#my view of prejudices like this is distant because they don’t affect me directly

[justalads]

was l’manburg (and c!wilbur) xenophobic?

xenophobia: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign

short answer: not really? it depends on a few things.

   (all c! and /rp unless specified)

   we’re bringing out the geopolitical roleplay analysis today!

   before i get into the xenophobia discussion, actually, i want to go down a bit of a side track: the take that the people of l’manburg were colonizers. i don’t think it’s a lot of people who say this, but whenever people list “colonizer” as something that wilbur is, it always confuses me a little, as someone who watched the majority of season one live. there are two definitions for “colonizer”:

   (note: i’m going to be using dictionary definitions for most of these. this is purely in order to give the benefit of the doubt to people that use these words wrong. the definition of these terms that people generally accept often is slightly different, and holds more implications.)

1: a country that sends settlers to a place and establishes political control over it

2. a plant or animal that establishes itself in an area

   so, to be fair, the second definition does fit l’manburg. because it fits everyone on the server. everyone showed up and established themselves in the area. but if people are using that definition, why are we calling exclusively wilbur a colonizer and nobody else? why not the people who took land for their houses, when that was considered completely fine by everyone else? wouldn’t that make dream the biggest colonizer of them all?    the definition that people seem to be implying is more of a “moved into an area and took political control over it.” the question would then be: was the land of l’manburg previously inhabited? was there anything there before l’manburg? because “colonizing” something in the negative sense usually means there was already someone there. the people saying this are using it in the negative sense, because if they were not why would they use it at all and specifically to wilbur?

   it could be argued that the land was “dream’s” land, because it was his server, but then that calls into question his ownership over it at all, and whether or not it was legitimate. if dream “owns” the land of the smp, does he own the entire server? if someone goes out a million blocks, is that still “his” land? and why is it his? what gives him a right to it?

   it could also be argued that the land everywhere belonged to the server, as in everyone had equal claim to it all. however, nobody really had a problem in the past with anyone going “this is my house” or “this is my land”. in fact, the land that became l’manburg was kind of wilbur’s house (if you go back to the hot dog van stream, he says that he built it and he “lives” there.) nobody was there before him. it was his own space that he picked out of all the land. nobody on the server had any sort of previous attachment to the land, and there was nothing important there that everyone needed. the land was free. this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often in real life, because populations are usually already living in places that get colonized. this is not true for minecraft. another definition of colonization is this:

   “colonization, or colonisation refers to large-scale population movements where the migrants maintain strong links with their or their ancestors' former country, gaining significant privileges over other inhabitants of the territory by such links.”    basically, you can’t “colonize” your own land. l’manburg didn’t have any sort of real privilege over the other people on the server (they tried to enforce the rules but because they were physically weaker they were disregarded). while the word colonizer can apply in one definition to everyone, it is then kind of weird to use it just for wilbur, because it implies that he fits the other definition when he does not. the misuse of this word has become prevalent again, with fans on both sides of the las nevadas/snowchester outpost calling the other side colonizers. both of these accusations are incorrect.    so then, why did wilbur disallow americans from going into his country? why did he establish that rule, and doesn’t it show him taking “political control” over an area and denying others equal rights? doesn’t that paint him as a little iffy? does the “no americans” rule make him xenophobic?

   again, not really? it’s sort of complicated.

   the circumstances under which l’manburg was created are roughly outlined at about 1:47:23 in tommy’s vod “ TommyInnit & WilburSoot discuss their Empire Plans in Dream's Server.”

   (bold is wilbur, italics are tommy)

   “have you noticed something about the issue last time? when we were trying to just, you know, trying to get blaze rods and stuff. do you know what the issue was?”

   “what was the issue?”

   “right, so think of all the people that were good to us.”

   “tubbo.”

   “eret. fundy. tubbo, right? what do they all have in common?”

   “they’re all weak. weaker than us.”

   “they’re all european, tommy. i’m thinking we build a wall to keep out the americans.”

   “yeah?”

   “we’re gonna build a wall, on the server, and the americans are gonna pay for it. and we’re gonna keep them out of our land. because they— ruin bits.” (laughs)

   “cause they ruin bits?”

   “no, no, no, they just, we need to get rid of them. we need to keep them out.”

