On the plight of the Somalians

When Satre spoke of his idea of a radical freedom to choose, he clearly did not have this in mind--the kind of absolutely stark choices between two impossibly, inhumane fates: “If they stay in Somalia, they will die of hunger,” he said bluntly. That’s what the choice comes down to for many Somalis: Do they risk starvation at home or torture and rape while fleeing?" (reported by Kristof for NYT).

This decision-tree left me cold.

On mining ores

"And it is just the same with men's best wisdom. When you come to a good book, you must ask yourself, 'Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner would? Are my pickaxes and shovels in good order, and am I in good trim myself, my sleeves well up to the elbow, and my breath good, and my temper?' And, keeping the figure a little longer, even at cost of tiresomeness, for it is a thoroughly useful one, the metal you are in search of being the author's mind or meaning, his words are as the rock which you have to crush and smelt in order to get at it. And your pickaxes are your own care, wit, and learning; your smelting furnace is your own thoughtful soul. Do not hope to get at any good author's meaning without those tools and that fire; often you will need sharpest, finest chiselling, and patientest fusing, before you can gather one grain of the metal."

-- John Ruskin, in John Ruskin on Genius (2011), p.75.

On the idea of living in the solution

"When one is living in the solution, one does not understand the problem."

--Peter Sloterdijk, Neither Sun nor Death (2011).