If my duty to my parents is a superstition, then so is my duty to posterity. If justice is a superstition, then so is my duty to my country or my race. If the pursuit of scientific knowledge is a real value, then so is conjugal fidelity. The rebellion of new ideologies against the Tao is a rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves.
culture race duty posterity society real parents education justice knowledge tao find succeed fidelity superstition modern-society country rebellion tree pursuit
Most men claim to desire driven, independent and confident women. Yet when confronted with such a creature reverence often evolves into resent. For just like women, men need to be needed.
women independence man confidence relationships modern-society
Life goes on in the same manner, evil wins and peace is slaughtered. Change the channel, change the view, tired of the same reruns on the evening news.
poetry life news modern-society
[The modern age] knows nothing about isolation and nothing about silence. In our quietest and loneliest hour the automatic ice-maker in the refrigerator will cluck and drop an ice cube, the automatic dishwasher will sigh through its changes, a plane will drone over, the nearest freeway will vibrate the air. Red and white lights will pass in the sky, lights will shine along highways and glance off windows. There is always a radio that can be turned to some all-night station, or a television set to turn artificial moonlight into the flickering images of the late show. We can put on a turntable whatever consolation we most respond to, Mozart or Copland or the Grateful Dead.
silence technology peace stillness loneliness darkness isolation modern-society noise
Superficiality is the curse of the modern world.
life wisdom truth modern-society
Our physical world seems ready and able to accommodate the needs of the spiritually awakened new Superhuman. The constraints or demands of our material world are not the real problem; it is our own spiritual awareness and philosophical wisdom that is lagging behind.
life wisdom postmodernism philosophical new-age awareness modern-society spiritual-development new-thought future-generations
You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place where you first kissed so-and-so is now a discount electronics retailer, that where you bought this very jacket is now rubble behind a blue plywood fence and a future office building. Damage has been done to your city. You say, ''It happened overnight.'' But of course it didn't. Your pizza parlor, his shoeshine stand, her hat store: when they were here, we neglected them. For all you know, the place closed down moments after the last time you walked out the door. (Ten months ago? Six years? Fifteen? You can't remember, can you?) And there have been five stores in that spot before the travel agency. Five different neighborhoods coming and going between then and now, other people's other cities. Or 15, 25, 100 neighborhoods. Thousands of people pass that storefront every day, each one haunting the streets of his or her own New York, not one of them seeing the same thing.
change individuality consumerism memories loss modern-society new-york-city transience
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal
government law lawyers ethics corruption modernity modern-society modern-life courts
We expect more from technology and less from each other.
technology society loneliness modern-society
Over and over again I have said that there is no way out of the present impasse. If we were wide awake we would be instantly struck by the horrors which surround us.. We would drop our tools, quit our jobs, deny our obligations, pay no taxes, observe no laws, and so on. Could the man or woman who is thoroughly awakened possibly do the crazy things which are now expected of him or her every moment of the day?
philosophical modern-society
Let us admit, without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct interests and can, without felony, stipulate for those interests and defend them. The present has its pardonable amount of egotism; momentary life has its claims, and cannot be expected to sacrifice itself incessantly to the future. The generation which is in its turn passing over the earth is not forced to abridge its life for the sake of the generations, its equals after all, whose turn shall come later on.
sacrifice selfishness modern-society
The Internet is the petri-dish of humanity. We can't control what grows in it, but we don't have to watch either.
technology internet modern-society
This loss [of freedom] means the fading from human life of values infinitely precious to it. The divergent use of individual temperaments can no longer find their various satisfactions in serious activities. There only remain ironbound conditions of employment and trivial amusements for leisure.
leisure work anarchy modern-society
The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free
slavery modernity modern-society modern-life
Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful a person was on the outside.
women funny humor friendship life insightful truth beauty self society human-nature humanity self-discovery sense meaning relationships self-confidence self-love life-and-death romance young-adult insight reflective reflection urban-fantasy modernity modern-society human-behavior humankind young-adult-fiction superficiality young-adult-series reflections modernism social-change series young-adult-novels thief thievery
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