User talk:Peter1c/Archives/2

Basic income

Hi Peter! I just noticed that a while ago you created a page for basic income quotes -- nice work!

I've been drafting a page like that but I guess by starting out too ambitious I ended up letting that work stale as other stuff took priority. I thought I'd let you know about it, in case you want to integrate some of that info into the live page :)

Cheers, Waldir (talk) 09:30, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Waldir, I have added all sourced quotes to the Basic income page, and all unsourced quotes to the talk page. At your earliest convenience, please provide sources for the unsourced quotes and move them to the article. ~ Peter1c (talk) 16:40, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, that was really great work. I will look into digging up proper sources for the remaining items. Cheers! --Waldir (talk) 09:59, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Brief note

I am only briefly in, before I have to attend to other very extensive matters in coming days. I wish to note that have much appreciated and welcomed many of your additions, but been appalled at some of your revisions and reductions of links, such as I have noted in some of your recent edits. Wiki-links provide means of access to other pages which are very important to any wiki, and I am almost always inclined to oppose the reduction of these from the pages as reducing the opportunities of people to link directly to other ranges of ideas and quotes. There are other matters of approval or disapproval I might attend to in coming days, but I am not likely to have time to discuss matters within the next day or so. I have to attend to a few other things now, and will likely soon be off of the internet for at least some hours. So it goes… ⨀∴☥☮♥∵ॐ …Blessings. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 00:10, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Dear Kalki, I am sorry to have upset you by removing links. I think that we may disagree about the criteria that decide whether a link is relevant, and it might be valuable to discuss the principles we use. The principle I use is this:

A link is relevant if the reader might reasonably be supposed to be prompted by the quotation to seek information from the linked article.

So, for example, linking to [[Being]] for an ordinary use of the word "be" would be irrelevant, and therefore reasonable to delete.

Consider this example:

* The more one [[suffers]], the more, I [[believe]], has one a [[sense]] for the [[Comedy|comic]].

** [[Kierkegaard]]

I argue that the link to [[belief]] here is no more relevant than linking to [[Being]] for every use of the word "is."

Specific cases will fall somewhere on a spectrum of relevance, which will inevitably be subjective, but, frankly, one gets the impression that the purpose of some of these links is more to publicize certain pet projects than to provide relevant resources for the reader.

I am confident that we can work out our disagreement on this matter. Remember that you persuaded me from a fan of chronological ordering to a fan of alphabetical ordering (thank you). I am open to being persuaded/refuted in this case as well. Best regards, ~ Peter1c (talk) 02:16, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Please stop removing CLEARLY relevant images

I just restored the image File:LuMaxArt Human Family with World Religions.png to illustrate a quote on the Cat Stevens page, and might restore the image on other pages from which you have been removing it, if I have time enough to do so. You might perhaps think I created that image merely because I made a PNG version of a pre-existing JPG of it which was at the WIkimedia Commons, but whether this be the case or not, I have for some time been rather angered and tempering my anger at the asinine commentary that has gone on among a FEW people about CONTROLLING the options of others in presenting ideas, information and images on this wiki, because I have recognized that I have been far too busy with far too many things to get into extensive debates on such matter with people I perceive to be acting not only irrationally but immorally. I will probably address the issue further in a few days, but do not have time now, as I just checked in here very briefly, and must be leaving again within the next 20 minutes at the latest. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 12:21, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Dear Kalki: Thank you for your message. I will stop removing the images while we wait for your input, but we have a consensus on the Village Pump to remove these sorts of images, which are (1) not from a notable source and (2) not NPOV. I understand that you are busy, but this is an issue that the community needs to resolve. Your fellow editors are also awaiting your response to the issue of Linking everyday terms. You have been a supporter of Open discussion in the past. Why not on these latest issues? ~ Peter1c (talk) 12:40, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

I did have time to revert a bit more of your recent deletions of clearly relevant images, and noticed that it was NOT the png version of the image but the jpg version you had been removing, among others, and simply wish to note that mistake on my part, in my earlier comments. I just had an edit conflict here, as I began to post a further response, but I don’t have time to respond further at this time. I will try to address this and other issues within the next few days, but remain EXTREMELY busy, and MUST be leaving NOW. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 12:43, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Anna Sui

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the feedback, think I followed the template for the actual quotations, the reference tags were for the introductory sentence only in case anyone needed to verify. Happy to remove. MargaritaPoppa (talk) 05:40, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi MargaritaPoppa. Thanks for your message. As long as the info is sourced on the linked wikipedia page, there's no need to reference the source on the wikiquote page.

It also looks the the {{cite}} template doesn't work very well, since it is putting a period at the beginning of your citations for no apparent reason. I've never used it, so I can't offer suggestions how to coax it to do what you want.

Best regards, Peter1c (talk) 12:17, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Peter,

Will try and look at using just the text instead of the cite template, see what you mean by the . Thanks again! MargaritaPoppa (talk) 13:20, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

"Michael Scott Gallegos" review

If you have a few minutes to look at Michael Scott Gallegos and feel that it falls within the requirements of the Wikiquote community to be retained, I would appreciate a vote to keep the article. I understand that if you do not believe that the article is worthy of retaining, you will not be able to vote in its favor. Please note that the "Quotes about Gallegos" section was added after the nomination for deletion, so as to provide evidence of 3rd party recognition of his work. Anything resembling promotion of his site will be removed if the article is retained. Sorry for the late notice, but the vote closes: 18:00, 15 December 2016. Thank you for your consideration of this matter, and for all of the good works that you continually contribute to the Wkiquote project. ELApro (talk) 04:02, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi ELApro. Thanks for your message. Your best bet would be to create a Wikipedia article to establish notability. I think all the Wikiquote editors will abide by Wikipedia's decision. ~ Peter1c (talk) 11:45, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for your wise and highly valued advice. An article on ThoughtAudio has been posted at Wikipedia. ELApro (talk) 13:35, 16 December 2016 (UTC)

Taking the red pill

Watching this random YouTube video somehow reminded me of you (the skepticism of the modern day "rat race" part). I found your section on Therapy hilarious (and all too true). I don't know what you're going through, and I'm no doctor. But yeah, psychiatrists are drug pushers. In my country, more than 1 in 4 women are on antidepressants. I don't mind that too much because 1) it's not my business; 2) life is hard (especially during economic downturns); 3) here (this past decade) the suicide rate has decreased/stabilized while antidepressant use has increased. So, listen to your doctor. That said, I doubt that antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs can help people solve their philosophical questions or existential crisis (if they be "solvable" at all) – at least in the way that conversation can. CBT would be more appropriate for this purpose (as you probably know), but I suspect you'd have to find a really good psychologist (because you have a very questioning mind and are so well-read). Although I admittedly can't keep up with you, if you just want to chat about how having a corporate job and making money may actually not be evil, let me know. (Don't feel obliged to respond, especially if you don't have the time – school is more important!) Cheers ~ DanielTom (talk) 04:03, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

DanielTom, thank you for your very thoughtful message. I enjoyed the video, thank you. I had to move back to the city for ministry training, and my husband and I are definitely not as happy here as we were in the country, but the university is really challenging me and teaching me to look at religion, culture and life in many new and interesting ways.

I am always happy to debate whether working for a corporate job is evil. Unfortunately my friends who work in corporate jobs are reluctant to debate whether their livelihood is evil (imagine that) and my friends who work in ministry are all too ready to concede the point, so my rants seldom inspire debates as good as the ones you and I have.

A system which passes privilege along with genetic material is racist. Working for a system that accepts the present distribtuion of property without question (as all business jobs do) makes me a racist. Reading W. E. B. Dubois, MLK and Malcolm X has confirmed and reinforced these sentiments in me. As X says, you can't be a capitalist without being a racist. Here's how Thomas Shapiro puts it:

• American families are in the process of passing along a $9 trillion legacy from one generation to the next. ... Hand in hand with this money, I submit, what is really being handed down from generation to generation is the profound legacy of reproducing racial inequality. The legacy is difficult to discern because the language of family heritage hides it from our political consciousness.
  • Thomas M. Shapiro, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates Inequality (Oxford University Press: 2005), p. 32

The institution of inheritance creates a race of rich and a race of poor. These races often correspond to skin color, but even where they don't, making decisions based on property is still racist. Commercial enterprises serve the rich race and ignore the poor race.

By working for an institution that accepts private property ideology (and therefore, if you buy my argument, racism), as an unquestioned premise, corporate employees become racists.

Of course when circumstances compel me to work, I work. But I no longer remain silent about the corruption of the system I work for. Eventually, articles like this and this and this are going to catch up with me, and I won't be able to get jobs in the corporate world so easily.

I would be all too happy if you could persuade me working for the system isn't evil. I still have to work about 10 hours a week to support my ministry studies, and it takes a big toll on my conscience. ~ Peter1c (talk) 10:50, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

I would be interested in discussing religion and politics with you some time Peter1c, you strike me as one of the best read people on wikiquote where most everyone's better read than average, even if it's just news papers, magazines and scripts. I've had a hard time figuring you out despite just from your edits, I won't be doing much else until the about sections have been discussed in more detail at the village pump, so I have the free time for casual conversation and philosophical debate on a talk pagee. I don't have I myself have to be careful not to soapbox as I've done accidentally on talk pages discussing rationalwiki on Uncyclopedia. I don't know what the extent of your scientific knowledge and interest is, but I've found the wikipedia science reference desk very useful for learning new terminology, and have found today in science to be a a good break from literature, religion and pop culture. CensoredScribe (talk) 21:33, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Peter1c. Did you know that moving home is one of the most stressful events in life? On top of that, you're working and studying at the same time. That's never easy.

"A system which passes privilege along with genetic material is racist. Working for a system that accepts the present distribution of property without question (as all business jobs do) makes me a racist."

I believe that comes with being alive and doing anything. Right now, you are studying in a "system which passes privilege along with genetic material" (think of the many people who didn't get into your Divinity School through no fault of their own – e.g. those born with a lower IQ).

Don't you see that even if you "distribute" all property equally, pretty soon we'd end up with inequality again because we are all different? Of course you could demand equality of outcome (which has been tried with disastrous consequences) – I know Go players from Former Soviet Union countries who won tournaments and had to share the 1st prize with the other players. Some then moved to the United States :-).

"As X says, you can't be a capitalist without being a racist."

Why, because of inequality? The problem is that socialist countries (and African countries, if you care to look) are very unequal too. So Winston Churchill's dictum that "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." is only half true.

I think we should want people to develop and use their ("racist", inherited) talents to the fullest, even if that produces inequality – as it does in the United States, the wealthiest country on Earth. This is not to say that we can't have a social safety net – as you know, pretty much all countries have a mixed economy, i.e. a mix of capitalism and socialism.

The question I think you should be asking is not "which model of society would make me the least racist", but "which model of society leads to the greatest happiness or human flourishing" of blacks, whites and everyone else. Where are people better off? That's what matters at the end of the day.

"The institution of inheritance creates a race of rich and a race of poor."

I don't think "creates" is the right word – "perpetuates", perhaps? (But see "70% of Rich Families Lose Their Wealth by the Second Generation" and this video.)

"Commercial enterprises serve the rich race and ignore the poor race."

(Angus Maddison)

This is evidently false, and flies in the face of history. See the graph on the right and this database. [It was when the structure and functioning of economies changed from "subsistence economy" to "market economy" (the "market revolution", allied with the industrial revolution) that there first was a systematic growth of population and production, with the latter exceeding the former (for the first time in history), as the graph indicates. The unleashing of market forces has benefited the poor the most; of course the rich have always done well, throughout the centuries, in all types of societies.] Look at how in just a couple of decades India and China have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. (Also, most businesses are SMEs.)

"Commercial enterprises" are an effective way for human beings to serve one another. In your job, you are probably providing services and solutions to various customers. That's the part you keep discounting, and what you miss when you use expressions like serving "the market", rather than serving "people".

In this article you are confounding a job with personal values. The manager you quote as saying "We're here to make money" is just being pragmatic. You write, "it is precisely this unprincipled, amoral desire to get rich that rules our economy." But presumably you could do the job and decline the salary. Your contribution to technology development would already be a good. Or accept the money and donate it to charity. As for your manager, Adam Smith's words ring true:

• Every individual ... neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it ... he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. ... By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. (WN IV.ii.9)

Which I believe also answers your question "how can we benefit humanity if we work for managers and organizations who have no goal other than getting rich?" Incidentally, have you read the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the company you work for? ("Getting rich" probably isn't one of them.) More to your point: good management can salvage a company with poor financial performance, but seldom one with persistent negative earnings. If you think about it, a company exists to create, not destroy, value (for all stakeholders – ultimately, society at large – not just shareholders).

You write, "The principle that governs the behavior of human beings in Silicon Valley can be simply stated. Acts that increase the market value of the corporation are virtuous acts. Acts that lower the share price are abominations." The stock market appraises corporate and management performance, so naturally managers are concerned with it. (Not to mention it's a key source of capital for companies in the United States – in other countries, they are more dependent on bank loans.)

It is true that nearly all philosophers and moralists of antiquity considered money an evil. But their understanding of it was very limited (they knew less about economics than about medicine – and their knowledge of medicine basically consisted of recommending bloodletting for any ailment). Even after the Renaissance, equating money with wealth was a very common (and understandable, because money can serve as an instrument of trade and as a measure of value) misconception. Only with Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776, annus mirabilis) was economics as a scientific discipline founded, and sources of wealth (labor, savings and trade) identified and investigated. Of course it has been asserted by various (so-called) prophets and philosophers that wealth itself is an evil. Nietzsche declared Christianity the religion of the poor – and indeed, it's probably no coincidence that the world's major religions were all founded at times when poverty was nearly universal and inescapable. This is no longer the case, and I personally look forward to the day when poverty is finally eradicated, because to me (as a human being first, and economist second) poverty is the evil. I agree with Bertrand Russell that "In a just world, there would be no possibility of 'charity'."

"Of course when circumstances compel me to work, I work. But I no longer remain silent about the corruption of the system I work for."

That's good (x2). To quote Bertrand Russell again (this time from The Conquest of Happiness, with a slight modification): "One should as a rule [work] in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation [...] but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways." Curiously, when Russell was about 30 he claimed to have "no doubt that by doing economics and the theory of politics" he could "add more to human happiness" than by doing philosophy (from a letter published in his Autobiography, the first volume of which is superb) – so, the opposite of you? Another curious thing is that many of us already have it better than what the early utopian socialists dreamed of – only 8 hours of work per day and two days off each week. And working hours will continue to decline.

