• THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
• THE NEW CRISIS OF WORLD ECONOMY
• CLIMATE CHANGE
• THE CHALLENGE OF THE INTELLECTUAL TODAY
• BODY BASED LEARNING
• PHILOSOPHY OF THE EMOTIONAL BODY
• PRAGMATISM
• CULTURAL POLITICS

 

"Don't matter where you come from. Don't matter where you come from. Don't matter whether you are straight or gay. Don't matter, don't matter at all. This is my little information. This is my little information I wanna share with you. Don't matter whether you are black or white. Don't matter whether your are rich or poor. Don't matter whether you are big or small. Don't matter, don't matter at all." (Alain Apaloo in concert as part of the keynote performance "Nomad Academy Goes Helsinki", 18th Nordic Conference for Media and Communication Research, University of Helsinki 19th August 2007)

 

"I doubt that philosophy is well suited to make an object of loyalty of the species, but I can vaguely imagine that someday the combined efforts of politicans, journalists, and novelists [artists! M.S.] might make a single global community out of us." (Richard Rorty, Cultural Otherness. Correspondence with Richard Rorty, ed. by Niyogi Balslev, Atlanta: Scholar Press 1999 [first edition 1991], p. 71)

 

"Kundera's utopia is carnevalesque, Dickensian, a crowd of eccentrics rejoicing in each other's idiosyncracies, curious for novelty rather nostalgic for primordiality. The bigger, more varied, and more boisterous the crowd the better." (Richard Rorty, Cultural Otherness. Correspondence with Richard Rorty, ed. by Niyogi Balslev, Atlanta: Scholar Press 1999 [first edition 1991], p. 114)

 

"Every existing language is an implied theory of man and the universe, a virtual philosophy." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 10)

 

"The idea of universal obligation to respect human dignity gets replaced by the idea of loyalty to a very large group - the human species. The idea that moral obligation extends beyond that species to an even larger group becomes the idea of loyalty to all those who, like yourself, can experience pain - even the cows and the kangaroos - or perhaps even to all living things, even the trees." (Richard Rorty, Justice as a larger loyalty, in: Richard Rorty, Philosophy as Cultural Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 45).

 

"Jeder von uns hat ein stichhaltiges Gefühl von Selbst, von 'Ich'. Auch grundsätzliche Ziele haben wir gemeinsam: Wir möchten Glück erreichen und Leid vermeiden. Tiere und Insekten möchten ebenso Glück und Leid vermeiden." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 13)

 

"Obwohl es schwerwiegende Anzeichen für Störungen zwischen reichen und armen Ländern und zwischen reichen und ärmeren Gruppen innerhalb der Länder gibt, kann diese wirtschaftliche Kluft mithilfe des verstärkten Gefühls von globaler wechseitiger Abhängigkeit und Verantwortung ausgeglichen werden. Die Menschen eines Landes müssen die Menschen anderer Länder wie Brüder und Schwestern betrachten." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 14f)

 

"Staatsoberhäupter haben natürlich eine besondere Verantwortung (...). Doch jeder Einzelne muss ebenso die Initiative ergreifen (...). Einfach durch unser Menschsein, durch das Streben nach Glück und das Vermeiden von Leid, sind wir Bürger dieses Planeten." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 16)

 

"There comes a time when we must fight again for what we know to be the truth. Here comes the day when we must rise again to save ourselves reclaim on you. People, let's get together and show our power all over the world! Everybody, everybody, everybody, now, come together, come together, come together now! (...). We know the truth lies in the simple things. (...). You are a volunteer not just a victim." (Jimmy Cliff & Tony Rebel, "People"; Johnny Clegg and Jimmy Cliff in the presence of Nelson Mandela, "People")

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"Die Probleme, die es in der Welt gibt, sind nicht mit der gleichen Denkweise zu lösen, die sie erzeugt hat." (Albert Einstein regarding the crisis of world economy 1929)

 

"Money makes the world stand still." (Mike Sandbothe regarding the crisis of world economy 2008/9)

"Now wars and disaster responses are so fully privatized that they are themselves the new market; there is no need to wait until after the war for the boom - the medium is the message." (Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, New York: Holt 2007, p. 13)

 

"The bottom line is that while Friedman's economic model is capable of being partially imposed under democracy, authoritarian conditions are required for the implementation of its true vision." (Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, New York: Holt 2007, p. 11)

 

