contemporary culture advocating ' holistic ' views as some sort of cure-all... Reductionism implies attention to a lower level while holistic implies attention to higher level. These are intertwined in any satisfactory description: and each entails some loss relative to our cognitive preferences, as well as some gain... there is no whole system without an interconnection of its parts and there is no whole system without an environment.” WellsWholeCultureStrongLossLevelsViewsAttentionEnvironmentHigherGainsCurrentsContemporaryCuresDescriptionRelativePreferenceCognitiveHigher LevelHolisticAdvocatingIntertwinedInterconnectionReductionism Author:Francisco Varela
“Culture is like the current of the ocean. Where has it taken your marriage?” CultureTakenOceanCurrents Author:Ted Lowe
“Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead... What I believe is, if he [Belcher] didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today... Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.” IfsBelieveEndsTodayCultureI BelieveBoysAliveCarGunArgumentUltimateTragedySafetyCurrentsStoresLoudFlawsAvoidingTeenageDisputesConvenienceConfrontationLive For TodayBaitHandgunsLoud MusicGun Culture Author:Bob Costas
“It does not try to reach down to the level of inferior classes; it does not try to win them for this or that sect of its own, with ready-made judgments and watchwords of its own. It seeks to away with classes, to make the best that has been taught and known in the world current everywhere, to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light, where they may use ideas, as it uses them itself, freely--nourished, and not bound by them.” MenWorldTryingMayDoeHas BeensMadeIdeasUseLightCultureWinningLevelsKnownClassTaughtReadyJudgmentBoundsCurrentsAtmosphereInferiorsSweetnessSects Author:Matthew Arnold
“I think there are universal principles that we should want to understand, but that are not necessarily good for us. We could recognise universal propensities which current cultures can't fully eradicate, which we would want to eradicate if we could. Let's say, a tendency for tribal violence. Or racism.” IfsThinkingWantShouldCulturePrinciplesViolenceRacismUniversalCurrentsTendenciesRecognisePropensity Author:Sam Harris