   “okay.”

   “so i’m thinking we build this wall, right. we get fundy involved— well okay, first thing we do, we rob the americans for materials to build the wall.”

   “if we do that, the second we do that, they’re gonna stab us and put us in jail and claim that they’ve won again. they’ve won the war.”

   “look, they can keep doing that, over and over again— the wall’s getting built. so we build this wall, right? and then what we can do in this wall?”

   “what?”

   “it’s our territory. we can make as many drugs as we want. the police have no jurisdiction on us there.”

   “okay.”

   ——

   “so tomorrow, we’re gonna build a drug empire?”

   “well— no, we’re just gonna make a country? and then the drugs will be legal in the country.”

   “how do you know that sapnap’s not gonna… i don’t know. you know what they’re like, man, how do we know they’re not gonna… make it a war?”

   “the thing is, right. how i see it is they can declare war, they can do whatever they want, but like. if we just ignore them and don’t acknowledge it, we win. we can’t lose.”

   “yeah, but they’ll just kill us. because that is what happened last time.”

   “we just don’t acknowledge them. ignore them.”

   “yeah, but there’s only so much ignoring you can do when— yeah, alright, alright.”

   “and then we win. we can’t lose, possibly.”

   “we make them pay, for what they’ve done wrong.”

   so the goal is to… make drugs. because drugs are against the law of the server, and they’re going to get the freedom to do drugs by making their own country, where the police can’t get them. they want to keep the americans out because as wilbur said, the europeans of the server were good to them. they keep talking about how the americans might hurt them. experiences with the americans of the server has left these two with a bias against them.

   the plans to steal materials for the wall are a parallel to the american border wall, maybe less of a parallel and more of a reference/joke since many of these words were never acted upon and the circumstances for these two things are different in an important way. that’s why legitimate comparisons of the american border wall and a roleplay between americans and europeans are not great: it disrespectfully equates two situations. wilbur and tommy joke about the wall throughout the first couple of streams. the aversion to americans that they have is sort of unearned for what they have done to the europeans at this point in time.

   the thing with drawing parallels between l’manburg and real life situations is that we have to take into consideration the power dynamics of the server. dream, sapnap and punz had a lot of power at this point simply because they had a lot of tools and armor. l’manburg had pretty much nothing. so why is the country created? one, to escape a law that they deem unnecessary, and to avoid being put in jail. two, because they have a negative view of the americans, and they want a place where they won’t be hurt by them. tommy says the thing about revenge, but nobody ever acts on it. it’s about safety.

   since the prejudice is there, i would say their words here alone could be considered xenophobic? i’m unsure, because it would be more of the “fear” part of the definition than the “hatred” part. the americans did do things to tommy and wilbur. their beliefs are not entirely unfounded. and then, of course, there’s the fact that once they begin to build the nation, the dynamic shifts entirely.

   like i said before, the americans hold most of the power in the situation. once the action starts and the americans begin to poke at the new country, their actions are harming the people there, therefore solidifying in wilbur and tommy’s minds that the americans want to hurt them. a story of “americans hurt people and the people they hurt want to get away from them” does not generally cast the people who want freedom as xenophobic.

   the americans do engage in acts of tyranny on the people of l’manburg. cruel treatment of citizens and no citizen input in the laws of the land fall under that definition. so at this point, we have people who are being harmed by their government. the refusal of independence and the unjust treatment define the americans as oppressors.

   oppression: prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control

   when in history, we see those who were oppressed by americans (or anyone for that matter! the sides of american and european do not really matter here, the point is the conflict and relationship between the groups) we see their dislike and fear of the other group as justified, not xenophobic. when people and systems in real life are xenophobic, i feel as if the fear is more of a hatred and the basis for the hostility is misguided. those prejudices are also held with a sense of superiority over those they deem “lesser”, not fear of them (although fear can be a motivator for actions). the xenophobia is often held up by systemic power differences.

   if wilbur’s belief that the americans would hurt them was misguided, the americans should have done something to show them that. wilbur clearly expressed to the americans that he thought they were tyrannical and cruel, and they waged war upon him and his people, when they were pretty much defenseless. so then my question is what’s the point of calling them xenophobic, when their enemies were their oppressors?