"Es gibt keine Durchschnittsmenschen (...). Das ist ein verzerrtes Bild der Welt, das Politiker uns aufzwingen wollen. Daß wir zu einer endlosen Masse der Durchschnittlichkeit gehören, ohne die Möglichkeit oder den Willen zu haben, uns als Individuen zu behaupten (...) ist nur eine Entschuldigung für gewisse Politiker, die Menschen herablassend zu behandeln." (Henning Mankell, Die italienischen Schuhe, Wien: Zsolnay 2006, S. 166)

 

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Matthew, 6.24)

"Niemand kann zwei Herren dienen: entweder er wird den einen hassen und den andern lieben, oder er wird an dem einen hängen und den andern verachten. Ihr könnt nicht Gott dienen und dem Mammon." (Matthäus, 6.24)

 

"Harmonie kann nicht in einem Klima von Misstrauen, Betrug, Unterdrückung und gnadenlosem Wettbewerb gedeihen." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 17)

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"Es gibt wichtigere Dinge im Leben, als beständig dessen Geschwindigkeit zu erhöhen." (Mahatma Gandhi)

"It requires no great effort to identify the apocalyptic features of our century: world wars, massacres, the specter of nuclear war, the enslavement of millions by technology and totalitarian regimes, the threat to the earth's ecological balance, the depletion of energy sources, the increase of drug addiction - the list could go on and on." (Alice Miller, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware. Society's Betrayal of the Child, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1984, p. 99)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Es bedarf keiner großen Anstrengungen mehr, um in unserem Jahrhundert apokalyptische Züge zu entdecken: Weltkriege, Massenmorde, das Gespenst der Atombombe, die Versklavung des Menschen durch Technik und totalitäre Herrschaftsregime, Bedrohung des biologischen Gleichgewichts, Versiegen der Energiequellen, Zunahme der Drogensucht - die Liste ließe sich noch verlängern." (Alice Miller, Du sollst nicht merken. Variationen über das Paradies-Thema, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983, p. 129)

 

"Too much pollution! Too much confusion! Too much misinformation! I say: Save our Planet Earth!" (Jimmy Cliff @Marquee, Save Our Planet Earth)

 

"The very idea that climate change is a media invention --- is a media invention." (Mike Sandbothe, 13. February 2007, Svinkløv beach, Denmark)

 

"Those of us who have no expertise in the scientific aspects of assessing climate change and its causes can scarcely disregard the views held by the overwhelming majority of those who do possess that expertise. They could be wrong - the great majority of scientists sometimes are - but in view of what is at stake, to rely on that possibility would be a risky strategy." (Peter Singer, One World. The Ethics of Globalization, Yale University Press 2004 [first edition: 2002], p. 16)

 

"If the developed nations had had, during the past century, per capita emissions at the level of the developing nations, we would not today be facing a problem of climate change caused by human activity (...). So, to put it in terms a child could understand, as far as the atmosphere is concerned, the developed nations broke it. If we believe that people should contribute to fixing something in proportion to their responsibility for breaking it, then the developed nations owe it to the rest of the world to fix the problem with the atmosphere." (Peter Singer, One World. The Ethics of Globalization, Yale University Press 2004 [first edition: 2002], p. 33f)

 

"Despite the intuition that something drastic needs to be done about such a costly problem, economic analyses clearly show that it will be far more expensive to cut carbon-dioxide emissions radically than to pay the costs of adaption to the increased temperatures." (Bjørn Lomborg, The Truth about the Environment, in: The Economist, 2. August 2001)

 

"There is also an ethical issue about discounting the future. True, our investments may increase in value over time, and we will become richer, but the price we are prepared to pay to save human lives, or endangered species, may go up just as much. These values are not consumer goods, like TVs or dishwashers, which drop in value in proportion to our earnings. They are things like health, something that the richer we get, the more we are willing to spend to preserve." (Peter Singer, One World. The Ethics of Globalization, Yale University Press 2004 [first edition: 2002], p. 25f)

 

"In der Hektik des modernen Lebens verlieren wir den wirklichen Wert des Menschseins aus den Augen. Die Menschen werden zur Gesamtsumme dessen, was sie produzieren. Menschliche Wesen verhalten sich wie Automaten, deren Zweckbestimmung es ist, Geld zu verdienen."(Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 35)

 

"If you read the UN Climate panel reports it will get worse some places. Actually some places will get better like where I am from in Denmark." (Bjørn Lomborg on CNN, Exchange with Faeed Zakaria, 16. June 2008)

 

"Suppose you engage as a philosopher with perhaps the biggest collective challenge of the 21st century, the climate change - by launching your brilliance in order to analyze your fellow-philosophers' views of this-or-that conceptual aspect of the climate change. Chances are excellent that whatever you end up contributing to in that expert-cultural philosophical debate on climate change is not going to have any effect in the actual matter of climate change. Philosophers can create a never-ending debate about anything that can be named." (Esa Saarinen, "Kindness to Babies and Other Radical Ideas in Rorty's Anti-Cynical Philosophy, in: Pragmatismus als Kulturpolitik, ed. by Alexander Groeschner and Mike Sandbothe, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2009, in print)