What you write here, "Your prospective profession doesn't want free and critical intellects. It wants uncritical, unquestioning minds that do what they are told without asking uncomfortable questions.", reminds me of George Carlin's "The American Dream", where he talks of "Obedient workers—people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept. ..."

"Eventually, articles like this and this and this are going to catch up with me, and I won't be able to get jobs in the corporate world so easily."

You have a very impressive resume (Caltech? Stanford University? Man!), so I doubt that. And if a company doesn't hire you because of your philosophical questions and opinions, you probably wouldn't want to work for them anyway (I call this way of thinking "teenage wisdom"). By the way, I didn't know you had a PhD in electrical engineering! That's so awesome. One of my favorite shows is Watch Mr. Wizard (and Mr. Wizard's World, which has a YouTube channel). I have great respect for anyone who studies how the physical world actually works. Take care, DanielTom (talk) 00:29, 7 February 2017 (UTC) last edit: 13:57, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

---

Hi DanielTom. Thank you for your very articulate and thoughtful message. I particularly appreciate your efforts to cheer me up. It was really generous of you to take the time to read my articles and thoughtfully consider my arguments.

I think one issue where we fundamentally disagree is on the issue of self-justification or self-exculpation. If I have accused myself of some sin, my first reaction will be to come to my own defense. Like a good defense lawyer, I will find reasons to question whether the guilt is really mine, whether there are mitigating circumstances, whether the sin is counterbalanced by other virtues, and, finally, whether the sin is really a sin at all. This works out very conveniently for me. Since I am now both judge and defense in my own case, a verdict of "not guilty" is very likely.

The worst sin of all, says Luther, is to deny that I am a sinner. This is why I must resist the urge to come to my own defense when I find some sin in myself. My bias, if I have any bias, should be toward the prosecution. If I am judging my own case it is impossible to be impartial. If I am to avoid rendering a "not guilty" verdict unjustly, I must cultivate a predisposition to think of myself as guilty rather than innocent.

The same reasoning, I think, applies when I accuse myself of complicity in the crimes of a society, state or system. It would be very convenient for me if I could find a way to minimize or ignore the crimes in which I am complicit, so the awareness of them doesn't disrupt my comfort, complacency and self-esteem.

I won't go into detail on the prosecution's rebuttal of your defense. I think you can do this better than I can. (It's always a useful exercise to exchange roles in a debate and take the opposing side.) But I will point out a few things.

GDP measures the value of production in terms of the market. Things internal to the market are internal to GDP. Things external to the market are external to GDP. The GDP metric leaves entirely unaddressed the question of whether the market is correct arbiter of value, whether it internalizes the correct things and externalizes the correct things. For example, GDP doesn't include the effects of climate change, the death toll of war, the effect of pollution, etc. GDP does, however, include what Freud calls "instinctual gratification" through commodity items.

Most people desire the wrong things most of the time. Great thinkers have said this since Plato. Economics suffers from the same vice as democracy, assuming that what ordinary people think is good must be accepted as good without criticism. This is what one of my teachers calls "bourgeois relativism."

The saints teach us that we are sinners. We desire all the wrong things. And a metric like GDP that assumes fulfilling desires is good without distinguishing right and wrong desires is fundamentally wrongheaded.

Of course market economies also have higher levels of metrics such as the Human Development Index, which self-consciously exclude wrong desires and emphasize objective human needs. But even supposing that the economic system does fulfill rightly ordered desires as well as wrongly ordered desires, does this exculpate it for its vices? When an individual shopkeeper turns away a hungry child with no money, he will say, to exculpate himself, that the economic system as a whole will raise the standard of living. But does this make the individual act of turning away the customer less sinful?

Regarding the claim that 70% of families lose their wealth by the second generation, the sources you provided are not peer-reviewed. Is there a peer-reviewed source to substantiate this? Today most wealth is professionally managed, so even if the claim is substantiated in the past, will it hold in the future? Many of the intergenerational losses came about as a result of stock market crashes. If the new system of neoliberal capitalism uses state power to ensure the stock market never crashes, does this alter the statistic? It seems like the new capitalism will maintain disparities of wealth for as many generations as it survives. The loss of inherited wealth will correspond to the collapse of the system, as in 1929.

As to Caltech and Stanford, I am not proud of this part of my education. I am ashamed to say I come from a family of mammon worshippers, and I was manipulated, in subtle and not so subtle ways, to take an interest in a lucrative profession. My parents gave me an electronics kit when I was ten. They never gave me a Bible or taught me how to read it. I hope someday I can forgive them for making me into the disgusting human being I am. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:31, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

A science kit gets you closer to the mind of God than reading the Bible at the age of ten. You seem to be dealing with unresolved emotional (not just intellectual) issues. And I can't help you with those – I'm just some guy on the Internet. What can I say? Tell you to call your parents (if they are still alive)? Why do you feel "ashamed" for things that were completely outside of your control? And what good does calling yourself "disgusting" achieve? To me, that's just religious self-abuse, not enlightened behavior. ~ DanielTom (talk) 22:26, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi DanielTom. Sorry about this. I didn't mean to come across as demanding online therapy, but I can see how it came across that way. I understand what you mean about not feeling ashamed for things not under our control, but to a large extent who we are is determined by things not under our control. So to me it seems more complicated. I find the idea of original sin helpful, because it allows me to understand the extent to which who I am is determined by the past. I also like Luther's idea of putting to death the old Adam and resurrecting the new man each day of our lives.

• These two parts, to be sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and operation of Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives, so that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued.
  • Martin Luther, "On Infant Baptism," Large Catechism (1529)

I am still processing all the new ideas I am learning now, and you are not the first to observe that my first attempts to use or express them are lacking in tact and diplomacy. So, again, I apologize for that. And, again, thank you for taking the time to write to me. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:55, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

That's fine, no need to apologize.

"I think one issue where we fundamentally disagree is on the issue of self-justification or self-exculpation."

No, I pretty much agree with Richard Feynman's maxim, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool".

"If I have accused myself of some sin, my first reaction will be to come to my own defense."

Naturally.

"Like a good defense lawyer, I will find reasons to question whether the guilt is really mine, whether there are mitigating circumstances, whether the sin is counterbalanced by other virtues, and, finally, whether the sin is really a sin at all."

That's exactly what you should do.

"This works out very conveniently for me. Since I am now both judge and defense in my own case, a verdict of "not guilty" is very likely."

What's the alternative? Who do you want the judge to be? This is not a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely interested. Do you want to delegate your own ethical examinations to some other mammal? Isn't that where religious totalitarianism comes in? [You respond to this below, but I'm writing down my thoughts as they came to my mind when I first read your post.]

"The worst sin of all, says Luther, is to deny that I am a sinner."

Tell that to Jesus.

"This is why I must resist the urge to come to my own defense when I find some sin in myself. My bias, if I have any bias, should be toward the prosecution. If I am judging my own case it is impossible to be impartial."

Yes, I see you have a hard time being impartial. (Sorry to be snarky.)

"If I am to avoid rendering a "not guilty" verdict unjustly, I must cultivate a predisposition to think of myself as guilty rather than innocent."

That's very dangerous. (Does that extend to other people? I mean, should we start burning witches at the stake again?)

"The same reasoning, I think, applies when I accuse myself of complicity in the crimes of a society, state or system. It would be very convenient for me if I could find a way to minimize or ignore the crimes in which I am complicit, so the awareness of them doesn't disrupt my comfort, complacency and self-esteem."

I understand where you're coming from (I'm a vegetarian). But you first need to establish that having a job (participating in "the market") really is a crime. And I don't believe it is. As far as I know, getting a job and contributing to society is a positive good. You haven't convinced me that it is not. [Suggesting that I hold this view because I don't want to "disrupt my comfort, complacency and self-esteem" is textbook ad hominem.] (I happen to share Peter Singer's view that we should donate 10% of our income to effective charities like Against Malaria Foundation, but most of us can only do that if we work.)

"The GDP metric leaves entirely unaddressed the question of whether the market is correct arbiter of value, whether it internalizes the correct things and externalizes the correct things."

We've discussed this before. GDP can be very useful but, like all other indicators, has its limitations. What, did you expect it to solve all of philosophy's problems? You're just setting up a straw man!

"For example, GDP doesn't include the effects of climate change, the death toll of war, the effect of pollution, etc."

See green GDP.

"GDP does, however, include what Freud calls "instinctual gratification" through commodity items."

Yeah. It includes services too.

"Most people desire the wrong things most of the time."

That may be, especially the higher up you go in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (John Stuart Mill distinguished between higher and lower pleasures. But this falls more in the purview of philosophy than economics.)

"Economics suffers from the same vice as democracy, assuming that what ordinary people think is good must be accepted as good without criticism. This is what one of my teachers calls "bourgeois relativism.""

As philosophers, you and your teacher should always try to be as precise as possible in the language you use. Here, in your mischaracterization of economics as a discipline, you used the word "good" with two very different meanings. You (wrongly) claim that economics "assum[es] that what ordinary [as opposed to you, the enlightened?] people think is good [meaning, satisfies their necessities] must be accepted as good [this time meaning, morally good]". Of course, it doesn't do that. When it comes to democracy, what you call a vice I consider a virtue. My question to you again is, what alternative do you propose? Seriously. I am familiar with Plato's Ship of State metaphor, but his alternative (elitism) is much worse than democracy (aegrescitque medendo). You can see this in Europe today. I should add that, in a democracy, people may vote against their own economic interest in the name of other values (think Brexit). Ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν τηλοῦ κεν ἀποπλάγξειεν ἀοιδῆς—I don't want to turn this into a political debate.

"When an individual shopkeeper turns away a hungry child with no money, he will say, to exculpate himself, that the economic system as a whole will raise the standard of living. But does this make the individual act of turning away the customer less sinful?"

See fallacy of composition. (And this, if you like to watch Milton Friedman videos.) My answer to your question is "no". I think it would be morally wrong not to help a hungry child. (I don't like to use the word "sinful" because I don't pretend to speak for God.) But if you're concerned with poverty, you need to deal with what I told you above, that "in just a couple of decades India and China have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty" precisely by embracing "the market". Cognitive dissonance much? Even South Korea's "economic miracle"—with its state-directed protectionist and export-oriented industrialization policies—was market-based.

Regarding the claim that 70% of families lose their wealth by the second generation, the sources you provided are not peer-reviewed. Is there a peer-reviewed source to substantiate this?

None that I know of. This article (and many others like it) cites "a number of surveys of wealthy families" which "have consistently found that only about 5% of wealthy families' assets were inherited. The vast majority – approximately 70% – was created in the current generation via business ownership. ... The numbers also show that roughly one in three businesses pass to the next generation. Just about 10% of family businesses pass to the grandchildren's generation.", and provides some possible explanations for this. (Different spending habits comes to mind.) I see no obvious reason to distrust these figures, but no, they are not "peer-reviewed". Sorry, I don't know enough to answer your question about "professionally managed" wealth—I can't see the future.

"I understand what you mean about not feeling ashamed for things not under our control, but to a large extent who we are is determined by things not under our control. So to me it seems more complicated."

Exactly right. (I just don't see why it's "more complicated".)

"I find the idea of original sin helpful, because it allows me to understand the extent to which who I am is determined by the past."

The "original sin" is not something that happened in the "past", unless you believe in the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall, which I don't think you do. But somehow I feel this is connected to what you said before: "I must cultivate a predisposition to think of myself as guilty rather than innocent." What I think you (and I, and everyone else) must cultivate is a predisposition to think rationally. Especially when it comes to religion, which is often nothing more than manipulation and mind control. (I could say, like the Sybil, "Now, Peter, thou needest thy mental defenses, now thy critical and skeptical faculties!") The so-called saints you speak of believed that we are all guilty, just by virtue of being born.* This is very convenient, if you wish to manipulate people. That's why you calling yourself "disgusting" raised a red flag for me. (*Here is how George Carlin put it: "If you live on this planet, you're guilty, period, fuck you, end of report, next case. Next fucking case! Your birth certificate is proof of guilt!")

There was no Adam and Eve, but assuming the story is true, we are left to wonder: did Cain have children with his mother Eve? Back then, men (who invented these stories) didn't have much regard for women (cf. Exodus 20:17), so I suppose it's possible that Adam and Eve had other children and the females simply weren't listed. In any case, incest would be inescapable.

• There is a grave objection, which troubled Saint Augustine, and that is as to the transmission of original sin. It is the soul that sins, and if the soul is not transmitted, but created afresh, how can it inherit the sin of Adam? This is not discussed.
  • Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945), p. 458

There is a sense in which I am guilty of "original sin", in that I too would (if given the chance) make the same choice as Adam and Eve did and eat from the tree of knowledge. Recall, however, that they were driven out of Eden lest (so the story goes) they eat from an altogether different tree:

• And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever...
  • Genesis 3:22 (KJV)

"I am still processing all the new ideas I am learning now"

Of course. Urgh, sorry for flooding your talk page again. (Do feel free to collapse my responses with something like this template.) Okay, take care. ~ DanielTom (talk) 03:47, 26 February 2017 (UTC) P.S. I forgot to ask you a question: I'd like to know your thoughts on Matthew 16:28 and 24:34, ideally after you read pp. 51–63 of this book, when you have the time. Aren't they enough to disprove Christianity? Cheers ~ DanielTom (talk) 03:52, 26 February 2017 (UTC) last edit: 15:49, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

A Gift

I wanted to share this with you, I thought you would appreciate it.

