| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: hearing that neither pleasure nor knowledge is the highest good, for the
good should be perfect and sufficient. But is the life of pleasure perfect
and sufficient, when deprived of memory, consciousness, anticipation? Is
not this the life of an oyster? Or is the life of mind sufficient, if
devoid of any particle of pleasure? Must not the union of the two be
higher and more eligible than either separately? And is not the element
which makes this mixed life eligible more akin to mind than to pleasure?
Thus pleasure is rejected and mind is rejected. And yet there may be a
life of mind, not human but divine, which conquers still.
But, if we are to pursue this argument further, we shall require some new
weapons; and by this, I mean a new classification of existence. (1) There
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: leaping to close quarters. Barbara Harding saw Byrne whip
Theriere's revolver from its holster, and snap it in the face of
the savage; but to her horror the cartridge failed to explode,
and before he could fire again the warrior was upon him.
The girl saw the white man leap to one side to escape the
furious cut aimed at him by his foe, and then she saw him
turn with the agility of a panther and spring to close quarters
with the wild man. Byrne's left arm went around the Malay's
neck, and with his heavy right fist he rained blow after blow
upon the brown face.
The savage dropped his useless parang--clawing and biting
The Mucker |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself
partially to them in pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
How does it become a man to behave toward the American
government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace
be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize
that political organization as my government which is the
slave's government also.
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is,
the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist,
the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are
great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