 

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew, 6.26)

"Sehet die Vögel unter dem Himmel an: sie säen nicht, sie ernten nicht, sie sammeln nicht in die Scheunen; und euer himmlischer Vater nährt sie doch. Seid ihr denn nicht viel mehr denn sie?" (Matthäus, 6.26)

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"So we can happily agree that scientists achieve objective truth in a way that litérateurs do not. But we explain this phenomenon sociologically rather than philosophically - by pointing out that natural scientists are organized into expert cultures in a way that literary intellectuals should not try to organize themselves. You can have an expert culture if you agree on what you want to get, but not if you are wondering what sort of life you ought to desire." (Richard Rorty, Philosophy as a transitional genre, in: Richard Rorty, Philosophy as Cultural Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 101)

 

"Vollzieht sich in unserer Mediengesellschaft erneut ein Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, der der klassischen Gestalt des Intellektuellen schlecht bekommt?" (Jürgen Habermas, Ein avantgardistischer Spürsinn für Relevanzen. Was den Intellektuellen auszeichnet. Dankesrede bei der Entgegennahme des Bruno-Kreisky-Preises)

 

"Er [der Intellektuelle] muss sich zu einem Zeitpunkt über kritische Entwicklungen aufregen können, wenn andere noch beim Business-as-usual sind. Das erfordert ganz unheroische Tugenden:

• eine argwöhnische Sensibilität für Versehrungen der normativen Infrastruktur des Gemeinwesens,
• die ängstliche Antizipation von Gefahren, die der mentalen Ausstattung der gemeinsamen politischen Lebensform drohen,
• der Sinn für das, was fehlt und 'anders sein könnte',
• ein bisschen Phantasie für den Entwurf von Alternativen,
• und eine wenig Mut zur Polarisierung, zur anstößigen Äußerung, zum Pamphlet.

(Jürgen Habermas, Ein avantgardistischer Spürsinn für Relevanzen. Was den Intellektuellen auszeichnet. Dankesrede bei der Entgegennahme des Bruno-Kreisky-Preises)

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"Education is the only sure method which mankind possesses for directing his own course." (John Dewey, Introduction, in: F.M. Alexander, The Use of the Self, London: Orion Books 2001, p. 12 [first published: 1932])

 

"The best thing to do, then, is to learn from those who know how to live, and to do all we can to make the road to maturity for those who follow smoother and less treacherous." (Moshe Feldenkrais, The Potent Self: A Study of Compulsion and Spontaneity, Berkeley: Frog North Atlantic Books 1985, p. 240; last sentence of the book)

 

"As soon as people come with the idea of unlearning instead of learning, you have them in the frame of mind you want." (F.M. Alexander, Aphorisms, London: Mouritz 2000, p. 35)

 

"You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension." (F.M. Alexander, Aphorisms, London: Mouritz 2000, p. 36)

 

"(...) the kinesthetic sense (...) is the sense which registers muscular tension within the body, and which tells us about the changes in muscular tension that accompany physical movement and variations in our mental state. (...) When this sense is debauched (...) two things happen. First, the individual develops a habit of using his psycho-physical instrument improperly. And, second, he loses his sense of what we may call muscular morality, his basic standard of physical right and wrong." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 19)

 

"(...) the curriculum of our hypothetical course in what may be called the non-verbal humanities will include the following items. Training of the kinesthetic sense. Training of the special senses. Training of memory. Training in control of the autonomic nervous system. Training for spiritual insight." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 19)

 

"The problem of incorporating a decent education in the non-verbal humanities into the current curriculum is a task for professional educators and administrators. What is needed at the present stage is research - intensive, extensive and long drawn research.  Some Foundation with a few scores of millions to get rid of should finance a ten - or fifteen - year plan of observation and experiment." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 38)

 

"Entwickeln Sie nach und nach eine tiefere und sachlichere Sichtweise des Körpers, indem Sie seine Bestandteile wie Haut, Blut, Fleisch, Knochen usw. mit in Betracht ziehen." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 39)

 

"The aim of the psychiatrist is to teach the (statistically) abnormal to adjust themselves to the behavior patterns of a society composed of the (statistically) normal. The aim of the educator in spiritual insight is to teach the (statistically) normal that they are in fact insane and should do something about it." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 33)

 