ἰσχύς μου ἡ δικαιοσύνη

-IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 05:28, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi IOHANNVSVERVS. Thank you for the gift. Should I translate it as "my strength is righteousness" or "righteousness is my strength"? Are you learning Greek composition? ~ Peter1c (talk) 10:56, 5 February 2017 (UTC)

Reverted edits on the page for God

DanielTom reverted several edits of mine citing no particularly good reason, the only explanation being the abbreviation rvv. I was wondering if you'd be willing to review these attempted additions to see if they are an improvement to the page and relavent to the theme. CensoredScribe (talk) 17:22, 5 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. Thank you for your message. I am sorry to see that you have unresolved conflicts with the community here. I can relate to this, having some difficulties of my own with the university community here. As they say, free advice is worth what you pay for it, but I will offer some anyway. First, one piece of advice I found helpful is that conflicts arise much less often when you create new organizations than when you try to influence existing ones. In Wikiquote, I guess the application of this principle would be to create new theme pages rather than editing existing ones. This gives you more leeway to exercise creativity, both in choosing themes and in choosing quotes. Second, I have two reading recommendations, which have been very helpful to me in improving conflict resolution and negotiation skills: (1) Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury and (2) Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone and Brian Patton. I was impressed by some of your recent contributions, and I look forward to your future ones. Best regards, Peter

I will definitely have to check those books out as that's an interpersonal communications skill I'm interested in developing, right now I'm still working on Paul Ekman's books on identifying micro expressions. I've actually become much less inclined to edit theme pages after reading a passage by Dr. William Marston in The Emotions of Normal People where he states that the vast majority of emotional terms have no psychological evidence supporting their existence and are designed as linguistic structures, saying there's really only three central emotions based off observations on decerebrated monkeys; love, fear and rage.

Also, thank you for taking the time to respond despite my having forgotten my manners in haste and omitting the keyword please. I'm glad you've liked some of my edits recently, I would still like to go through the rest of daily science quotes for persons and science themes, along with some more quotes from prominent psychologists for mental states; however after that I think I'll leave, I'm mostly out of TV shows and movies I'm familiar with to create about sections for, and what constitutes a good about section for a video game remains a challenge to me, interviews with video game creators are much rarer than TV and film, particularly 16 bit games, and unlike for films which Ninguable was nice enough to show me an example of, what constitutes a note worthy video game review isn't something I can seem to find on Wikiquote. Who exactly are the Siskel and Ebert of gaming, Electronic Gaming Monthly or X-Play? No one is game reviews is really a household name that gets mentioned on multiple television networks. CensoredScribe (talk) 14:34, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Masters Of War

"Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul"

This song reminded me of you. Keep the faith! ~ DanielTom (talk) 17:44, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Excellent. Thank you, DanielTom.

I'm glad you like it. Here's another song which you might enjoy (related to some of your writings). This is the last one, I promise! Cheers ~ DanielTom (talk) 19:56, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

• I don't mind failing in this world,
  I'll stay down here with the raggedy crew,
  'Cause getting up there means stepping on you,
  so I don't mind failing in this world.

• Song I don't mind failing in this world (1966)

This is great. Thank you, DanielTom.

The verse "getting up there means stepping on you" only makes sense to people who think the economy is a zero-sum game. It perfectly sums up the common economic fallacy that you can only benefit or "get up" at the expense of others, when actually people wouldn't engage in voluntary exchanges of goods and services (including labor) if both parties didn't benefit. (The same people who believe that all "surplus value" should go to wages because it is the workers, not the exploitative "capitalists"/managers, who add that value, in the same breath argue that when a company fails poor capital management is to blame, not the workers.) And of course, keeping yourself down doesn't necessarily help the raggedy crew. ~ DanielTom (talk) 23:14, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

You seem to like quotes that cast the "bourgeoisie" in a negative light; I wonder what you make of Keynes's rhetorical question: "How can I adopt a creed which, preferring the mud to the fish, exalts the boorish proletariat above the bourgeois and the intelligentsia who, with whatever faults, are the quality in life and surely carry the seeds of all human advancement?" ~ DanielTom (talk) 23:22, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

DanielTom, thank you for your message. I am always happy to debate with you and I welcome another provocation.

The reason why Marx calls economic reasoning of the form you describe "bourgeois economics" is that it does not question (as the bourgeois must never question) the premise that the ownership of resources is what the legitimate authority in power claims it is. Both parties who make an exchange must perceive a benefit from the exchange, or they would not make the exchange. But does this show that one is not tyrannizing the other? Only if one assumes that the legitimate authority in power is not tyrannical, that the claims of ownership of resources are not tyrannical claims. But how does one justify this assumption?

The division of labor imposes on the economist the axiom that the ownership of resources is what the legitimate authority in power claims it is; if a thinker doesn't make this assumption, she exceeds the bounds of the discipline of economics and becomes an anthropologist or a sociologist. But why does a mind have to limit itself in this way? The axiom is a product of the division of labor, not a product of reason or observation. The insistence on maintaining the axiom is a form of déformation professionnelle.

Look at an economic transaction without the ideological assumption that the existing ownership position of the parties to exchange is what the the legitimate authority in power claims it is, and you will interpret it very differently. Suppose one party to the exchange exercises a claim to own all the land and means of production, and the other has no ownership claims and must sell her labor to survive. Both benefit from the exchange within the bourgeois framework where ownership claims are unquestioned. But look at the transaction from a nonideological point of view and you will see one party to the exchange exercising tyranny over the other. It is really the system of legitimate authority tyrannizing over both, but one is the beneficiary of this tyranny while the other is its victim. It is therefore not so far amiss to say that the owner who exercises an unjust claim on all the land and means of production is himself a tyrant.

A thinker with a conscience can never accept without question that the ownership of resources is what the legitimate authority in power claims it is. To acquiesce in this is to place submission to power above conscience. If we leave our roles as bourgeoisie, and call into question the moral legitimacy of the system of legitimate authority, and the claims of ownership it enforces, we will find that these claims rely on the claim that the system of legitimate authority is morally rational as well as procedurally rational, a claim which Max Weber refutes.

If we leave the boundaries of the discipline of bourgeois economics, and examine the claim that the ownership of resources is what the legitimate authority in power claims it is, what will we find? The claim is premised on the assumption that the legitimate authority in power makes decisions justly. Furthermore, if the legitimate authority in power relies in its decisions on past titles handed down over time, the claim that the ownership of resources is what the legitimate authority in power claims it is must also depend on the assumption that the legitimate authority in power has been making decisions justly throughout its entire history. Is this assumption plausible?

My study of economic history shows that claims to property come about very often by nonvoluntary transactions: land-grabs, slavery, intimidation with violence, fraud, etc. My study of economic history shows that those who own property on average receive a positive rate of return on their property. This means that property rights today include the effects of a history of land grabs, slavery, etc., increased by compound interest.

The argument that voluntary exchanges are mutually beneficial and therefore not morally exploitative seems to involve a slippage from empirical observations to moral claims. The bourgeois economist takes the distribution of property as an empirical fact. He evades the distinction between a "fact" imposed by a particular system of legitimate domination and a fact of nature. But even leaving this aside, a fact does not by itself imply a moral conclusion.

We must also not forget the limitation that economists do acknowledge: there are externalities not represented by the market, trespasses that the system of legitimate domination does not recognize as trespasses, and which therefore impose involuntary costs on third parties not involved in the transaction.

It is implausible to morally judge an isolated transaction without morally judging the system that puts the parties to the transaction into the positions they are in. So we need a critique of systems of legitimate domination--not as they are represented in economics textbooks, but as they are in reality. Weber does a nice job of this in his two volume Economy and Society. He concludes that the only plausible response for the "ethical virtuoso" who aspires to be a moral human being is to flee from the system into a monastic life. (See more on this here.)

The system of rationality enforced by systems of legitimate domination does not coincide with ethical rationality. The claims made by systems of legitimate domination are therefore not moral claims. A moral analysis of an isolated transaction must take this into account. Once we take the immorality of systems of legitimate domination into account, the conclusions will be very different from the rosy picture of blissful voluntary transactions painted by the apologists of capital.

In a world where claims of ownership are just and moral, voluntary transactions might be just and moral. But such a world has never existed anywhere but in the minds of bourgeois economists, and never will.

So, back to the song, it requires a kind of callousness to accept what those in power say about who owns what, rather than looking to our own conscience to decide. This is the callousness exhibited by those who seek to rise in the immoral world rather than set ourselves apart from the world. I am taking a class on the Apocalypse of John, where John of Patmos teaches us to come out from the world, so that we don't share in the sins of the world (Rev 18:4). I think John of Patmos would like the song. And I think he is right. I'll stay down here with the raggedy crew, because getting up there means accepting the moral legitimacy of claims to ownership enforced by a system of procedural rationality that does not coincide with moral rationality. ~ Peter1c (talk) 03:05, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Hello Peter1c. Thank you for the explanation. Let me just make a few brief points: 1) It is not clear what you mean by "the legitimate authority in power". Are you referring to democratically-elected politicians who pass property laws? I readily concede that no property law can ultimately be justified the way you want it to be, as far as I know, except through utilitarian arguments. (I believe this applies to all laws.) What Churchill said about democracy, that it is "the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time", may well be true of private property. 2) "Tyranny" is nearly certain in systems not based on voluntary exchange. 3) There are many possible definitions of economics. Take Lionel Robbins's: "Economics is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." It is not necessarily as limited as you think. 4) I suppose you would call it "illegitimate domination". 5) The desire in human beings to shut themselves off from the world and enter into a "monastic life" manifests itself in very diverse cultures and is worth studying. One of my favorite Portuguese poets from the 17th century (Francisco de Sá de Meneses) became a monk after his wife died. (The way I see it, the Church was then the only possible, even if improbable, "salvation"; it was the cryonics of that time.) The "hero" of the Chinese novel I've been reading (Bao-yu) also becomes a monk at the end of the story, for a similar reason, when he finally "awakes" (literally and figuratively) and sees through the tragic transience and insubstantiality of human life. In the beginning of the novel, foreshadowing what is to come, we meet another character (Shi-yin) who, after losing his daughter and his property, eventually decides to leave the world (and his family, including his aging wife) behind and sets off with a lame Taoist monk. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." This is very wicked, I think. In any case, the command to abstain from evil is naturally present in all religions and ethical systems, so it is to be expected that people who believe the present market-based system is evil for (allegedly) inescapably requiring one to "step on" other people (even though it has raised more people out of poverty than any other system in history) should not want to participate in it. (Cf. Laozi's principle of non-interference.) I wish you good luck in your studies. Are you interested in becoming a college professor? ~ DanielTom (talk) 11:29, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi DanielTom. Thanks for your brief points. "Legitimate authority" is the term Weber uses to refer to the authority that the bourgeoisie recognizes as the legitimate authority for deciding who owns what. The claim that the legitimate authority is democratically elected is, in the United States at least, dubious at best. (Princeton political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page have shown there is no correlation between legislative decisions and the rational preferences of ordinary citizens. We get a choice between two parties owned by global capital, and our decisions are based on information provided to us by media owned by global capital.) Claims about poverty and wealth rely on a definition of poverty and wealth. Where do bourgeois economists get these definitions? From the market value of goods. The claim that the bourgeois economy produces the greatest amount of wealth is a tautology. Define wealth based on market exchange, and behold, the system of unimpeded market exchange produces the greatest possible wealth. Where are externalities in this account? Where are colonialism, slavery, two world wars, climate change, pollution, resource depletion, global ecological collapse, extinction of species, the migrant crisis, the culture of narcissism and greed, etc. in this metric of wealth that is now so unprecedentedly large? Somehow I think the desert dwellers whose homes have become uninhabitable due to climate change and whom the West refuses to accept as refugees would be skeptical of the claim that the present system of legitimate domination has produced unprecedented wealth. What do we subtract from the global GDP to account for extinction of species? The fact that bourgeois economics has no conceivable way to answer this question shows that its definition of wealth does not represent anything like what a morally-informed conception of wealth might be.

The reason why Luke's Jesus demands we hate our father and mother and sister and brother, and recognize those who do the will of God as our true father and mother and sister and brother is that our fathers and mothers taught us the bourgeois (or nomenklatura, or any other assimilationist worldview) values of unquestioning submission to legitimate authority. They taught us to accept the market value of things as their true value. They taught us to put no value on the things that constitute true wealth: virtue, wisdom, piety, kindness, nobility, awareness--things which the market is incapable of recognizing the value of, because they can't be bought and sold. No, I don't intend to become a professor. I am confirmed more than ever in my decision to become a monk.

You misled me by sending me a link to the song, when you weren't going to sing along, DanielTom. I suggest you may want to reflect more on why you find the words of our good Lord in Lk 14:26 wicked. Filial piety is idolatrous. It persuades us to persevere in the corrupt tradition taught to us by our forefathers, rather than repenting, turning around, changing our minds, becoming something new and different, leaving the old world behind and seeking the kingdom. Repent. The kingdom is there waiting for you. I'm not sure if there's anything I could say to persuade you to read Economy and Society and Dialectic of Enlightenment, but if you are serious about confronting your intellectual opponents, I think these would be among the best. Thanks again and best regards ~ Peter1c (talk) 14:14, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

The World Bank defines "extreme poverty" as living on less than US$1.90 per person per day. ("The World Bank projected that for the first time in history less than 10 percent of the world's population was living in extreme poverty—down from 37 percent in 1990 and 44 percent in 1981.") I didn't intentionally mislead you because I actually like the song, and do "sing along", even if not uncritically. Thank you for the book suggestions. (I remember reading some excerpts from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber, on how religion influences economics, for sociology class in college, and unexpectedly finding them interesting.) I'm afraid I can't be convinced that hating people is somehow good, even if "our good Lord" says it. Of course we can't know for sure that Jesus himself said those things; to me they read more like a later proselytizing invention, to reassure new converts. It's like Jesus saying "Take up your cross and follow me" to people who at the time couldn't possibly have understood what he meant. Those words are probably addressed to the readers of the gospel, who already know what's going to happen... Okay, thanks for your patience with me. God bless. ~ DanielTom (talk) 15:56, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

DanielTom, you can translate μισεῖν as "disregard" or "disesteem" if you prefer. I think the intent is not that hatred should be the final emotion we have toward our families, but that we must dissociate ourselves from their influence, which is competing with the λόγος for our loyalty and attention. After we have purified ourselves and separated ourselves from their influence, we are in a position to lovingly approach our families again, not in the attitude of humble submission as before, but now as apostles of the λόγος. Regarding exegetical strategy, I think when we encounter a "hard teaching" (σκληρός λόγος, Jn 6:60), we are called to think about it, not dismiss it. If we hate the hard teaching for demanding hatred, then our exegetical strategy falls into the same error of hatred for which we reject the teaching. It is a performative contradiction to hate a passage demanding hatred because we hate hatred.