   it’s like calling him a colonizer: sure, it’s true in a sense, but the way people use it is misleading, and it’s a heavy word thrown at a delicate situation. its untruth or exaggerated truth makes it slanderous rather than genuine and critical analysis. revolution is produced by injustice, whether real or imagined. it is hard for revolutions with imagined injustices to be successful, as the cause is not appealing. the injustice became even more real once the people of l’manburg expressed the desire to be independent, and were further harmed.

   making comparisons to real life things can be useful, but we should also be careful with how we do it. xenophobia and colonization are things that dramatically impact the lives of those oppressed, and while it’s not exactly directly harmful to those people to say something kind of stupid about a minecraft roleplay (this isn’t twitter, this isn’t something to be “cancelled” over in the slightest and i’m not trying to do that, just talking politics) it does show that people either misinterpret or want to shift the narrative of a political situation. basically, it doesn’t really mean anything, but if someone’s going to call c!wilbur xenophobic, they should think for a minute about why he had that prejudice.

   lastly, the words “tyranny” and “dictator” are also extremely misused. people who want to do political analysis should know what the words actually mean.

~ Lad 2

[missmonroe123-blog]

How to Improve Your Essay Writing Instantly

A Step-by-Step Guide

Whatever your new brilliance -- whether you are a mathematics genius, a sporting hero or (like me) a blinky, strangest kind -- there's a place in all students' educational livelihood when currently being great in life implies being proficient in experiments.

As the areas you study acquire more complicated and complicated, you are more questioned to assume, appraise, and have opinionswhere you once may have built calculations or even heard definitions. In general, the further you progress through your education, the more rote learning will be substituted with the type of analysis usually best exhibited through universities. Should by some astonishing accomplishment you manage to stop producing anything substantial at senior high school, it truly is something you'll almost surely need to confront college -- yes, even even if you're studying a science subject (although the essays wont ordinarily be rather so extended). One way or the other, essay producing comes to all.

In essays, such as conducting, practice makes perfect; but together with running the correlation is much significantly more obvious.

The odds is that in any time from the not-too-distant foreseeable future (if you don't are incredibly averse and indecent resourceful) you will have to write a composition, either in assessment terms or on your time, which will depend towards your last grade in some way. If that is a chilling potential for you personally, there is very good news and bad news. The bad thing about composition writing is it's maybe not a thing -- such as French verbs, or even the ability to conduct long distances -- that gets far better on its own if you merely continue having a go. To strengthen in essay creating, students usually desire a paradigm change: to determine exactly what isn't functioning, and why, and to learn and apply a new direction of accomplishing things.

The excellent news, on the other hand, is the fact that the individual skills necessary to compose a solid essay are things you are able to study, practise and boost inside. This guide is about pinpointingwhat these skills might function, and providing you with some hints as to how you may possibly develop them. Maybe not these suggestions will do the job for you all, but being good at composition writing, such as being proficient at some other school-related field, is exactly about trying various things, and also devising your method of doing matters. Finding organised

Libraries are purpose-designed for analyzing. Bedrooms aren't.

Before you start setting up an essay, I'd recommend you sit right down and also have a fast think about the method that you would like todo it. To begin with, what tools are you going to require? The internet, or catalogue books? This may possibly affect exactly where and the manner in which you opt to operate: I have lost a tremendous period of time seeking to come across models of posts about the web that I knewhave been in novels at the library, or simply mainly because I wished to just work at home rather than departing the house. I would advise taking yourself to some library ninety-nine days outside of a hundred.

Second, in the event that you should be running from downloadable or books articles, are you able to perform somewhere without the internet? The absence of Facebook and Insta-gram will promise your concentration will likely be around one hundred times greater, which may reveal within the quality of one's work out.

Next, produce a little timeline for your own essay. Get a summary of everything that you want to browse and try to contact all your material before starting. Take into consideration exactly how long you are likely to spend researching and reading, planning, and creating -- making a time or 2 prior to the deadline to generate some important adjustments, or only if things do not go to strategy. I'd urge devoting 3 hrs learn a 20-page article, and approximately each day to create 2000 words. This may sound like a silly amount of preparation, however the purpose of this is this: countless of allnighters have taught me essay-writing becomes exceptionally stressful and debilitating once you're up against the clock, along with a reader can tell immediately if something is hurried or hurried away in 2am on your afternoon of the deadline. What's more, you simply wont possess your best creative ideas under pressure.