"Learning by doing is a sound principle if the doing is good doing. If it is bad doing (and in the vast majority of cases it is bad), learning by doing is hopelessly unsound." (Aldous Huxley, The Education of an Amphibian, in: Aldous Huxley, Adonis and the Alphabet and Other Essays, London: Chatto&Windus 1956, p. 21)

 

"The technique of Mr. Alexander gives to the educator a standard of psycho-physical health - in which what we call morality is included. (...). It provides therefore the conditions for the central direction of all special educational processes. It bears the same relation to education that education itself bears to all other human activities." (John Dewey, Introduction, in: F.M. Alexander, The Use of the Self, London: Orion Books 2001, p. 12 [first published: 1932])

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"For the human soul is virtually indestructible, and its ability to rise from the ashes remains as long as the body draws breath." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 280)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Denn die menschliche Seele ist praktisch unausrottbar, und ihre Chance, vom Tod aufzuerstehen, bleibt, solange der Körper lebt." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp  1983 [zuerst 1980], S. 320)

 

"Love is you, You and me, Love is knowing, We can be." (John Lennon, Love)

 

“The older we get, the more difficult it is to find other people who can give us the love our parents denied us. But the body’s expectations do not slacken with age (...). The only way out of this dilemma is to become aware of these mechanisms and to identify the reality of our own childhood by counteracting the processes of repression and denial. In this way we can create in our own selves a person who can satisfy at least some of the needs that have been waiting for fulfillment since birth, if not earlier. Then we can give ourselves the attention, the respect, the understanding for our emotions, the sorely needed protection, and the unconditional love that our parents withheld from us.” (Alice Miller, The Body Never Lies. The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting, New York and London: Norton 2006, p. 22)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Doch je älter man wird, desto schwieriger wird es, von anderen Menschen die einst ausgebliebene elterliche Liebe zu erhalten. Aber die Erwartungen werden nicht mit dem Älterwerden aufgegeben, ganz im Gegenteil. (...). Es sei denn wir werden uns dieser Mechanismen bewußt und versuchen, durch die Aufhebung der Verdrängung und Verleugnung die Realität unserer Kindheit so genau wie möglich zu erkennen. Dann schaffen wir in unserem Selbst den Menschen, der uns die Bedürfnisse befriedigen kann, die seit unserer Geburt oder noch früher auf ihre Erfüllung warten. Nun können wir uns die Beachtung, den Respekt, das Verständnis für unsere Emotionen, den nötigen Schutz, die bedingungslose Liebe, die uns die Eltern verweigert haben, selber geben." (Alice Miller, Die Revolte des Körpers, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2004, p. 14f) 

 

"Love was undoubtedly one of the things capable of changing a person's life, from one moment to the next. But there was the other side of the coin, the second thing that could make a human being take a totally different course from the one he or she had planned; and that was called despair. Yes, perhaps love really could transform someone, but despair did the job more quickly." (Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes, London: HarperCollins 2003, p. 58)

 

"We all feel so lonely, all the time. That is why we need to be together. I think that is why we have prisons. (...). Put a man in jail. Make him be alone. That hurts. When you really experience the feeling of being alone than you know what it really means to be alive." (Alain Apaloo in concert as part of the keynote performance "Nomad Academy Goes Helsinki", 18th Nordic Conference for Media and Communication Research, University of Helsinki 19th August 2007)

 

"This book is a challenge to the central and most cherished claim in the official story - that the triumph of deregulated capitalism has been born of freedom, that unfettered free markets go hand in hand with democracy. Instead, I will show that this fundamentalist form of capitalism has consistently been midwifed by the most brutal forms of coercion, inflicted on the collective body politic as well as on countless individual bodies." (Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, New York: Holt 2007, p. 18)

 

"Individuals who refuse to adapt to a totalitarian regime are not doing so out of a sense of duty or because of naiveté but because they cannot help but be true to themselves. The longer I wrestle with these questions, the more I am inclined to see courage, integrity, and a capacity for love not as 'virtues', not as moral categories, but as the consequence of a benign fate." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 84f)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Der Einzelne, der seine Anpassung im totalitären Regime verweigert, tut es kaum aus Pflichtbewußtsein oder Naivität, sondern weil er nicht anders kann als sich treu zu bleiben. Je länger ich mich mit diesen Fragen befasse, um so mehr neige ich dazu, Mut, Ehrlichkeit und Liebesfähigkeit nicht als 'Tugenden', nicht als moralische Kategorien, sondern als Folgen eines mehr oder weniger gnädigen Schicksals aufzufassen." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983 [zuerst 1980], p. 105)

 

