I have for years been intrigued with the ways in which Jews and southerners are alike--stepchildren of an anguished history. From ...the period before the Civil War, southerners have used Old Testament analogies to portray themselves as "the chosen people," surrounded and outnumbered but destined to survive and triumph against overwhelming odds. This analogy has endured deep in the southern psyche, influencing subconsciously its reactions to events. For example, in 1967, during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, polls showed that the South was caught up in military fervor and admiration for the lightning victory of the Israelis. It was almost as if Moshe Dayan had become the Israeli Stonewall Jackson, outthinking and outfighting his Arab foes, just as the boys in gray had done in the Shenandoah Valley against vastly superior numbers in the 1860s.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The white man regards the universe as a gigantic machine hurtling through time and space to its final destruction: individuals in ...it are but tiny organisms with private lives that lead to private deaths: personal power, success and fame are the absolute measures of values, the things to live for. This outlook on life divides the universe into a host of individual little entities which cannot help being in constant conflict thereby hastening the approach of the hour of their final destruction.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I saw the Arab map. It resembled a mare shuffling on,... dragging its history like saddlebags, nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or ch...ange occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When a mother quarrels with a daughter, she has a double dose of unhappiness--hers from the conflict, and empathy with her daughte...r's from the conflict with her. Throughout her life a mother retains this special need to maintain a good relationship with her daughter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life..., which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics.... We have: one, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inact...ion, allow a human being to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »