Blaming globalization for environmental degradation is morally fraught. Increased foreign trade, foreign investment, and foreign lending raised the incomes of billions of people: while globalization left many behind and drove others to migrate in search of work and safety, it lifted many more out of poverty. Apartment towers and multistory shopping malls, each requiring the production and transportation of concrete, glass, steel beams, and copper pipes, sprouted in former swamps and rice paddies around the world. Roughly 3.5 billion people had electricity in their homes in the late 1980s; by 2017, that figure reached 6.5 billion—a task accomplished by hastily constructing hundreds of power plants, many of them importing the dirtiest of all fuels, coal. Television sets and airplane trips came within reach of a rapidly expanding middle class, and global consumption of beef, once a luxury in many parts of the world, increased by half between 1990 and 2017. These achievements cannot be dismissed out of hand.
"‘This one is missing an eye and That one an ear and the Third one leg, and there are Others who lost their tongue or their nose or their head.’
I see and have seen worse, and some of it so hideous that I do not want to speak of everything, and of a few things I do not even want to remain silent; namely human beings who were missing everything except the one thing they have too much of – human beings who are nothing more than one big eye, or one big maw or one big belly or some other big thing – inverse cripples I call such types.
And as I came out of my solitude and crossed over this bridge the first time, then I didn’t believe my eyes and I looked and I looked again and said at last: ‘That is an ear! An ear as big as a person!’ And I looked more closely, and really, beneath the ear something was moving that was pitifully small and pathetic and thin. And, in truth, the gigantic ear sat upon a little slender stalk – but the stalk was a human being! If one used a magnifying glass one could even recognize a tiny, envious miniature face; even a bloated little soul dangling on the stalk. But the people told me that the big ear was not only a human being, but a great human being, a genius. But I have never believed the people when they speak of great human beings – and I maintained my belief that it was an inverse cripple who had too little of everything and too much of one thing.”
On RedemptionKitabı okuyor
The Thirsty Animal ~Brian Manning
“What were the things I was looking for and needed when I drank? I often find that what I am looking for when I want a drink is not really the alcohol, but the memories and laughter that seemed possible only with a glass in my hand.
....
I had found a world to cling to, a way of belonging and it still attracts me.
....
I imagine my problem as an animal living inside me, demanding a drink
before it dies of thirst. That's what it says, but it will never die of thirst.
....
A lot of my life now is all about keeping it in a very lonely cage.”
a personal essay
Glass heart and broken promises
With everything we gain in this life, there's usually a loss that corresponds with it.
The Secret History, margin note 6, Chapter 2
"Consummatum est."
– These words appear twice in the novel:
first, when Henry took a shard of glass out of Camilla's foot (Chapter 2),
MAJOR SPOILER!
and second, when Richard recalled Bunny's murder (Chapter 6).
Someone surfing on the internet has already mentioned that this line belongs to the sayings of Jesus on the Cross.
Every fireman, sooner or later, hits this. They only need understanding, to know how the wheels run. Need to know the history of our profession. They don’t feed it to rookies like they used to. Damn shame. (...) Only fire chiefs remember it now. (...) I'll let you in on it. (...)
When did it all start, you ask, this job of ours, how did it