"What was considered good yesterday can (...) be considered evil and corrupt today, and vice versa. But those who have spontaneous feelings can only be themselves. They have no other choice if they want to remain true to themselves. Rejection, ostracism, loss of love, and name calling will not fail to affect them; they will suffer as a result and will dread them, but once they have found their authentic  self they will not want to lose it. And when they sense that something is being demanded of them to which their whole being says no, they cannot do it. They simply cannot." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 85)

GERMAN ORIGINAL:  "Was gestern noch als gut galt, kann heute (...) als das Böse und Verdorbene gelten und umgekehrt. Aber ein Mensch mit lebendigen Gefühlen kann nur er selbst sein. Er hat keine andere Wahl, will er sich nicht verlieren. Die Ablehnung, die Ausstoßung, der Liebesverlust und die Schmähungen lassen ihn nicht gleichgültig, er wird  unter ihnen leiden und sich vor ihnen fürchten, aber er wird sein Selbst nicht verlieren wollen, wenn er es einmal hat. Und wenn er spürt, daß etwas von ihm verlangt wird, zu dem sein ganzes Wesen 'nein' sagt, dann kann er es nicht tun. Er kann es einfach nicht." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983 [zuerst 1980], p. 105f)

 

"Children who are lectured to, learn how to lecture; if they are admonished, they learn how to admonish; if scolded, they learn how to scold; if ridiculed, they learn how to ridicule; if humiliated, they learn how to humiliate; if their psyche is killed, they will learn how to kill - the only question is who will be killed: oneself, others, or both." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 98)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Wenn man einem Kind Moral predigt, lernt es Moral predigen, wenn man es warnt, lernt es warnen, wenn man mit ihm schimpft, lernt es schimpfen, wenn man es auslacht, lernt es auslachen, wenn man es demütigt, lernt es demütigen, wenn man seine Seele tötet, lernt es töten. Es hat dann die Wahl, ob sich selbst oder die anderen oder beides." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983 [zuerst 1980], p. 119)

 

"How might it be that anything matters more than kindness to babies? One possibility is to hold representations to be more significant, more worthy of attention, than what they stand for. Instead of hugging a baby, say, you end up contemplating the concept of 'a baby' or 'a hug'. You might have the overall view that as a prerequisite to being kind to babies, we will have to get clear on the concept of 'kindness' and 'babies', perhaps even of 'interaction' or 'bodily encounter' or the problem of 'other minds', an effort that is likely to take some time. (...). Is such an outcome not somewhat perverse? Yet this is what the philosophy departments everywhere de facto generate. Kindness to babies just is not up on the list of what is considered relevant." (Esa Saarinen, "Kindness to Babies and Other Radical Ideas in Rorty's Anti-Cynical Philosophy", in: Pragmatismus als Kulturpolitik, ed. by Alexander Groeschner and Mike Sandbothe, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2009, in print).

 

"I would call any philosophy and any way of thinking that does not assign first priority to kindness to babies, as cynical. (...). Babies are the future, and kindness to babies is the care of the apotheosis of that future." (Esa Saarinen, "Kindness to Babies and Other Radical Ideas in Rorty's Anti-Cynical Philosophy", in: Pragmatismus als Kulturpolitik, ed. by Alexander Groeschner and Mike Sandbothe, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2009, in print).

 

"Close your eyes, Have no fear, The monster's gone, He's on the run, And your daddy's here." (John Lennon, Beautiful Boy)

 

"Love and cruelty are mutually exclusive. No one ever slaps a child out of love but rather because in similar situations, when one was defenseless, one was slapped and then compelled to interpret it as a sign of love. This inner confusion prevailed for thirty or forty years and is passed on to one's own child. That's all." (Alice Miller, Banished Knowledge. Facing Childhood Injuries, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 33).

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Liebe und Grausamkeit schließen sich gegenseitig aus. Man ohrfeigt niemals aus Liebe, sondern weil man in ähnlichen Situationen, als man wehrlos war, geohrfeigt wurde und gezwungen war, dies als Zeichen der Liebe zu verstehen. In dieser Konfusion bleibt man 30, 40 Jahre lang und überträgt sie auf das eigene Kind. Das ist alles." (Alice Miller, Das verbannte Wissen, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1995, p. 48)

 

"The so-called bad child becomes a bad adult and eventually creates a bad world. The loved child will create a different world, for it is our biological mandate to protect human live, not destroy it." (Alice Miller, Banished Knowledge. Facing Childhood Injuries, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 141).