If you have time, take a good look at this -- comically eighties and marginally cringey -- online video concerning creativity. A whole lot of that which the speaker says about thinking and playfulness isalso my own estimation, directly related to essay-writing. Collecting information

Looking at matters apart from the established reading list means you will not be reading all the same things as your own classmates, but leading to an even more original and intriguing essay.

Some educators place studying lists for essays, or create suggestions about where by students should start looking for advice; others request that you discover sources yourself. If a instructor does prescribe reading, it really is definitely worth visiting if you are able to find some thing extra that may add dimension, thickness or a fresh outlook to a own argument. But, it is crucial to consider very carefully about if it's the resource is reliable and valuable. What sort of resources should I use?

Even the most suitable resources will vary in the susceptible to issue. Here Are Some Usual kinds:

-- educational articles: These are essays by scholars in universities, and generally published in journals or as books. They are always useful, and certainly will be found by hunting within the library (ask your teacher for tips!) , having a poke around Google Scholar, or, even if your faculty has a subscription, on the website JSTOR.org. Search for key words and phrases and see what's up.

-- Newspaper posts: might be invaluable evidence for a composition in Background, but may possibly not be technical or detailed enough to get Biology. If you take advantage of a paper article or opinion piece, consider the facets that could prejudice it and include your thinking on your article!

-- Wikipedia: a very helpful starting point, and a progressively reliable source. Yet, stay clear of referencing it some teacher or examiner might maybe not like it and can withdraw against your own essay. Alternatively, look at the reference section in the bottom of the post and see where the author has accumulated their advice from.

-- Online websites: in general, avoid these, as that you don't know who's created them and just how valuable their own view is, or reliable their own truth. The exceptions are blogs by well-known pros. How should I take notes?

Make notes of things which seem fascinating as well as matters that are strictly appropriate. You want to be certain you answer fully the question but this interesting comment will frequently work its way in your essay and you also don't desire to squander ages hunting to this.

It might feel as the planet's biggest faff, however, taking good notes from your sources can save a Large Amount of time for those who return into program and write your composition:

-- Form notes out since you browse, rather than simply underlining or highlighting thus you'll have a summary of one of the absolute most important chunks of documents ready to use while you plan, rather than having to trawl through whole documents again searching for quotes.

-- because of this, if you believe you may want to quote something, then copy it out at the exact wording of the author.

-- kind notes at a different colour for every single fresh resource you browse. As a way to participate intelligently using that which you have read, then you've got to consider who said what, what they intended because of it, who they ended up fighting and if or not you agreed with them not. Colours really are a really useful visual assistance to do so.

-- In the end of each new informative article or article, publish a few lines summarising the author's major points, and whether you accept them.

N.B. Your significant engagement with all the scholars and writers whose work you have examine will depend to get a huge chunk of marks. This doesn't mean list a load of titles and rehearsing their disagreements; nor does it mean disagreeing with everyone else for your sake of it. As an alternative, think of whether or maybe everything they're arguing is valid on your experience -- or compare them to eachother. Planning

Adequate preparation at sea will help you avoid sea creatures. Decent planning in essays may help you avoid immaterial waffle.

Planning is the one most crucial action in writing a superb essay, and, frustratingly, also the measure which is most often rushed or ignored with college students. In case your documents often become criticised for obtaining inferior arrangement or uncertain traces of debate, chances are you want to practise your preparation. I utilize the subsequent step procedure to turn my notes to some superior strategy; you can take to it as well, and find out whether it will work for you.

Inch) re read your notes a number times, and then subtract what you think is particularly important, interesting, or highly relevant to this location of the topic you would like to talk about. So far as you can, attempt to rewire your thinking right into sections, and see whether you may link ideas with each other.

Suggestion: It might be that you have got three or two distinct ideas for an interest, and also you are unsure which to proceed along with: in this circumstance, you can work with a number distinct spider diagrams to find out which works best. Where would you the ideas connect together readily, or collapse right into neat segments? Which question will you be equipped to remedy most fully?

