Social Stage - DFW
". . .on your way home afterwards you suddenly realize that you just spent the whole party so concerned about whether the people there seemed to like you or not that you now have absolutely no idea whether you like any of them or not. Anybody who's had that sort of experience knows what a totally lethal kind of attitude this is to bring to a party. . . ."
. . .(Plus of course it almost always turns out that the people at the party actually didn't like you, for the simple reason that you seemed so in-bent and self-conscious the whole time that they got the creepy subliminal feeling that you were using the party merely as some sort of stage to perform on and that you barely even noticed them and that you'd probably left without any idea of whether you even liked them or not, which hurts ther feelings and causes them to dislike you (they are, after all, only human, and have the same insecurities about being liked as you do).)
David Foster Wallace
from the essay "Octect" included in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
pg. 130
Adorno in Action
"works of art that seek to engage in politics often take for granted the direct communicability of images and are thus fundamentally linked with conservative politics (that their makers seek to oppose)"
from a review of "The American Effect" at the Whitney Museum in Art Forum
(need to locate full citation)
Inclinations of Visions
What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires [and untested "vision" of the world]-- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it.
If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Allan Kaprow
"Museums tend to make increasing concessions to the idea of art and life as being related, What's wrong with their version of this is that they provide canned life, and aestheticized illustration of life. 'Life' in the museum is like making love in a cemetery. I am attracted to the idea of clearing out museums . . . Yet it would put so many artists out of business. I wonder if there isn't an alternative on the fringes of life and art. . ."
during an interview with Robert Smithson: "What is a Musuem" from "Robert Smithson: Selections" 1979
Education and "Know-how"
*original entry corrupted by spammers*
To do so, the task of education would be, first and foremost, the transmission of ideas of value, of what to do with our lives. There is no doubt also the need to transmit know-how but this must take second place, for it is obviously somewhat foolhardy to put great powers into the hands of people without making sure they have a reasonable idea of what to do with them. At present, there can be little doubt that the whole of mankind is in mortal danger, not because we are short of scientific and technological know-how, but because we tend to use it destructively, without wisdom. More education can only help us if it produces more wisdom.