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Das mißhandelte, angeblich 'böse Kind' wird zum bösen Erwachsenen und schafft später eine böse Welt, wenn kein wissender Zeuge ihm zur Hilfe kommt. Das geachtete Kind wird eine andere Welt schaffen, denn unser biologischer Auftrag heißt, menschliches Leben zu beschützen und es nicht zu zerstören." (Alice Miller, Das verbannte Wissen, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1995, p. 181)

 

"Wenn ich einen Blick in meinen Zarathustra geworfen habe, gehe ich eine halbe Stunde im Zimmer auf und ab, unfähig, über einen unerträglichen Krampf von Schluchzen Herr zu werden. -" (Friedrich Nietzsche, Werke, Bd. III hrsg. von Karl Schlechta, Frankfurt a.M./Berlin/Wien: Ullstein 1972, p. 535)

 

"If Nietzsche had not been forced to learn as a child that one must master an 'unbearable fit of sobbing', if he had simply been allowed to sob, then humanity would have been one philosopher poorer, but in return the life of a human being named Nietzsche would have been richer. And who knows what that vital Nietzsche would then have been able to give humanity?" (Alice Miller, The Untouched Key. Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 133)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Hätte Nietzsche als Kind nicht lernen müssen, daß man Herr werden soll über den 'unerträglichen Krampf von Schluchzen', hätte er als Kind einfach schluchzen dürfen, die Menschheit wäre um einen Lebensphilosophen ärmer, aber dafür wäre der Mensch Nietzsche um sein ganzes Leben reicher geworden. Und wer weiß, was dieser lebende Nietzsche der Menschheit dann hätte geben können?" (Alice Miller, Der gemiedene Schlüssel, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1996, p. 78)

 

'The absence or presence of a helping witness in childhood determines whether a mistreated child will become a despot who turns his repressed feelings of helplessness against others or an artist who can tell about his or her suffering." (Alice Miller, The Untouched Key. Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 60)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Das Fehlen oder die Gegenwart eines helfenden Zeugen in der Kindheit entscheidet darüber, ob ein mißhandeltes Kind zum Despoten wird oder zum Künstler, der über sein Leiden berichten kann." (Alice Miller, Der gemiedene Schlüssel, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1996, p. 145)

 

"Stalin's family was very poor, and his mother had to work. But Charlie Chaplin's mother was poor too. She even had to put her child in an orphanage, but she visited him there and gave him the assurance that he was loved, that he was valuable and important to someone. The experience of being loved can be sensed in all the Chaplin films." (Alice Miller, The Untouched Key. Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 67)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Stalins Familie war sehr arm, und die Mutter mußte arbeiten. Doch auch die Mutter Charlie Chaplins war arm. Sie mußte das Kind sogar ins Waisenhaus bringen, aber sie besuchte es dort und vermittelte ihm die Sicherheit, daß es geliebt wurde, daß es für jemanden wertvoll und bedeutungsvoll war. Diese Erfahrung des Geliebtwerdens ist in allen Chaplin-Filmen spürbar." (Alice Miller, Der gemiedene Schlüssel, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1996, p. 151)

 

"If parents are also able to give their child the same respect and tolerance they had for their own parents, they will surely be providing him with the best possible foundation for his entire life." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Vrargo 1987, p. 132f)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Wenn es den Eltern (...) gelingen sollte, ihrem eigenen Kind den gleichen Respekt und die Toleranz entgegenzubringen, die sie immer für ihre eigenen Eltern aufgebracht haben, dann werden sie ihm sicher die besten Voraussetzungen für sein ganzes späteres Leben geben." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983 [zuerst 1980], p. 158)

 

"There would without any doubt be more people capable of love if the Church, instead of urging its members to obey authority and expecting allegiance to Christ on these grounds, would understand the crucial significance of Joseph's attitude. He served his child because he regarded Him as the child of God. What would it be like if all of us regarded our children as children of God - which we could do, after all?" (Alice Miller, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware. Society's Betrayal of the Child, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1984, p. 97)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Es gäbe zweifellos mehr liebesfähige Menschen, wenn die Kirche, statt an den Gehorsam für die Obrigkeit zu appellieren und von daher die Gefolgschaft Christi zu erwarten, die entscheidende Bedeutung der Haltung Josefs einsehen würde. Er diente seinem Kind, weil er es als Kind Gottes angesehen hat. Wie wäre es, wenn wir alle unsere Kinder als Kinder Gottes ansehen würden, was man ja auch tun könnte? (Alice Miller, Du sollst nicht merken. Variationen über das Paradies-Thema, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1983, p. 125f)

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"Pragmatism puts natural science on all fours with politics and art. It is one more source of suggestions about what to do with our lives." (Richard Rorty, Dewey and Posner on Pragmatism and Moral Progress, in: University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 74, Summer 2007, p. 917)