What happens if we approach the teaching of Lk 14:26 lovingly and try to understand what it might mean? Repentance, conversion, salvation, redemption, all call for a break with what came before. And what came before is certainly in large part determined by our families. Even someone who is raised Christian will be called throughout a lifetime to repent and purify her or his obedience to Christ. Each such act of repentance will produce a profound aversion to our former self and its ways, and therefore also in many cases to the family that taught us these flawed ways of being in the world. After a period of purification, we can go back to our families and try to persuade them to repent also. "See how our family has been pursuing pleasure rather than virtue, wealth rather than wisdom, honor and reputation rather than kindness and warmth, assimilation rather than perfection, let us change our ways, ..." The new relationship with our families will now have a conflict that was not there before. This is inevitable. The transition from a relationship of assent to one of disagreement and conflict is a difficult one. Perhaps Jesus does not really exaggerate so much when he tells us we must be prepared for hatred. I don't see any evidence that the hatred is enduring or permanent. It reflects the transition, not the final state.

Kierkegaard ridicules the conformists of his day for their desire to get along with everyone without conflict, confusing acquiescence to the neighbor with love of the neighbor. When the neighbor is harming herself or himself, morally or physically, one who loves the neighbor is called to give instruction, not acquiescence (this, incidentally, is one problem with the market -- we fulfill each other's demands rather than telling one another when our demands are harming us, morally or physically).

• If you want to be well off and yet easily manage to become something, then forget God, never let yourself really become aware, never let it become really clear to you that it is he who has created you from nothing; proceed on the presupposition that a human being does not have time to waste on keeping in mind the one to whom he infinitely and unconditionally owes everything. ... Forget it and be noisy along with the crowd, laugh or cry, be busy from morning until night, be loved and respected and esteemed as a friend, as a public official, as a king, as a pallbearer. Above all be an earnest person by having forgotten the one and only earnestness, to relate yourself to God, to become nothing.
  • Works of Love , p. 103

Thanks again for rousing up an interesting discussion. It's always a pleasure to chat/debate with you DanielTom. ~ Peter1c (talk) 16:59, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

• προσεκύνησαν τῷ θηρίῳ λέγοντες Τίς ὅμοιος τῷ θηρίῳ, καὶ τίς δύναται πολεμῆσαι μετ’ αὐτοῦ;

• They worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? And who can fight against it?"
• Rev 13:4

The beast is invincible, so we must accept it. When it offers us money to be its apologists, we must accept it. Who can fight against it? It is better to be on the winning side. So reasons the bourgeois. The tyrants now provide $2 a day to the poor while they build bigger and bigger mansions for themselves. This is a huge improvement over a few decades ago! The form of tyranny of this beast is so much more humane and comfortable than the competing beast's form of tyranny! We get to choose between two candidates selected beforehand by the tyrants, while the competing form of tyranny allows no choice at all! See how good we have it! Such is the reasoning offered by the apologists of tyranny. They teach us to worship the beast. They teach us to disregard the injustice, tyranny and inhumanity of the beast, all in exchange for a paycheck.

At least principled libertarians like Roderick Long and Kevin Carson point out the discrepancies between the ideology of the free market and the status quo. The bourgeois economists, the paid apologists of capital, can't even do that. They call today's system a free market, conveniently ignoring the fact that today's ownership claims derive from land grabs, slavery, colonialism, crony capitalism, etc., as well as free trade. The sincere libertarians never cease to complain about this. But the bourgeois economist, whose job is to make the status quo seem rosy and humane and just, goes on citing statistics about how things are better. Never mind injustice. Look away from that. Look at the fact that, despite the injustice, certain metrics are improving.

Injustice does not cease to be injustice when statistics can be cited to show that it is better than some competing form of injustice. Tyranny does not cease to be tyranny when statistics can be cited to show that it is better than yesterday's form of tyranny. These rosy statistics are a distraction, a red herring, that take our eyes off injustice and tyranny.

In the United States, the owner class controls the government. Democracy is a show used to persuade the working class they have a say, while in fact we have none. Critics from Karl Marx to Lucy Parsons told us this a long time ago. Now Gilens and Page have proved it. I have no doubt that some of the people from the owner class got their wealth by honest work. But the fact that the owner class controls the state, with no popular sovereignty, makes them a tyrant class, no matter how they got their wealth or how they use it.

The fact that bourgeois economists are willing to apologize for tyranny and injustice, rather than calling it out for what it is, arises from the cowardice John of Patmos calls out so admirably in Rev 13:4. The bourgeois instinctively acquiesces to any power stronger than herself. Who can fight against it? If we go along with the tyrant and pretend the tyrant is humane and just, we will get a nice paycheck. We can live comfortably. Who wants the trouble that comes with bearing witness to injustice? Who wants the inconvenience that comes with calling out tyrants as tyrants?

The prophets don't just lament the transience of human life. They protest against tyranny and injustice. Protests against tyranny and injustice may in the end be no more efficacious than laments about the transience of human life. But they at least prevent us from deceiving ourselves, and from being deceived. Life is indeed, in some sense, easier if we pretend the legitimate authority is just, or that it is humane, or that it is democratically elected. But these lies lead us to have a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of our activity in the world. We will see our work for the beast as "creating value," rather than as aiding and abetting the beast in its efforts to enslave the human race and convert nature into profits in a rampage of destruction. We will see our obedience to the beast as dutiful service rather than as spineless, cowardly acquiescence.

Of course the Biblical witness includes Romans 13:1-7 as well as 2 Cor 6:14. We have to moderate our opposition to the beast to keep from getting immediately slaughtered. We need time to bear witness to the truth before we die. The degree of truth telling we can get away with varies from time to time and place to place. When Paul is writing to the Romans, he advises a greater degree of obedience and compliance than when he is writing to the Corinthians. But even the duty of obedience preached in Rom 13:1-7 has its limits.

• The order of authority derives from God, as the Apostle says [in Romans 13:1-7]. For this reason, the duty of obedience is, for the Christian, a consequence of this derivation of authority from God, and ceases when that ceases. But, as we have already said, authority may fail to derive from God for two reasons: either because of the way in which authority has been obtained, or in consequence of the use which is made of it. There are two ways in which the first may occur. Either because of a defect in the person, if he is unworthy; or because of some defect in the way itself by which power was acquired, if, for example, through violence, or simony or some other illegal method.

• Thomas Aquinas

I don't think any honest soul in the U.S. can deny that the means by which today's Congress acquires and keeps its power is defective. Unlimited campaign contributions make the Congress into a massive system of bribery, which then turns into a massive system of extortion as Congress hands out money and custom tailored legislation to the patrons who bribe them. According to Aquinas, then, Paul's exhortation to obey in Rom 13:1-7 no longer applies. We are called not to be yoked to this system, and, at the very least to bear witness to the beast for what it really is. The Roman Empire claimed to be a savior bringing civilization, peace and order to the lands that it invaded. And the U. S. claims to bring democracy to the lands that it invades. But John of Patmos doesn't buy the lie. He describes the beast for what it really is. The peace is based on massive violence. The civilization is based on uncivilized warfare tactics, uncivilized treatment of the working class, uncivilized conditions for orphans and widows. The order is an order in which arbitrary hereditary privilege is sanctified and perpetuated in an orderly manner, while the working class is exploited and deprived of its rights in a scientific, systematic and orderly manner.

DanielTom, I understand the temptation to put on rose-colored glasses. But self-deception is epistemically irresponsible. We have a responsibility to ourselves to tell the truth to ourselves and others. I understand the temptation to limit oneself to a single discipline in order to make an enduring contribution within it. But I don't see how the economist is going to understand the true nature of the economy without understanding the true nature of the political order in which ownership claims are adjudicated. If the ownership of resources before an exchange is determined by a tyrannical authority, it is profoundly misleading to call that exchange free. ~ Peter1c (talk) 16:18, 10 March 2018 (UTC)

Would you deem either the Hero or Bedazzled quotes on language acceptable to include, or any film quotes on theme pages for that matter?

Both of these quotes more or less say the same thing regarding cultural imperialism; I don't know what film quotes, if any you've added to theme lemma however I would appreciate your input. Perhaps you know of a more academically respected quote from the historic first emperor of China on eliminating languages, or from another individual, it's not exactly polite conversation, but important to mention never the less for explaining the often violently incompatible world views of major historical figures. CensoredScribe (talk) 03:51, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Would you be willing to petition on wikipedia for the removal of the X rated image of an underage child on the bestiality page?

The two pages for bestiality and pedophilia should follow the same rules and be devoid of X rated images of children, seeing as it makes those pages illegal to look at in several countries, diminishing the ability of Wikipedia to educate people from them on those topics. Would you be willing to petition for the removal of said image and others on wikipedia? I unfortunately cannot, or rather should not, do this myself having been banned some years ago.
Also, I noticed you have a nice aniconic geometric design on your user page, which is quite lovely, you have decorated it quite well, and your user page along with Kalki's is what inspired me to decorate mine, including lifting the Malcolm X quote you once had at the top. I was wondering, what with you studying divinity and being rather well read, if you knew what the Islamic position on the Nehushtan of Moses was, as well as if there's mention of the story of Abraham in the Idol Shop or of Golems. I believe in Lives of the Necromancers, it talks of an Islamic legend of a city of moving statues made by Rocail, one of the children of Adam and was wondering whose legend that is. Should you choose to assist in these matters, than thank you. CensoredScribe (talk) 07:55, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

I'm having a hard time sourcing a Plutarch quote and was wondering if you happen to know where it comes from?

On page 192 of Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009, Howard Zinn quotes Plutarch saying "The poor go to war to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others." I don't particularly care to read through the works of Plutarch hoping to find the origin of this quote at this point in my life and was hoping you might know where it is from or be interested in reading through his works to find it.

Also is it just me or do most authors who use quotes not actually care about providing full citations for them? CensoredScribe (talk) 06:13, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. It's good to hear from you. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, the passage is from the Life of Tiberius Gracchus, one of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. But I don't find the passage in the Dryden translation. The passage is also cited in this form here.

I find the passage in James Keir Hardie's From Serfdom to Socialism, but note that it is outside the quotation marks! Maybe the citations pick it up from this work, and falsely attribute to Plutarch what is actually Hardie's paraphrase?

I like the quote. I hope this helps. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:58, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

That was indeed very helpful, thank you very much for the research and resources! I am interested in reading the rest of these books at some point in the future, I particularly liked the subsequent paragraph in From Serfdom to Socialism on the allegiances of the rich "optimates" being with the invading armies, as I would have thought treason back than would carry the death penalty as it technically still does in America, despite no one being currently under a federal death sentence for anything but murder, and that having questionable allegiance to the state would have been much more harshly dealt with than it is today, given human rights were much less extensive and the idea of the prosecution bearing the burden of proof an alien concept. It reminds me a bit of sports gambling, which can motivate professional athletes to throw matches to get a higher payout, or provide critical information to create an advantage, which is why there's a zero tolerance policy for athletes betting on sports, even events they aren't involved with due to fear of accruing gambling debts. Even though that same argument can just be used for poverty in general, which is perhaps the reason they get paid ludicrous amounts of money to play sports, sending the contradictory message poor people are not to be trusted, while history apparently shows that "optimates" are also not to be trusted. Perhaps the X-Files was right, trust no one; though that is perhaps the most anti social message of all based off how very thriving Fox Mulder's social life is. CensoredScribe (talk) 22:54, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Jerome quote

"Opulence is always the result of theft, if not committed by the actual possessor, then by his predecessor."

Implicit in Jerome's thinking (if I'm not mistaken) is the idea that society's wealth is fixed, and that if someone has a larger share of wealth than others, he must necessarily have "stolen" from them. But this premise is false. We now possess much greater material wealth and "opulence" than people in Jerome's time ever did. The fact that wealth has increased means that it isn't necessarily "stolen", but can be created (through acquisition of knowledge and innovation). It's important to note that Jerome isn't talking about wealth distribution—in this quotation, anyway. His objection is not so much against "opulence" itself as it is against the means of achieving it in the first place. If a person inherits wealth he gets off scot-free, only his father doesn't because to become rich he must have been a thief! If Jerome were saying that better-off people have a moral responsibility to donate or use their excessive wealth in more intelligent and effective ways than in frivolous and wasteful opulence, it would be easier to agree with him. ~ DanielTom (talk) 22:16, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Hi DanielTom. It's good to hear from you. I think you are right that Jerome is thinking in terms of a moral responsibility to use wealth to care for our neighbors. I think the Church Fathers were skeptical that a system of rational-legal authority could measure economic contributions accurately enough to ascertain whether a person, corporation, activity, etc. was creating wealth. Wealth created by an economic system is stolen from the human beings who are adversely affected by externalities not measured by the system. Wealth created by an economic system is stolen from the human beings who are unjustly deprived of a share of the system and are therefore excluded from the benefits. In this view, wealth that comes into our possession is not ours to do what we please. All the world's wealth belongs to God. We are stewards charged with caring for whatever wealth comes into our possession in a way that shows our love of God and our neighbors. Any wealth that comes into our possession beyond what we need to care for our own families must be used for the benefit of others, to remedy the externalities of the system and help those excluded by the system. The rational-legal authority steals as a matter of course from those affected by externalities and those excluded from a fair share of resource ownership because of present and historical injustices. If we don't distribute our share of the proceeds from the system of authority, we become beneficiaries of this systematic theft. ~ Peter1c (talk) 11:07, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Chronological vs. alphabetical

I wish someone would work on a system to give chronological as well as alphabetical listings. Much context is lost in the alphabetical arrangement, though we need that too. All we need is a tag for dates, and a tag for names. JMK (talk) 21:02, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Hi JMK. Thank you for your message. I am very sympathetic to the case for chronological organization of theme pages. The best thing would be if we could have a software solution that would allow the end user to choose to sort by either name or date, but we are far from that. It is awkward to have different organizations for different themes, and the chronological theme pages have been very idiosyncratically organized, with some alphabetized within each time period, and others strictly chronological. It is much harder to figure out where a new quote goes in a page that is organized in a nonstandard way, so I have been on numerous occasions discouraged from adding new quotes to chronologically organized theme pages. Kalki also expressed a strong preference for a policy of alphabetic ordering, I think, for the last reason I mentioned. ~ Peter1c (talk) 21:21, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Remove boldface from most "Last words"

Hello. Can you please weigh in and give your opinion at Wikiquote:Village pump#Boldface in all "last words"? There, I'm proposing to remove boldface from most quotes in Last words, Fictional last words, and their subpages. Details and reasons are given in the discussion itself. Thanks in advance. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 17:50, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

Request for comment on User:MonsterHunter32's massive censorship of sourced quotes without discussion

I am asking the community to comment about the censorship of this user that I have already alerted about here Talk:India#Censorship_of_sourced_quotes_by_User:MonsterHunter32 and at other places, but it didn't help. What should be done about the continued massive removal of sourced quotes by MonsterHunter32 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log) when he refuses to even move the quotes to the talkpage with full reasoning for each quote as was asked by multiple users many many times? You can read more about it at the link above, and at the other discussions linked in that discussion. Thank you. --Jedi3 (talk) 14:19, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

The user User:Jedi3 keeps falsely blaming me of censorship and keeps edit-warring. He is only engaged in POV-pushing and adding statements just so they agree with his view. He doesn't care if his claims are made up like he did at Sikandar Butshikan, indirectly admitting to verbatim to verbatrim copying from Wikipedia before checking the source.  He also added a quote at Muhammad bin Qasim that wasn't about him.