Two) Sit and then appear at your diagram(s), probably along with your notes, and work from exactly the primary 'position' or decision you would like to earn on your article. The best documents are evidenced with a clear field of argument throughout -- that I actually don't really get the thought that essays should present either side of a question. I regularly pick what I'm trying to state; the idea that I wish to complete with, until I commence. Now, the job you've got on paper the essay is really to set this decision up.

3) Work backward, using the inbound links you have made on your spider diagram: what do you need to assert or show to earn your point? Jot these 'points' down into a couple of words per day. This consists of the starts of the sword for the essay.

4) Start to complete your sword together with information from the notes, and some extra ideas you might have. If you are writing a literature informative article, it is vital that you involve a few close evaluation of passages to strengthen your argument. Jot down the paragraphs which link these in to the larger arrangement.

5) Fill your skeleton out increasingly more and more, until it's essentially a tough draft in bullet points. Every single twist or nuance of your debate should take there; each and every opening and concluding sentence for every paragraph, making it explicit how this paragraph answers your question.

Non-experts can be just as easy as authorities for appearing on work; if your composition is logical to somebody who does not know much in regards to the subject accessible, that's a great indicator.

6) At this point, it's very useful in the event that you can get some one (a friend or even a parent will probably perform) to read over your plan and find out if it is logical. Does all trace? Is it all relevant? Your approach should be so complete that the man or woman who reads it's going to immediately be able to spot any flaws. Move things around, add or delete to incorporate their criticism: it's easier to alter some thing in bullet-point arrangement than if it is all written out correctly.

Do not expect this technique to be quick or straightforward. For a 1500-word essay, I typically compose a plan of roughly three components, and then spend at least three hours making sure that before I set pen to paper, each kink in my debate will be ironed out. The pay off of doing it in this way is the fact that the producing procedure is short and easy -- even a case of joining up the dots, polishing bullet-points into sentences -- superior than picking out notions and also imitating thoughts in the same period as finding the words to state them.

Get better and better: Should you fight together with structure or clarity, practise your own planning! Give yourself a restricted quantity of time (state, two hours), decide on several previous essay questions in a review or coursework paper, and plan your answers as quickly as feasible. Get your instructor to check about your plans if you are completed. Writing

Even the 'actual producing'-bit may be absolutely the absolute most daunting and most stressful portion of the essay practice, and that's really where most students get stuck. Below Are Some tried-and-tested solutions to common writing problems: I can not begin

Blank webpages turned into not as frightening once they aren't blank any more. You can polish your style after; now could be the full time merely to find some thing published.

Extremely common to want your first sentence to be arresting, paradigm-shifting, to propel your audience headlong in your composition. But this urge might be paralysing: one of their most stressful feelings in the world is that of looking in a blank page, believing regarding the variety of phrases you'll need to fill up it. The real key to starting is always to just write some thing. Do not fret about how good it really can be -- put it down, and move on, and then return back and change it out when you're into your own flow. Writers' block

Return back for your program and make sure that you know what you're claiming. In the event that it is sti can not get out the words, decide to try and jot everything you want to say simply as you possibly can. Then move ahead into a simpler section of this article. Alternatively, you can try out opting for a wander, creating a cup of java or using a break up. All of it feels a bit incorrect...

Sometimes, at the process of writing, you will realise you disagree with all two-days-ago youpersonally, and you also don't really rely on the argument you're trying to create. When it is the case, return back to the drawing board. Do not squint on regardless -- a deficiency of conviction will reveal on your essay. Reunite to your strategy, and see whether it's possible to utilize similar stuff however change your accent, and perhaps the strange bit of signs, to create a separate argument. Style

Everyone has their own individual producing model: the may possibly be as flowery and purple, or even scientific as well as guide as you prefer (within reason). However you compose, to find top marks, it really is imperative that you learn how to be exact.

The proverb, "Eggs and oaths are damaged", is a good example of zeugma.