 

"John Dewey once quoted G.K.Chesterton's remark that 'Pragmatism is a matter of human needs and one of the first of human needs is to be something more than a pragmatist.' Chesterton had a point, and Dewey granted it. Dewey was quite aware of what he called 'a supposed necessity of the 'human mind' to believe in certain absolute truths.' But he thought that this necessity had existed only in an earlier stage of human history, a stage which we might now move beyond." (Richard Rorty, Does Academic Freedom have Philosophical Presuppositions?, in: The Future of Academic Freedom, ed. by Louis Menand, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press1996, p. 33)

 

"(...) I realize that the key point of pragmatism was never a theory of pragmatism but the actual conduct of it. Herein, I would like to add, lies its radicalism." (Esa Saarinen, "Kindness to Babies and Other Radical Ideas in Rorty's Anti-Cynical Philosophy, in: Pragmatismus als Kulturpolitik, ed. by Alexander Groeschner and Mike Sandbothe, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2009, in print).

 

"Let us define the Philosopher’s Index of Self-Indulgence as the sum you get from a page of her writing as you add up
a)    the number of times a word appears with ending “-ism” to it;
b)    the number of times some word is written with a capital letter although it should be written in a small letter;
c)    the number of words of an example that has been narrated in a way that your medical doctor daughter, architect son, engineer brother and retired aunt would find boring;
d)    the number of times any of the words “argument”, “distinction”, “theory”, “position” are mentioned." (Esa Saarinen, "Kindness to Babies and Other Radical Ideas in Rorty's Anti-Cynical Philosophy, in: Pragmatismus als Kulturpolitik, ed. by Alexander Groeschner and Mike Sandbothe, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2009, in print).

 

"So-called methods are simply descriptions of the activities engaged in by enthusiastic imitators of one or another original mind (...)." (Richard Rorty, Introduction, in: Truth and Progress. Philosophical Papers, Vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.10)

GERMAN TRANSLATION: "Was man Methoden nennt, sind bloß Beschreibungen von Tätigkeiten, der sich die begeisterten Nachahmer des einen oder anderen originellen Kopfes befleißigen." (Richard Rorty, Wahrheit und Fortschritt, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1998, p. 21)

 

"The difference between subjectivity and sound scholarship will now be glossed as that between the satisfaction of private, idiosyncratic, and perhaps secret needs and the satisfaction of needs which are widely shared, well publicized, and freely debated." (Richard Rorty, Does Academic Freedom have Philosophical Presuppositions?, in: The Future of Academic Freedom, ed. by Louis Menand, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press 1996, p. 38)

 

"Buddhismus zu praktizieren heißt, die eigene Einstellung zu transzendieren." (Dalai Lama, Der Weg zum Glück. Sinn im Leben finden, ed. by Jeffrey Hopkins, Freiburg: Herder 2002, p. 57)

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"Learning seriously affects your brain!" (Advertisement Slogan of Aalborg University 2007/2008, sponsored by Vattenfall)

 

"In the unsuspecting, trusting attitude of Kafka's convicted prisoner [in his novel 'Penal Colony' - M.S.] (...) we can see the students of today who are so eager to believe that the only thing that counts in their four years of study is their academic performance and that human commitment is not required." [alternative translation suggested by M.S.: "(...) who are so eager to believe that the only thing that they have to give away is their efforts and not their very substance."  (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 98)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Die ahnungslose, vertrauensvolle Haltung des verurteilten Sträflings [in Kafkas 'Strafkolonie' - M.S.] läßt sich im heutigen Studenten wiederfinden, der so gerne glauben möchte, daß er im vierjährigen Studium nur seine Leistung und nicht seine Substanz hergeben müsse." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp  1983 [zuerst 1980], S. 320)

 

About studying Psychology at universities: "When we consider how much time and energy is devoted during these best years to wasting the last opportunities of adolescence and to suppressing, by means of the intellectual disciplines, the feelings that emerge with particular force at this age, then it is no wonder that the people who have made this sacrifice victimize their patients and clients in turn, treating them as mere objects of knowledge instead of as autonomous, creative beings." [Alternative translation for "by means of the intellectual disciplines" suggested by M.S.: "by means of scientific reason"] (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 279)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: Über das Studium der Psychologie an Universitäten: "Wenn man bedenkt, wie viel Zeit und Energie im besten Alter des Lebens dafür verwendet wird, die letzte Chance der Adoleszenz zu vergeuden und die in diesem Alter besonders stark auftretenden Gefühle mit wissenschaftlichem Intellekt auf Sparflamme zu halten, dann wird man sich nicht wundern, wenn die Menschen nach diesem Opfer ihre Patienten und Klienten auch zu Opfern machen, sie als Instrument ihres Wissens und nicht als eigenständige, kreative Wesen behandeln." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp  1983 [zuerst 1980], S. 320)