Or making up a false reason to remove a quote at Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent. Or he keeps making up his quotes eloquent, poignant, witty etc despite the "quotes" not even falling at all within the definition. He does this just to have his edits there at all costs. I've told him several times about this including here.

He falsely keeps saying I'm censoring him when all I've done is remove those quotes which aren't notable in any manner. Not those which are notable and i've preserved many of the quotes he has added. also removed the subsection of my complaint here. He himself censors me here and here in the past.

I've warned him several times including here, here and here. He doesn't listen and has removed my comments several times from his talk page.

Not to mention this person has also insulted me by terming me annoying after another user called me so, besides also calling me a vandal, when he himself can be indicted for edit-warring and vandalism. please block this user. I've been trying to cooperate with him, but it is clear he only wants his ideology imposed here. Their is no bar on any person of any ideology, even though Wikiquote is about neutrality but he doesn't care about anything and is being unprofessional.  and it is clear he doesn't care what he does to get his edits here at all costs.

Right after his block expired, Jedi3 is back at edit-warring before even waiting for a discussion and made 3 reverts at 3 articles. See his recent reverts, here, a sly attempt to befool others in edit summary at Aurangzeb of "article under construction", at Malabar rebellion. He proceeded to make additional subtractions and additions at Aurangzeb, even though a revert is a revert whether partial or complete. He is trying to fool others. And just after his block expired, he has started edit-warring again and made three reverts. I would first like to check all his quotes and then discuss them one by one. I am discussing even right now all quotes one by one who Jedi3 says must not be removed, has is not cooperating.

I have already complained him at Wikiquote:Administrators' noticeboard#Jedi3's disruptive behaviour, false claims and censorship. I ask you comment there and take action against him for his disruptive edits. MonsterHunter32 (talk) 15:02, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

The first of your points is a content dispute, the place to discuss these is the article talkpage (but since you refuse to move the quotes to the talkpage for discussion...) I have never before even heard from you about the issue at Muhammad bin Qasim. I don't know if what you claim is true but I will look into it as soon as you move the quote to the talkpage of Muhammad bin Qasim with your reasoning. But since you refuse to do this.... The quote from the conquest article is ambiguous, to say the least, it is not strictly about the conquest (and in your edit you were adding 2 different quotes). These are all content disputes, which should be discussed on the talkpage after you moved the quote there with your reasoning (which you never do). I have also not reverted all of your removals, in some cases I have kept your changes, or I have at least made the quotes shorter (it is you who always refuse to make the slightest concession). But this is just 5 percent of the quotes. The rest is just undiscussed blanking of articles.

When you claim I am censoring you I was just restoring the previous version of the article. In most cases, I took the trouble to add your other changes back to the article, but when you were censoring so many articles at once, I couldn't be expected to do this every time. The rest of your comment is just poor excuses and deliberate misrepresentations. I was not edit warring and I was discussing all of my edits on the discussion page, unlike you. --Jedi3 (talk) 15:41, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Jedi3 and MonsterHunter32, thank you for your messages. I am reluctant to get involved because I don't think I can do justice to the issue, mainly due to the quantity of material involved. Can the two of you work together to create a succinct summary of the editorial principles or principles of editorial conduct on which you disagree, and select maybe three or four quotes that best exemplify your disagreement? Please include the quotes directly in your summary rather than linking them. ~ Peter1c (talk) 17:40, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Please fill in the table below

Quotation, editorial principle or principle of editorial conduct	Jedi3's position	MonsterHunter32's position	Comments from other editors to assist dispute resolution
Issue 1	Issue 1	Issue 1	Issue 1
Issue 2	Issue 2	Issue 2	Issue 2

I mentioned the reasons individually in the edit summaries when I remove. The reasons are quite similar. When he picked one particular quote of Will Durant I discussed and explained the reason. But he not only keeps on clinging to it, he also starts lying to keep it at all costs. The problems are that Jedi3 is edit-warring and his only agenda is too add whatever that furthers and agrees with his POV regardless of the quote being memorable or notable. He also stops discussing abruptly when I talk to him like at Talk:Aurangzeb or Talk:Somnath temple, then he blames me of not discussing. Even the admin User:UDScott told him his quotes are not memorable.

In the interest of time and talk page space, the quotes can be found at Talk:Aurangzeb and Talk:India. I had to remove the comment in the latter as none of us had any issue with the India article. The talk oage of the article where issues arose should be used. Please do ignore the bad faith comments of censorship and other things by Jedi3 which he keeps making. Even though I closely scrutinise every quote he adds, he still keeps claiming censorship. He keeps edit-warring over even one quote for months.

I've removed other quotes as well. But since we haven't moved beyond one quote of Will Durant, it will be useless to discuss others as it will take a lot of time and will cause confusion. Regardless, at times I do make comments about other quotes as well.

It is clear he only inserted his quotes only for POV-pushing, nothing else. He keeps making false claims about how his quotes are notable or eloquent, poignant or witty even though it is clear there was never any such reason for him adding it originally. They are not a real critieria thay can fulfill notability. Regardless, this is despite none of his quotes falling anywhere within the dictionary definition of eloquent, poignant or witty. He also keeps using notable author as criteria, despite the fact that author's notability doesn't matter for including a quote.

This is not even including the quotes he added or removed under false pretexts or addition of quotes that are not directly related to the topic as he has done many times. He talks about "cooperation", but can a person like Jedi3 who makes false claims, calls me a vandal, keeps on edit-warring, has no agenda except to impose his own will at all costs even if it includes lying, be called "cooperative"? MonsterHunter32 (talk) 18:58, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

I have included such a summary table here at Talk:India#Summary_table where there is already a centralized discussion about these India-related deleted quotes. It is work in progress. There are so many quotes, and each quote is different, but I am starting with the two quotes which have been discussed the most.

These two quotes I have added to the table have been discussed a long time, but MonsterHunter as a rule refuses to make the slightest concession that the quotes might be notable for other people than him. Ultimately, I agree with what another editor has said on the Admin noticeboard: "If MonsterHunter32 has reasonable objections to the quotes themselves, he may discuss them on the article's talk page, but not remove them unilaterally. He may proceed to remove the disputed quotes from the articles only if in those discussions he manages to get some other editor to agree with him." --Jedi3 (talk) 14:51, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

Jedi3 You don't have to pretend to follow everything someone else suggests just to bide more time. Why not apply the suggestion to Talk:Aurangzeb insteas where you abruptly stopped the duscussion? And save us time by resuning the discussion one quote at a time to prove how is it notable? Instead of you know running off to unrealted talk pages and resumimg the same old made-up arguments. I don't need your permission as it is clear you want to continue disruptive POV-pushing edits without giving a hoot about the rules. You are not cooperating but telling others to cooperate. You have been disrupting and vandlasing for long and it is time someone took you to task. This website is ONLY FOR NOTABLE QUOTES. MonsterHunter32 (talk) 17:52, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

Peter, I have included the table here Talk:India#Summary_table. At this stage, comments from other users about the deleted quotes are really needed. Since MH32 as a rule refuses to make the slightest concession that the quotes might be notable for other people than him, it is not likely that a consensus can be achieved without comments and views from others. Thanks. --Jedi3 (talk) 10:20, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Advice on selecting quotes from fictions

I was hoping you could perhaps parlay to me some parameters for selecting quality quotations from fictions. I find myself interested in adding fewer and fewer quotes from works, not that it was ever my primary interest. Fahrenheit 451, South Park and the original Star Trek seem to be the series least objected to adding quotations from to theme pages, based off of my experiences seeing fictions being removed for seeming to inherently lack notability. I really only wanted to add this one to the page for slavery which i think is actually thought provoking.

• Andrew Ryan: A man chooses. A slave obeys.
  • Bioshock, Kevin Levine, (2007)

I would not however add any of the game's quotes to the page for libertarian, even though the story serves as a commentary on the philosophy, as no quotes directly address that topic without requiring additional context. Few video games have a singular quote associated with them to the point it becomes an internet meme, which aren't purely comedic, however this one is sufficiently quoted in gaming articles. Are any gaming publications considered noteworthy and on par with newspapers though? Major newspapers review movies, books and television, but rarely games effectively placing them in an academic ghetto for our purposes here. CensoredScribe (talk) 18:32, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

CensoredScribe, thanks for your message. Preliminary to discussing the issue you raise, I would like to discuss another related issue. I don't remember where we left this discussion before, but maybe we can resume it now.

One criticism of commercial culture runs something along the following lines:

Culture that has as its aim the enrichment of its creators is not genuine culture. Genuine culture must be created with an aim higher than personal enrichment of its creators. The aim of genuine culture is to educate, enlighten or save its audience. The aim of commercial culture is to seduce its audience, to sell to its audience, by any means necessary, including entertaining, thrilling, stimulating the audience.

Even leaving Wikiquote aside, I would ask you, why are you subjecting your soul to the influence of a culture whose aim is not to improve your mind, whose primary purpose is to make money for its creators? Do you not see the danger in this? Why, when there are so many books out there that claim (often very plausibly) that they can improve your mind, save your soul, educate you, make you better, more noble and more virtuous—why, when these books are available, do you turn your attention to cultural artifacts that do not even make the claim that they can improve you, that claim only to be entertaining, stimulating, etc.? The reading lists for many PhD programs are publicly available on the internet. These canonical books have been selected by devoting care and attention to the question "What is worth reading?" Of course these assessments aren't always right, but at least some effort is being made to assess the worthiness of the cultural artifact for your attention. In the case of commercial culture, the assessment for inclusion in the distribution network is not whether the artifact can teach you something, improve you, etc. It is whether it is profitable to distribute. Is this material worthy of your attention? Is it helping you progress intellectually and morally? Why are you devoting your attention to it? I am interested to hear your thoughts. ~ Peter1c (talk) 19:37, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