Style-wise there are two poles of wrongness: vagueness, and over-complication. Clearly, every single subject matter has its distinct language, and understanding this will likely soon be crucial, and also sharpen your analysis; nevertheless understand keywords are the pals also! Make sure that you understand the exact meaning of every word you use. But, be certain to know precisely what every single word you are using way, and also think carefully about whether you're employing this within the perfect context -- recall that those is reading your composition will probably understand better compared to meanings of zeugma, stagflation or symbiosis. Last, don't hide behind subject-specific vocabulary: Be sure you're using terms to donate to and build up your essay, and nothing of the leak is lost. The dull material

-- Get good at conventions like footnotingwriting and writing bibliographies. Examiners really do check these! -- Once you've finished, leave the essay for a single day or 2, then re read it. If you can, get someone to proof read for you personally. In this manner, you will stay away from making tons of silly mistakes which sabotage the strain and flow of one's article.

[andrebooker7532]

A nine-minute liberal arts education

John Fee shares what he characterizes as "formidable quotations" at the Capable Men website. I came upon it and its resources by accident and am so pleased I did.

Reading these quotations is about as close is possible to obtaining a liberal arts education in less than ten minutes. That is indeed "formidable." Well-done, John Fee!

* * *

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” — Douglas Adams

“Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life’s quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result — eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly — in you.” — Bill Bryson

“When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard' – I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'” — Sydney Harris

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” — Alfred D. Souza

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” — Winston Churchill

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” — Christopher McCandless

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'” — Mary Anne Radmacher

“Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.” — Carl Sagan

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” — Stephen Roberts

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle

“ ‘I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say I’m bored.” — Louis C.K.

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” — Hunter S. Thompson

“Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognise what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and you will never return.” — Marcus Aurelius

“Speak only if it improves upon the silence.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” — Maurice Switzer

“I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man’s word should be as good as his bond; that character — not wealth or power or position — is of supreme worth.” — John D. Rockefeller (Jr.)

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch!” — Edgar Mitchell

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.” — Billy Graham

“To be sick, or to suffer, is inevitable – but to become bitter and vindictive in sickness and suffering, and to surrender to irrationality, supposing yourself the innocent and virtuous victim of the evil intentions of the world, is not inevitable. The appropriate answer to the question, Why me? is the other question, Why not me?” — Michael Scott Moore

“Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you, but not in one ahead.” — Bill McGlashen

“If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat. They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.” — Terry Pratchett

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions. Their lives a mimicry. Their passions a quotation.” — Oscar Wilde

“Travel, my friend. See the world, or at least some bits of it. And don’t wait because you don’t know what’s down the road. It’s not the “big” moments you’ll remember — standing under the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. It’ll be the little moments — watching her squeeze into a doorway in Florence trying to stay out of the rain, smelling a giant flower in Belize, or having the sunlight catch her as she walks down some side street in New York City you’ll never get back to. That’s where your life happens, and those are the things you’ll keep close — those few seconds that nobody else saw. Those are yours and yours only.” — JamesJax

“They’re in front of us, they’re in back of us. They’re on our left and on our right. They can’t get away now.” — Chesty Puller, Battle of the Chosin Reservior

“All men dream, but not equally; those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.” — T.E. Lawrence

“Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.” – Translation: “I will either find a way, or make one.” — Hannibal

“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“When students cheat on exams it’s because our school system value grades more than students value learning.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” — Mark Twain

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” — Earl Nightingale

“Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.” — Ray Bradbury

“Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed?” — Marcus Aurelius

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” — Carl Sagan

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Your future self is watching you right now through memories.” — Unknown

“An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.” — Pliny the Younger

“Inanimate matter, born from exploding stars billions of years ago, can come together in a form that has the capacity to question its own existence.” — Unknown

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal.” — Paulo Coelho

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place. Like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.” — Azar Nafisi

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could do. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you are willing at look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will, over a period of time cease to react at all.” — Yogi Bhajan

“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” — Plato, The Republic

“It never ceases to amaze me: We all love ourselves more than other people, but we care more about their opinion than our own.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” — Isaac Asmiov

“Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve.” — Erich Fromm

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John Fee is the founder of Capable Men. John served five years in the British army, with a tour of duty in Afghanistan before eventually departing the forces to begin a career in the private security sector. John attended several private protection courses dealing with security strategy, close-quarters combat training, firearms and advanced driving. This new profession took him worldwide Including the protection of government assets in South America, VIP tasks on the Côte d'Azur and security work within the French Alps. His interests include global affairs, philosophy, hiking, sports, and fitness.

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