In middle school part of it was wanting to fit in and not be outcast by society, I don't know if you exercise or believe the 4 out of 5 doctors who recommend it, but I was never very good at sports, though I was good at video games. FPS games were like any other sport, and the development of fast reflexes and good hand eye coordination is something that is absent from board games like chess or Daniel Tom's favorite, Go. I read that several surgeons recommended video games as a good way to sharpen their reflexes, presumably reducing the number of patients who die, and I at one point considered a career in medicine so it seemed natural to get good at being very fast with my hands in a simulation of life and death, hence the quotes from Trauma Center: Under the Knife. RPG's I saw as no different from reading a fantasy novel and looking at a bunch of landscape paintings, with the occasional interjection of a monster to look at, given the large amount of text and intricate level design, I think it much as the same as how Kalki appears to be a fan of Tolkien and DanielTom appears to have played Final Fantasy VIII at one point. In high school and afterwords, it had more to do with having something to talk to my PC Gamer Master race "friend" about to keep him happy and less depressed, I'm still not sure what the best way to deal with a depressed teenager who will lord their IQ surpassing their therapist's and cite the non fallibility of psychology and their own personal experience with the ineffectiveness of pharmaceutical and therapeutic treatment. I'm opposed to force feeding someone food or pills, because it is a form of torture.
The games and anime seemed to make him happy though and keep him from becoming a corpse, not getting hit by his dad anymore helped too, but he was never really one to express his emotions except the typical base emotions of a macho acting teenage boy hiding his bisexuality to fit in. I don't know what other editors would have done in my situation, they probably wouldn't care that much about a same sex friend and would rightfully take offense at the first time he used the N word in an attempt to sound like Dave Chappelle (with a uh at the end, for what that amounts to), or his first rape joke, or upon learning he was fond of rape hentai, and call him a philistine or a prurient man child and a sexual predator in the making, before being asked how many partial differential equations they can crunch and if they are familiar with the concept of scientific illiteracy and the science behind how their computer works. During the time I knew him, he never read any books that weren't assigned to him which weren't manga unless it involved gaming, sports, the computer science and biology behind gaming and sports, or on incredibly rare occasions a written work of science fiction or engineering, yet he still had an IQ and scientific literacy to suggest the possession of a higher amount of intelligence than anyone else I've ever known, though personally I find the concept of generalized intelligence to be comparable to the gender nonconformity tests created at the same time and of questionable validity. I don't know what the stupidest thing you've ever done for love or friendship is, however following in the footsteps of a suicidal depressed bipolar Otaku is one of my life's biggest regrets, he would not talk to me about anything I learned writing wikipedia because the only things he cared about were part of the commercialized low culture or his job and his dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend who avoided the harsh realities featured in more adult works having survived childhood incest. She seemingly wanting to play with cats and read fantasy novels instead of learning something in relation to the real world such as the writings of the catholic priest's that appear to have contributed to her parents abusive outlook on reproductive rights that are protected by law; that said, she is also quite intelligent and speaks multiple languages while I myself am not fluent in more than one. Perhaps my jaded outlook on religion in regards to women's rights owes partially to the fact that 95% of the religious figures we quote here are men who have a hard time imagining what they would do if another life was physically connected to them, than they do imagining being an incorporeal spirit on another plane of existence, personally I don't find it that difficult to imagine having read of unethical surgical procedures and thought experiments that would place a male in a similar situation. Her horrific X-rated experiences that are not appropriate to describe in detail here, in still pains me to contemplate, are largely what prompted me to edit Rational Wiki, it reminded me a bit of what Dr. Lauretta Bender said about sexually abused children she worked with being fond of the Superman character who could not be hurt. I don't know the statistics on the number of lesbian and gay people who have dated a bisexual person is, and how many people would put up with their same sex partner consuming vast amounts of heterosexual pornography, or what the LGBT communities views on polyamory are, though the feeling of being second fiddle must be a concern, particularly when it's not even to a person, just porn. What would you do if your partner suddenly insisted on a polyamorous relationship or decided they were no longer fine with being out? (Asking hypothetical questions isn't technically lying, but it is often an annoying, assuming, misleading, and sensationalist way of expressing an opinion or unfounded theory on an issue while avoiding stating any facts or personally revealing information. The points been made much of the low class media I have read, watched or played stems from having a friendship based on media; I'd rather the discussion be more philosophical and sociological and focus on concepts and trends rather than discussing non published parties not present, though thanks for the breakthrough, sometimes the answer is peer pressure. People's reasons for doing things are often personal, which is why I avoid these kinds of debates even on the more minor issues like entertainment.) Really the whole argument that video games or comic books are inherently garbage regardless of how they are used has a vaguely aniconic ring to it, (why not recommend high class new media, a video game written by a noble prize winner in literature or a game designed by the Vatican with the attention to detail of a stain glass window? All of the alternatives you provided were book lists typical of university courses, which includes graphic novels like Maus and Watchmen), and reminds me of the arguments made in the senatorial hearings that lead to the comics code by opposing psychologists Fredric Wertham and Lauretta Bender, I agree with you that entertainment has some serious problems, particularly with how little women are given in terms of any artistic control over multi million dollar projects like films and games. and whether that money could be better spent keeping dying children alive as Alan Moore has commented on. In fairness, though there are many exceptions, a statistical breakdown would reveal that given the language barriers, the majority of works of English literature do not address life outside of former English colonies and largely fail to address poverty as well, in the past focusing near exclusively on the literate upper class until roughly the 19th century. Video games and comics are both primarily visual mediums, unlike say a famous court case or a science journal which although textual and significant to history are not high class literature either even though the individuals involved, scientists and lawyers, would typically be considered in the upper strata of society. For some strange reason political speeches are considered well written enough as to constitute being classified as high class literature however, as are sufficiently old codes of law and descriptions of battles lacking any historical evidence of their existence, such as frequent the bible or feature in the accounts of the siege of Troy, perhaps 10 commandments is easier for literary critics to remember than a several thousand page long congressional budgeting bill, and papal bulls are written more eloquently than the descriptions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition: DSM-5.
My apologies but I will need to reflect on that question for some time as the implications are quite profoundly wide reaching. I recall you mentioning in a previous post the languages you could be speaking now had you better allocated your time as a youth; many people whom we quote have partaken in that commercial culture, notably former president Barack Obama has spoken about reading comic books, though I haven't read at what specific age he stopped reading them I've not heard of any other president admitting to having read them despite DC comics having been around since the late 30's.
Are you familiar with William Moulton Marston by chance? He's my favorite psychologist, I don't know if you have one, and whether you believe in all the things that they do, I've noticed a general lack of psychology quotes in deference to poets, which Freud would certainly not object to from what I've heard him speak of the empathy of poets. Marston argued that the medium of entertainment actually has a far better means of reaching the public than the church, and religious broadcasting like Davey and Goliath may well have converted some people, despite being sullied with commercialism. Marston's philosophy (which the psychology department was a part of at the time) was radical in his approach to women's rights, and though less respected by high culture, I find his writings to be in opposition to the theories promoted by Sigmund Freud and John Watson. Freud supported the idea of destigmatizing homosexuality, it's not that he wasn't progressive, however his views on women and several of his experiments, (such as preforming surgery on a patient's nose with cocaine) would not meet today's ethical standards; Freud saw women as lacking of a penis and inherently resenting it, Marston's views on women are equally as sexist, but in the so called "benevolent" direction, ascribing to them superiority in seemingly every psychological aspect. You would not question adding any quotes from Freud or Watson, despite the great harm they did to several of his patients, at least if Watson's granddaughter is to be believed. Thus of the three, I would have to go with Marston as having the least destructive impact on society through his works, both as a psychologist and comic book author.
Artists since the protestant reformation have begun the selfish process of attaching their names to their works instead of remaining anonymous in service of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church's artistic agendas, I'm not entirely sure that during the dark ages spanning roughly 500-1500, they were paid in anything over the food necessary to keep them to continue creating religious artwork. Alan Moore's Promethea relays Kabbalistic concepts, perhaps you are familiar with the old legend that the tarot does this as well despite being a playing card game, which would technically make these works a form of religious art, (unless you require the stamp of approval of a church), however the people involved made a profit. George Washington didn't want the president to have a salary, until John Adams told him this would effectively bar the poor from holding office, which as the richest man in America General Washington hadn't considered. None of us get paid to edit wiki's and those that do, such as the Gamergate article editor Ryulong are banned for such practice, and like the religious artists of old, most wiki editors do not have their actual name attached to the great work they participate in. I'm not saying that what you and I are doing adding quotations on and from religious figures constitutes holy work, like inscribing the words of Gautama Buddha is said to be according to some religious practices, but I'm not sure that being paid for what we do would make it inherently less holy. Layman Pang got rid of all of his wealth because he feared it's corrupting influences, and money can attract plenty of ill will from others and arise it inside one's self, however I don't think it's necessary for everyone to live the life of a mendicant unmercenary types, and nowadays those living such a ascetic lifestyle would (depending on the city) more than than likely be arrested for panhandling were they to beg from a bowl for their survival like a monk unfortunately. Artists need food to live, I agree with you that most fiction is not promoting very good values, I think so would Marston if he saw some of today's popular forms of entertainment that made the blood curdling machismo violence of his day look like a children's book, yet ironically fails to be as violent as many of our high culture's founding mythological tales that form the basis of our ancestor's code of law prior to the surges of secularism in the form of the protestant reformation and the even more secular enlightenment thinking that found expression through the French revolution. However, I have never played a video game where you collect the foreskins of 100 men you slay like King David, or have a harem of 1000 wives like Solomon or 11 like Muhammad, such a game, film or television show would have an Adults Only rating.
Speaking of material written to push an agenda, Might I ask your opinion on a man you've never met before, Judas? I don't think Mary Magdeline was actually a prostitute given the Smithsonian article I read about her, however I think the work of fiction Jesus Christ Superstar more accurately depicts Judas than the John 12:5 where he is simply a thief that wasn't to take the money they've collected for an unmentioned vice instead of someone who is calling out Jesus for spending money on ointment for his feet and hair when they could have distributed the wealth more evenly, a criticism the author just ignores using an ad hominem fallacy. Most atheists accept that Jesus was a historical figure, however anything before hand in the bible is as fictitious as anything from pop culture, and often considered less scientifically possible than even the far-fetched ideas presented in works of science fiction like nanomachines, genetic engineering or stem cells regrowing limbs, compared to a man who came back from the dead and walked on water which promotes anti scientific values, at least that is the impression I got off the lack of criticism of science fiction novel page's on Rational Wiki compared to religion. Do you have a science fiction novel you'd recommend or are they all part of this low commercial culture? I would recommend Frankenstein, though I'm not sure what the authors intent was in writing about her dream, maybe she just wanted money. Jules Verne predicted submarines and travel to the moon, but to what extent does the moon landing really influence the decisions you make in your love compared to the quotations here from authors, politicians, philosophers, and mystics?
Might I ask your view on the gnostic gospels whiles I continue to reflect on the question you posed? I don't mean to beg the question and not give you an answer like a politician giving a press conference or to Gish Gallup, you just seemed like the kind of person who could respond to multiple questions, which is much more difficult than just asking multiple questions. CensoredScribe (talk) 20:39, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

If you, Kalki, Ningauble or DanielTom would be interested, (which I highly doubt any of you would be given how active you are at editing this wiki), I think any of you would make for very interesting Rational Wiki or Conservapedia editors, and I'm curious what contributions any of you four would ultimately be able to make, if any, and regarding what, whether in main space or in heated debate on the talk pages. I don't know of what use precisely quotations from religious figures and philosophers would be in convincing anyone there of the existence of your religious beliefs, but I believe the editors here on Wikiquote are some of the best writers I've ever seen (on the internet), and if anyone can do it, it's probably you. I don't know what your opinions on young earth creationism or evolution are, but they welcome people of all religions. I myself have little idea what their snarky point of view is attempting to go for, I always imagined it was a cross between the Darwin Awards and Mean Girls in an attempt to make fun of religious people in the vein of Richard Dawkins calling for the disbanding of university theology departments as a waste of money, or TV's Dr. House and his witty misanthropic zingers directed toward humanity in general and the faithful in particular. I don't actually recall ever laughing at anything on Rational Wiki despite their claim to be a type of humor wiki though, they prefer logical arguments and scientific facts anyways so a lack of "comedy" wouldn't be that detrimental. They also claim to have refuting authoritarianism as one of their four mission statements, however I've seen very little in the way of information about authoritarian regimes around the world or human rights abuses by corporations on Rational Wiki, with more work put into discussing transhumanism, bitcoin and alternative medicine; so their handling of non religious social issues outside of science and technology isn't that good. It's theoretically possible you could convince an admin there to rethink their outlook on the bible, though also that they could convince you to drastically change your own views. I personally would suggest not going there unless you like to be yelled at for asking too many questions too quickly or have an ax to grind against something like Wikipedia's selective coverage of religious scandals, or religious prohibitions contradicted by biblical passages (say Solomon's view of alcohol or Jesus turning water into wine, which would seemingly refute a biblical basis for prohibition), and are conspicuously absent from the pages for the associated religions on Wikipedia for being too POV to include in an encyclopedia. If nothing else, you would be a great person to tell them to stop spending so much time on science fiction, though I honestly don't see you having that hard a time there given how well spoken and educated you are. CensoredScribe (talk) 08:00, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. Thanks for your message. I like what you wrote. I have been busy relocating to a new house, so it will take me a little while to get back to you. ~ Peter1c (talk) 02:27, 21 April 2018 (UTC)

Take your time, and good luck with the move. I didn't make much of an argument that's applicable to anyone beyond myself when I was younger, I mostly read non fiction nowadays anyways, and I don't need advice on maintaining friendships that are no longer, so there's not much to respond to. I'm curious what your thoughts on the spirituality of viewing the works of some of the great painters of history located in major city art museums is, I imagine it is probably on a case by case basis whether Andy Warhol or Takashi Murakami are any different than the corporate art cultures they react to, and should be displayed along side the greats, whomever those may be for you. I myself have mixed feelings on the arms manufacturer Leonardo da Vinci and his contributions to society, and I imagine your views may be similarly complicated regarding both the literary and artistic canons and those covered in the educational curriculum. I didn't take you for being an aniconicist, simply for seeing some media as being inherently above others, but if indeed that is your view, than perhaps you may yet convince me why art museums are a waste of money better spent on a particular religious institution being funded by city governments, or otherwise describe how better to allocate those funds, admittedly, arguing why their was money for a museum but not a homeless shelter is difficult. I've been reading the protestant reformers and some counter reformation thoughts on iconicism, I don't know if the capitalist mindset Max Weber found central to the protestant work ethic would lead the reformers to look favorably on art produced by corporations primarily for the purpose of making money, or to view it negatively as they did religious art in churches, particularly during the Beeldenstorm. Considering the rise of corporations like the Dutch East India Company occurred alongside the protestant reformation, the spread of the printing press, firearms, and the witch hunts in the early modern period, I think it is an interesting period of history that bears relevance to any debate on the merit of art. CensoredScribe (talk) 22:37, 21 April 2018 (UTC)

Reply to your email of 04 April 2018

Hello Peter1c

Thanks for your message. I've had a look at the Wikiquote Style Guide and cannot see that I've broken any rules. Please let me know the problem. (The reason I used three tiers of list items is to make it clear that all the quotes from Professor Greenleaf belong with the reference to him. I've tried the two-tier method at the Sandbox - all the quotes first-tier, followed by the reference second-tier - and it's not clear, because it looks as though somebody has forgotten to give the reference, which of course really would be a fault.)

I notice that somebody has altered the quotation which follows (in alphabetical order) the quotes from Greenleaf. Just to confirm that it (the following quotation) was not altered (nor indeed originally uploaded) by me.

Regards

Patrick Hamilton Patrick Hamilton (talk) 15:07, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Hello Peter1c

I've restored the quotes from nineteenth century Harvard Professor Simon Greenleaf. The relevance is indisputable. The format is now according to https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Templates#Quotes_from_literary_works

Regards

Patrick Hamilton (talk) 18:57, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi Patrick Hamilton. Thank you for your reply. The latest version is an improvement. These are the remaining issues:

• There is a limit of three quotes from one author on pages other than that author page; exceptions are sometimes made.
• The author and title information must be repeated for each quotation
• Titles must use title case
• There is no need to include encyclopedic information about the author. A link to Wikipedia is sufficient. If biographical details are necessary to justify inclusion of a quotation, these can be included in the edit summary

Thanks again for your contributions to Wikiquote. ~ Peter1c (talk) 19:15, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Hello Peter1c

I've made minor revisions to ensure that the quotes from nineteenth century Harvard Professor Simon Greenleaf, at the New Testament page, are according to https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Templates#Quotes_from_literary_works . If you are notifying me that wikiquote make further requirements, then please give citations/references for those requirements (not just names of documents or of pages please).

Regards

Patrick Hamilton (talk) 16:50, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi Patrick Hamilton. I made the necessary changes to New Testament to conform to Wikiquote:Templates/Themes. Thanks again for your contributions to Wikiquote. ~ Peter1c (talk) 17:23, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Request for adminship

Please share your support. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Requests_for_adminship#Just_A_Regular_New_Yorker_(talk_%C2%B7_contributions). J.A.R.N.Y.|🗣️|📧 00:18, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

A question regarding notability.

Of the three, which, if any would, of the following would you consider to meet the requirements for notability: The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? All three comment on quite a few lemma, of them, The Protocols is easily the best known, although any quotations from it are plagiarized from the lesser known The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu. I was hoping you consider The Plot an acceptable source, as I personally prefer quoting it to The Protocols, the description Will Eisner gives it of an evil book seems appropriate in my opinion, I'm curious what yours would be regarding it. Also, if indeed quotations from The Plot are notable, despite being a mere graphic novel, what about the award winning comic strip The Boondocks? The strips cited also exist in the form of a book, if in fact no newspaper comic strips are considered notable in their original form. Would that suggest that newspapers are also not sufficiently notable to cite, or just the comics section, or is there an example of a notable newspaper comic that you can provide?
My apologies if I'm asking too many questions, although I find some of your actions on Wikiquote regarding deletions and page creations such as Science fiction on television, questionable and thought it best to ask you to elaborate on your reasoning to avoid further disagreements in the future that may occur between us, rather than allow differences in opinion to take the form of an edit "war", to use the term for multiple revisions to a page within a 24 hour period that is generally accepted by wiki users. Personally I find the term edit war rather inappropriate and belittling of the magnitude of actual armed conflicts and rather grandiose for describing wiki editing. I have no intention on removing the quotes from The Plot, though if you would like to do so, I won't stop you. Thank you for your time and consideration with these regards. CensoredScribe (talk) 19:02, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. Good to hear from you. Sorry about the Science fiction on television page. You can go ahead and delete that. I don't remember what I was thinking when I created it.

Regarding quotes on theme pages, these would be my main concerns:

• Quotes must be comprehensible without knowledge of the context (i.e., you don't need to have read the whole book to understand the quote).

• This rules out many fiction quotes, because one often can't really understand a quote taken from fiction without understanding the characters and the fictional universe.

• The words alone must be notable, and not notable because they are attached to a notable tune, an appealing scene, etc.

• This rules out many quotes from music, film, video, comics and other media when the combined audiovisual factors produce the necessary intensity, but the words alone do not.

• Quotes must have stood the "test of time"

• See Wikiquote:Quality_and_Quantity#Recentism_vs._the_Test_of_Time

When reinstating quotes removed by other editors, I would recommend opening a section on the talk page. The comment field doesn't provide enough space for a good discussion.

I hope this helps.

Best regards, Peter1c (talk) 07:06, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Malcolm X

"History proves that the white man is a devil." What a racist. --1.136.111.244 05:01, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

1.136.111.244: I encourage you to create an account and add quotations on the topic of Reverse racism. ~ Peter1c (talk) 14:05, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

The first image

So this was the first image seen on the United States wiki quote page until you changed it 25 February 2018 with no justification. Why did you change it? --2001:8003:4023:D900:ECBC:952:5D65:C3B9 05:23, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Please create an account and join the discussion. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:03, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

I have to agree with the IP here. – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs) 15:32, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

anti-American agenda

Stop pushing an anti American agenda by flooding the page with anti American quotes and images. You want to put the quotes in? Sure go for it. But don't put picture after picture after picture at the front with your anti American POV pushing. --2001:8003:4067:4D00:40B2:18B8:3102:4F06 06:59, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

Reporting on the plight of the poor and oppressed in America is not "anti-American." America has a history of standing up to tyrannical elites and corrupt authorities. Please create an account and join the discussion. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:55, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

The quotes are fine, and I have not reverted them at all. POV pushing by filling the page with images with anti-American quotes right at the front of the page, is not. --2001:8003:4092:AB00:D5C5:29A7:66B:1C4F 03:54, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

I have to agree with the IP here. – Illegitimate Barrister (talk • contribs) 15:32, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

vfd

Hiǃ I'd appreciate Your opinion at vfd-voting of Most notable people.--Risto hot sir (talk) 11:29, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Risto hot sir, are you opposed to moving page to project space? What criteria makes a person most notable? Is this an intensification of Wikipedia notability standards? From my point of view, the idea of separating notable from non-notable people is paradoxical in light of [Mt 25:40]. Neglected and forgotten people, those suffering from lack of attention, are most worthy of attention. A truly just criterion of notability would make suffering, neglected, despised, lost and forgotten voices the most notable. ~ Peter1c (talk) 13:41, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Words of truthǃ Most known people would be the right name?--Risto hot sir (talk) 17:33, 14 January 2019 (UTC)

Call?

Hey Peter. How are you doing? Can we set up a call to discuss philosophy/economics/politics/religion? I'll be way out of my league, but will enjoy it and learn from it for sure – and you can correct me in real time :-). Would you be interested? ~ DanielTom (talk) 18:09, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

DanielTom, thank you for your message. Yes, I am interested. Can you contact me on LinkedIn?

Thanks. I'm afraid I don't really use LinkedIn, but I sent you a request some other place. Feel free to decline it, though, as we have other options (like email then Skype). ~ DanielTom (talk) 19:07, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Psychological manipulation VFD.

There is no way this would have lasted as long as this has had it been the similar political manipulation, which I'm sure is a far more common phrase and just as bad an idea for a page. Like with LGBT science fiction on television this is way too specific for this project, just because there is a psychological manipulation page doesn't mean it would be a good Wikiquote page, particularly when there's heavy overlap with an existing page and the two end up more of less being copies of each other or competing for quotes, as I've seen happen with quotes I added to city and marriage which were deleted from those pages and used instead as the basis for child marriage and urban warfare; I don't contest the creation of these pages, (those terms are used with some frequency), it's the deletion I find troubling as it could lead to a balkanization of quotes across a population boom of hyper specialized pages. CensoredScribe (talk) 19:05, 15 May 2019 (UTC)

'Love' main page - quote added then removed - seeking insights

Hello Peter1c,

I am new to this site, so please do bear this in mind. I added a quote from an individual who had great insight into the ineffable quality of 'love'. What is extraordinary about this quote is that it provides a profound understanding in terms that are pithy and precise. Why was this not acceptable? Why the need to remove this remarkable insight? Is Wikipedia an extension of the standard conventions that inform academic thought, standards and education? ~ User:Estriella

Hi User:Estriella. Thanks for your message and thanks for your interest in Wikiquote. Some issues with the quotation added to the Love page are:

• Quote fails to meet standards of quotability.
• There is no Wikipedia article for "Moore Healing Association." Please create Wikipedia article to establish this is a notable source.
• Quote was not inserted in the correct place in alphabetical order by source.
• Quote was not formatted correctly.
• Lead of article was altered without consensus.
• No publication date was provided.

You can see more about formatting and notability requirements at Wikiquote:Wikiquote. Thanks again for your interest. ~ Peter1c (talk) 16:43, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

Estriella (talk) 12:18, 30 June 2019 (UTC)Hi Peter1c Thank you very much for your response. All is clear and understood. I will take time now to read through all the guidelines and protocols and the tech stuff (the latter of which I find unclear). Estriella (talk) 12:18, 30 June 2019 (UTC)Estriella

Socialism and its different variants

As quotes by Adolf Hitler on National Socialism were removed from Socialism and put on Right-wing socialism because they were a variant of socialism and not socialism proper, should quotes on Leninist Socialism and Marxian Socialism be removed from Socialism for the same reason? --2001:8003:412B:6300:9C1:5968:1D8:CC27 22:40, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

2001:8003:412B:6300:9C1:5968:1D8:CC27, thanks for your message. I encourage you to sign up for an account to facilitate making edits and discussing editorial issues. Separate pages for Socialism and National Socialism reflect the consensus of the community. For the most part Wikiquote follows the Wikipedia in defining scope of articles. Regarding Right-wing socialism, I haven't been involved in that one. ~ Peter1c (talk) 22:54, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

thank you for your reply (my I.p. changes randomly a lot). My contention with the edits on socialism in regards to Hitler's quotes was that his quotes were removed from the page for being "right wing socialism", and yet there are Leninist socialist quotes, Marxist quotes and Maoist quotes. I am perplexed as to what looks to me like a lack of a standard on socialism. If the page is for socialism and socialism only, all the different variants of socialism should be removed. If socialism and all its variants should be on that page, than national socialism quotes belong there. That's my view, what do you make of it? --2001:8003:412B:6300:B0D1:8F5:B4B:BBF 06:34, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

2001:8003:412B:6300:B0D1:8F5:B4B:BBF, thanks for your message. I encourage you to sign up for an account. Editors are more likely to take contributions and arguments seriously if they come from registered users. I am thinking most socialists would probably not recognize national socialism as genuine socialism. So the argument for separate page for national socialism would be analogous to separating out astrology from astronomy: separating genuine science from pseudosciences that claim scientific status. I'm not sure that argument is entirely persuasive, but something like that is probably the logic. In most cases Wikiquote follows Wikipedia in defining scope of articles, so if there are separate articles on Wikipedia, that is taken to reflect the consensus of the editor community. ~ Peter1c (talk) 13:31, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Would you please thank me for contributions to the Will Eisner page that combat anti semitism or explain why no thanks should be given?

You expressed concern for my mind and soul following the addition of a quote from Inuyasha to my talk page last December. I am similarly concerned over your inability to turn that critical gaze inwards and take concern over your own additions of quotes from the "wickedest man in the world" Aleister Crowley. This combined with the lack of interest in the Will Eisner page makes me think that you are more concerned with a Japanese children's cartoon that might encourage belief in Shinto and the competence of fictional teenage girls as religious leaders than in combating real anti-semitism. CensoredScribe (talk) 15:30, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

CensoredScribe, thanks for your message. This is good work on the Will Eisner page. It would be helpful to create The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and include some of these quotes so readers of Wikipedia page w:The Protocols of the Elders of Zion will be able to find these criticisms.

Addition of quotes to Crowley page shouldn't be taken to imply an endorsement of his views. I actually haven't studied him that much, so I don't have a strong opinion on him or his work. I will keep your wariness in mind when I encounter him again in the future.

My concern was only about choice of canonical reading material on the basis of what claims to improve the mind or the soul rather than what is widely marketed and popular. I didn't intended to criticize specific interests or specific quotes. You are doing a good job refuting my position by showing that the dichotomy I set up between "high culture" and "pop culture" doesn't work out so neatly. ~ Peter1c (talk) 16:36, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

I thought you've also added Crowley to theme pages before, perhaps I am mistaken; and yes, just editing a page doesn't mean you endorse it/them, it should go without saying we shouldn't be here to endorse movies or religions, or have extensive debates on talk pages, we should primarily be here to add and delete quotes, not editors or their particular interests. Extended conversation detracts from the primary point of editing. (unsigned revision by CensoredScribe: I try to always update the timestamp to show the time of the last correction) CensoredScribe (talk) 19:40, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

From what I've read, Alan Moore has written about Aleister Crowley, or Crowley as you call him; both write of the tarot.
You seem interested in religious iconography being appropriated by popular entertainment, do you have an opinion on tarot cards? CensoredScribe (talk) 19:40, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. I haven't given much thought to tarot cards. I guess I would apply the same criteria as with everything else, is it challenging me to think? to learn new things? to become more aware? to become a better, kinder person? Is it helping me to better understand my mind and the world I inhabit? Is it helping me to express my thoughts more clearly and articulately? etc. Or is it distracting me from doing the things that would improve my mind? Iconoclasts like Tertullian and Andreas Karlstadt and Jacques Ellul might be relevant. One possible argument: consuming images is problematic because it tends to be a "one way street" where images are communicated to me, but never from me. Thus the image never teaches me to express my own thoughts. Regarding extensive debates on talk pages, I don't mind it. I would like to respond better to your thoughts and arguments, but in most cases I don't know enough about the topics to say anything intelligent. Sorry about that. ~ Peter1c (talk) 13:15, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

Please stop deleting quotes for which there is a more specific page about that quote.

Kalki has told me before not to do this and I find it quite odd that you've embraced an organizational method that effectively means purging all bible quotes from theme pages and relocating them all to pages about those specific passages. I don't suppose you would like to thank me for helping you locate quotes about the Race and appearance of Jesus (I would have called it Appearance of Jesus to be less focused on one particular aspect of one particular aspect of a person), and Intelligence quotient? It kind of seems like you are creating these pages simply so I won't have any quotes on the pages you are breaking these out from, though your motives are inconsequential, it's the deletionist actions which are the problem. I would not list any of these for Vfd, as Vfd discussions rarely function the way they are apparently supposed to, within a week. CensoredScribe (talk) 13:04, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

CensoredScribe, thanks for your message. Regarding title, there is a Wikipedia page w:Race and appearance of Jesus. Occasionally different titles are used for Wikiquote pages, but in general the practice is to use the same title as the corresponding Wikipedia page. I agree that sometimes it is OK to have quotes in more than one page when one is more specific than the other, but the quotes you added are unlikely to be of interest to readers not interested in the specialized topic. ~ Peter1c (talk) 15:57, 11 August 2019 (UTC)

Challenge

I reverted your recent removal of a few quotes from this page - I'm not sure why you felt they should be removed. Is it because of their sources? Just because they come from TV or comics does not mean they lack notability or pithiness. I might argue less strongly for the one from The Simpsons, but the other two seem to be appropriate to keep on the page. If you have a different view, I would recommend raising a more general topic regarding the use of quotes from such sources on theme pages in the Village pump before continuing to remove said quotes. Perhaps there, when you explain your rationale, a larger discussion could be held on the subject. ~ UDScott (talk) 13:28, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Hi UDScott. Thanks for your message. I removed the quotes because in my judgment they do not meet the guidelines specified at Wikiquote:Quotability. In particular, "There must be a good case for believing that this quote will be of interest to people living ten, a hundred, perhaps even a thousand years from now. ... The more recent the creation of a quote, the less likely that it is quotable." I interpret this guideline to mean that the standard for quotes from more recent works is higher. Do you agree with the Wikiquote:Quotability guidelines? Do you agree with this interpretation? Do the quotes removed meet the elevated standard required for more recent works? I read over the quotes again, and my reaction is, the Silver Surfer one I overreacted in removing, but for the other two, given how trite and obvious the sentiments are, it seems unlikely that these are the earliest or most notable sources that can be found for these sentiments. They are also not laconic: the reader has to get through a lot of material unrelated to the topic before getting to the topic.

I have been assuming that Wikiquote:Quotability guidelines represent the consensus of the community. These guidelines clearly specify a presumption of non-notability for more recent works. When you suggest a discussion on Village Pump, would that be in regard to revising these guidelines, or in how they are interpreted, or something else?

Another factor not specified in the guidelines but relevant for me is, what is the intention of the work? In my view, works whose primary purpose is to entertain are less worthy of attention than works that claim to educate or enlighten. Even if the claim is dubious, a work that claims to enlighten its audience is worthy of attention. Entertainment produces no progress on the path of intellectual improvement. It is pointless and a waste of time. A work that aims only to entertain was never worthy of anyone's attention in the first place. Perhaps a few brilliant gems can be salvaged from this dross, but it seems like there are much better places to be looking. There are many books that do claim they can improve our minds, enlighten us, teach us about ourselves and the world we live in. Why are we wasting time on works that do not even make this claim, works intended to entertain rather than educate and enlighten us? This paragraph represents my own view, though, and I don't claim it represents the consensus.

In this case, I don't feel strongly about the edits, but I would like to understand your position on the WQ:Q guidelines so I can work accordingly. Thanks again for your message. ~ Peter1c (talk) 20:30, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Meeting LOQ for the Iraq War section for Arundhati Roy

Any idea how best to edit Arundhati Roy's 2004 Sydney Peace Prize lecture, University of Sydney (4 November 2004), which is 712 words and a section on the page for the Iraq War, I was hoping you might have some ideas on getting it to meet LOQ other than moving it to the talk page and passing the task to another editor, which I'm assuming one of us will do? I noticed your edits to consumerism and thought I'd point out I'm not the first person to exceed LOQ, there's a 332 word Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian quote that's on the wisdom page as well, Kalki seems to have thought the proverbs quote at 281 was acceptable as well, which goes against the wisdom at Wikiquote:Limits on quotations, perhaps this is something we could both discuss with Kalki before you delete all the quotes on the eating disorder page and move them to the talk page until I randomly hack them down to 250 words? I can save you the time of moving it just to have it moved back if you ask me to trim this down before you take it down. CensoredScribe (talk) 21:41, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. Thanks for your message. Good to hear from you. I am thinking that unless the page topic is something academic, long-winded academic quotes are not going to pass for "witty, pithy, wise, eloquent, or poignant" (WQ:Q). If a few pithy and poignant sentences can be extracted from an academic treatise, that is good. But otherwise, editors are likely to say it's "encyclopedic" content more suitable for Wikipedia. Wikiquote:What Wikiquote is not specifically mentions "longer expositions" as unsuitable. I don't think the word count is the sole criterion. These questions are also relevant:

• How long does it take to get to the part of the quotation relevant to the page topic? (I think if the relevance isn't apparent in the first sentence, this is a strike against the quotation.)
• Is the quotation just conveying statistics? (Is there such a thing as a pithy, poignant statistic? Maybe, but it would be rare. For the most part, statistics are going to be designated as encyclopedic content.)
• Does the quotation have some literary merit? (eloquence, wit, etc.)
• Is the source notable according to w:WP:NOTE? (If not, this doesn't rule out a quote completely, but it is a strike against it.)
• Has the quotation been quoted widely already? Has it stood the test of time?

Hope this helps. ~ Peter1c (talk) 22:42, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

I would be interested in hearing your own answer to your questions in regard to the peace prize lecture quotation that is more than twice the limit, and how you would edit it to meet with what you consider an acceptable length. Thank you for noting that length is not the only requirement and reiterating said criteria for inclusion.
Although, come to think of it, most English translations of the bible have the various books of the bible collected together rather than publish each book individually as they originally were, one could make the argument that each translation of the bible should only be allowed 250 words to say on any theme, but that each translation should be allowed 250 words as well so KJV and NIV may not be quoting the same passages, what do you think? Perhaps as you mention excluding academic texts from your metric, (with somewhat predictable vaguery), religion should be excluded as well? Religion too is known for being long winded. I think it would be difficult for even a very learned Christian (or Muslim) to choose just 250 words (a tweet essentially) from both the old and new testaments without (or the hadiths of the Quran) and the exclusion would make it seem like there's parts of their particular Abrahamic faith they don't appreciate as much as others, which is part of what made Thomas Jeffersons selectively edited bible offensive to many despite his reputation as a man of great learning. Not to play facorites, however by having less prophets, written translations used by the various denominations of Judaism would have slightly less trouble with this particular situation, but I doubt 250 would suffice for all of the old testament on X theme still. CensoredScribe (talk) 02:10, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Hello

Hi. I just want to say sorry if I behaved in a harsh way, I hadn't meant to. I will wait for consensus in the talk page. Rupert Loup 05:36, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Rupert Loup:. Thanks for your message. I was worried I was behaving in a harsh way. I think your contributions to Wikiquote are very thoughtful and helpful, and I find myself clicking the "thank" link for your edits frequently. The Religious quotes about love and Love poetry articles you created are very high quality additions to the project. I think the only point of disagreement was whether the quotes should be copied or moved. I am open to talk more about the issue. I started to go through the article again to proofread and remove off-topic and non-notable quotes. I would be in favor of removing low-quality quotes and quotes that have not stood the "test of time" criterion (from WQ:Q). I am in favor of splitting off quotes that are of very specialized interest and not so relevant to readers interested in article topic into separate articles. But I think notable, relevant quotes that will be of interest to readers interested in article topic can be kept in main article. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with you on Wikiquote. ~ Peter1c (talk) 14:09, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Ambition article

• Hi, I asked for your opinion in Talk:Ambition since you added those quotes. Rupert Loup 02:11, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

Hi @Rupert Loup:. Thanks for your message. I looked over Ambition and it seems OK as it is now. I agree with your analysis of the relevance of the quote from Kevin Rashid Johnson. ~ Peter1c (talk) 20:31, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

Encyclopedic content suitable for inclusion on Wikipedia: Race and appearance of Jesus

I'm concerned that none of the quotations on this page meet your own standards for inclusion, and yet you still seem to have included them for some reason. Would you mind elaborating on why you consider these quotes/sources acceptable? CensoredScribe (talk) 17:10, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

Hi CensoredScribe. Thanks for your message. Can you be more specific about what you are referring to, provide links to material? ~ Peter1c (talk) 17:30, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

Really? Do you honestly, with G-d as your witness, need a link to a page you yourself created inorder to know what page I am referring to despite my having mentioned it by name in this topic heading already? If you are telling the truth, than that is very sad, given your otherwise amazing reading abilities and memory. If you are lying than I'm sorry you chose to feign an inability to read just because I didn't include a hyperlink for your convenience, offending you somehow by making you type a title into the searchbox for 2 seconds.
Now to answer my question, why do you think these references on this page are all notable? Don't you normally remove film quotes like the one from Malcolm X for being corporate dribble and quotes from newspaper articles like the BBC for being too "encyclopedic"? Are you feeling ok? CensoredScribe (talk) 17:49, 7 January 2020 (UTC)

American Exceptionalism

Can you show that Storey was explicitly talking about American Exceptionalim? If so do so on the talk page. --1.136.104.237 22:15, 9 January 2020 (UTC)

image

I removed your Carson quote image, per my edit summary.

Hi

Hi Peter, I don't see you editing as much as before. I hope that you are doing well. Rupert Loup 07:02, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Hi Rupert Loup. Thanks for your message. Yes, doing well, just very busy. Good to hear from you. ~ Peter1c (talk) 13:16, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

We sent you an e-mail

Hello Peter1c/Archives/2,

Really sorry for the inconvenience. This is a gentle note to request that you check your email. We sent you a message titled "The Community Insights survey is coming!". If you have questions, email surveys@wikimedia.org.

You can see my explanation here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:48, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Margaret Olivia Little ‎- just to let you know

I noticed the page you have created with quotes from Margaret Olivia Little. I saw that this is a page that does not exist on enwiki (is there a category at WQ for such pages?) and decided to head over to Wikidata to add it. It appears that WD has a lot of other items that refer to her, but no dedicated page.

Since my wikidata skills are negligeable and I did not know how to add a new page, I started asking questions, but so far have been unsuccessful in my quest. Just thought you may be interested. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 20:52, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Hi Ottawahitech. Thanks for your message and the update. I don't have any experience with Wikidata, but I am also interested in learning. I am claiming that Professor Little meets the notability criteria for academics because she was the director of an internationally recognized institution. Thanks! ~ Peter1c (talk) 21:22, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for pinging me. I still have not figured out how to add Margaret Olivia Little to wikidata. In case you are interested, this is the discussion so far at WD: WikiData:User talk:Wiki13#Margaret Olivia Little. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 06:42, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

Just an update: Margaret Olivia Little (Q113638954) now has a page at WD. It was created on 28 August 2022‎. Ottawahitech (talk) 18:02, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi Ottawahitech. Thanks for forwarding link to interesting discussion about wikidata. If the issue is notability, maybe it would help to cut and paste into comment field: "We are claiming Professor Little meets notability criteria for academics because she served as director of Kennedy Institute of Ethics." Hope this helps. Peter1c (talk) 17:51, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

I don't believe notabiity is the issue. The problem is simply: there is no one on WD with the technical ability who wants to add the page. I could probably pull it together somehow, but if I make any kind of mistake there are individuals waiting to pounce on me, or at least this is the way I feel right now. At the moment I don't want to have to deal with that. Hope I am making sense. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 15:28, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikidata learning resource

Hi Peter1c/Archives/2 Since it appears we are both interested in learning more about WD, I thought you may like the page I just found on Wikiversity. The page Wikiversity:Wikidata appears to be an atempt by a user to document the steps of creating WD links to pages on WV. I hope this page will continue to be developed. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 17:08, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

taxation in the United States

Hi Peter1c/Archives/2,

I do not frequent the articles that you normally edit, so was surprised to see that you are the one who started taxation in the United States on WQ back in 2019, before I started participating here. I hope you don’t mind but I ran your contributions through wmf’s Xtools and was surprised to see that you started editing in 2009, have made over 26K edits on WQ, and that you have contributed more to WQ than to any other wmf-wiki. What I was dismayed to find was that your rate of contributions has been decreasing since 2016, and that you have completely stopped contributing in early February of this year.

If you are still around I wanted to tell you that the Bill Gates quote in taxation in the United States has been occupying me for a while. The source you used is paywalled, so I had to try and locate it in other publications. Even though there is a lot of coverage of the Bill Gates interview, I cannot find the original AOC quote that started this whole chain of events, so cannot add it to WQ. I hope I am making sense in my ramblings? Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 19:18, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Derek Malone-France

I have added a "{{prod}}" template to the article Derek Malone-France, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but it may not satisfy Wikiquote's criteria for inclusion, for the reasons given in the deletion notice (see also "What Wikiquote is not" and Wikiquote's deletion policy).

You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Votes for deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. --Ferien (talk) 19:20, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

@Ferien, It was nice of you to notify Peter1c of this prod, but... from what I have seen Peter1c is a good contributor around here. How can I have this article restored? Ottawahitech (talk) 21:54, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

Ottawahitech, please make a request at deletion review. May I note that simply being a good contributor does not exempt yourself from having your articles nominated for PROD, although PRODs may be contested for any reason. --Ferien (talk) 21:57, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

@Ferien, Boy, you are quick! :)

Just wanted to mention that the Prod policy says

Contesting after deletion: The mentioned source will be replaced with what is now at Wikiquote:Deletion review/Draft.

which to me means it is not a working policy. Your views?

In regard to your comment above, yes it is true that a Prod can be applied to anyone's article, but if my suspicion is true and Peter1c simply could not be bothered to remove the prod template, then WQ may have lost good content, and what's worse a good contributor, which is something in dire shortage around here IMIO. Ottawahitech (talk) 22:10, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

Ottawahitech, the only place deletions can be reviewed is deletion review right now, so I say that is the best place to go, even if it is not policy that requests should go there. If you make a request and it doesn't get responded to within a few days, add a note to the administrators' noticeboard about it and an uninvolved admin should get to you fairly quickly. I didn't believe that Derek Malone-France was notable enough for a Wikiquote article, UDScott deleted the article and did not oppose it. That being said, I am happy for this action to be contested. I hope the PROD would not have discouraged Peter from editing, as he is a good contributor. It's worth noting that two of his articles have been nominated for PROD before, if you look in this talk page archive. --Ferien (talk) 22:27, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

@FerienI appreciate the fact that you say you are happy to have your prod reviewed. I wish other admins here would have the same attitude.

According to xtools Peter1c has made:

only 7 Edits in the past 365 days (out of a total of 26,542 to ENWQ)

I also see that Peter1c has created 3,049 pages and that only 22 have since been deleted. (unfortunately there's no information available at Xtools about which articles, and no explanation about why Peter1c received only 2 prod notices, one in 2012 and the other in 2016, according to the talkpage contributions history). Ottawahitech (talk) 23:34, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

Ferien and Ottawahitech: A quick Google search shows that Derek Malone-France is an academic cited by Steven J. Dick [1], Daniel Dombrowski [2], Randall Auxier [3], Thomas Jay Oord [4], Douglas Vakoch [5], among many others. Robin Loup (talk) 07:57, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Robin Loup, I didn't see those when I nominated the article for Prod. I only saw a few university pages and the Google Book from him that was on the page when I nominated it. I feel that this is something that should be restored and taken to VfD to get a consensus on whether this person is notable enough for Wikiquote or not. I've put a note on AN about this discussion for an uninvolved admin to take a look. --Ferien (talk) 14:11, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Maybe there was not much material about him at the time. I'm not really involved in the subject, I'm just presenting evidence of notability hoping that it helps. He is an award winning academic at the Duke University and George Washington University [6] and cited by several academics, like Daniel Dombrowski [7], Philip Jenkins [8], Morton Kaplan [9], according with JSTOR [10]. Robin Loup (talk) 17:12, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

@Robin Loup: Thanks for adding all the info above. I just checked and I see that an item also exists at wikidata about Derek Malone-France" (Q113803007). It has been there since 7 September 2022‎. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 17:56, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Add WikiQuote topic

Hi I want to add a wikiquote topic The person has Wikipedia in non-Englsih language, I can connect WikiQuote in WikiData, is it acceptable? Or the person should have Wikipedia in English? Jjff1 (talk) 20:54, 25 December 2022 (UTC)

Rich Whitney

A page that you have been involved in editing, Rich Whitney, has been listed for deletion. All contributions are appreciated, but it may not satisfy Wikiquote's criteria for inclusion, for the reasons given in the nomination for deletion (see also what Wikiquote is and is not). If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Wikiquote:Votes for deletion/Rich Whitney. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Thank you. DeirgeDel ^t_a^c 21:36, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Thought you'd appreciate this

Henry Demarest Lloyd

I've been reading the quotes on your page, thanks for that

IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 17:49, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

Thank you IOHANNVSVERVS. Peter1c (talk) 21:42, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

And this as well: Victor L. Berger - IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 09:24, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

You are right I do appreciate it. Thank you, @IOHANNVSVERVS. Peter1c (talk) 20:52, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

User page

The lower third of your user page is seemingly a bunch of blog posts about things that have nothing to do with Wikiquote. Wikiquote refers to Wikipedia standards on user pages which state that excessive off-topic content on userpages is unacceptable. WQ:NOT also says WQ is not for “your personal quotes” or “a weblog”. Please delete them from Wikiquote and if you like move them offsite somewhere more appropriate. If you don’t do this in a timely matter I’ll remove them myself. Dronebogus (talk) 15:03, 15 November 2023 (UTC)