 

"(...) the experience that each of us has had with decisions about curriculum and appointment should persuade us that the distinction between academic politics and the disinterested pursuit of truth is pretty fuzzy. But that fuzziness does not, and should not, make us treasure free and independent universities any less. Neither philosophers nor anyone else can offer us nice sharp distinctions between the appropriate social utility and inappropriate politicization. But we have accumulated a lot of experience about how to keep redrawing this line (...). One of the things this accumulated experience has taught us is that universities are unlikely to remain healthy and free once people outside the university take a hand in redrawing this line." (Richard Rorty, Does Academic Freedom have Philosophical Presuppositions?, in: The Future of Academic Freedom, ed. by Louis Menand, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press1996, p. 28)

 

"Should our pedagogical system become more relaxed someday, however, should the commandment 'Thou shalt not be aware of what was done to you as a child' lose its force, then our heretofore treasured 'products of culture' will no doubt decline in number - from unnessesary, useless dissertations all the way to the most famous philosophical treatises. But their place would be taken by many honest reports about what really happened to their authors." (Alice Miller, The Untouched Key. Tracing Childhood Trauma in Creativity and Destructiveness, New York: Anchor 1991, p. 131)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Sollte sich aber einmal unser Erziehungssystem lockern, sollte das Gesetz 'Du sollst nicht merken, was man dir in der Kindheit angetan hat' keine Gültigkeit mehr haben, dann wird sich zweifellos die Zahl der bisher so geschätzten 'Kulturprodukte' verringern - angefangen bei unnötigen, unbrauchbaren Dissertationen bis zu den berühmtesten philosophischen Werken. Dafür aber gäbe es viel mehr ehrliche Berichte über das, was wirklich geschehen ist (...)." (Alice Miller, Der gemiedene Schlüssel, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1996, p. 75)

 

"It is not the psychologists but the literary writers who are ahead of their time. (...).  There has been a markes increase in the willingness of the postwar generation [of German literary writers - M.S.] to seek the truth of their childhood and in their ability to bear the truth once they have discovered it. (...). I see great hope in this as a step along the road to truth and at the same time as confirmation that even a minimal loosening up of child-rearing principles can bear fruit by enabling at least our writers to become aware. That the academic disciplines must lag behind is an unfortunate but well-known fact." (Alice Miller, For Your Own Good. The Roots of Violence in Child-rearing, London: Virago 1987, p. 279)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Es sind nicht die Psychologen, sondern die Dichter, die der Zeit vorausgehen. (...). Die Bereitschaft, sich der Wahrheit der eigenen Kindheit auszusetzen, und die Möglichkeit, sie auszuhalten, sind in der Nachkriegsgeneration [der deutschen Dichter und Schriftsteller - M.S] entschieden größer. (...). Ich sehe darin eine große Hoffnung auf dem Wege zur Wahrheit und zugleich eine Bestätigung dafür, daß bereits eine minimale Lockerung der Erziehungsprinzipien Früchte tragen kann, indem es zumindest den Dichtern möglich wird, zu merken. Daß die Wissenschaft ihnen nachhinken muß, ist eine altbekannte Tatsache." (Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp  1983 [zuerst 1980], S. 319)

 

"As I demonstrated in The Drama of the Gifted Child, the career of a psychologist begins in childhood with the desperate attempt to understand the parents without judging them. We should not remain bogged down in the fears of our childhood. As adults we must summon up the courage to judge, to call evil by its name and not tolerate it." (Alice Miller, The Truth Will Set You Free. Overcoming Emotional Blindness and Finding Your True Adult Self, New York: Bacic 2001, p. 131)

GERMAN ORIGINAL: "Wie ich in Das Drama des begabten Kindes (...) aufzeige, beginnt die Karriere des Psychologen bereits in der Kindheit mit dem verzweifelten Versuch, die Eltern zu verstehen und nicht über sie zu urteilen - das Böse nicht als solches zu erkennen, den Apfel vom Baum der Erkenntnis nicht zu essen. (...) Das Anliegen des Kindes - verstehen, nicht urteilen - ist häufig die Triebfeder für die spätere Berufswahl. Doch wir dürfen (...) nicht in der Angst des Kindes befangen bleiben. Wir müssen als Erwachsene den Mut finden zu urteilen, das Böse zu benennen und es nicht zu tolerieren." (Alice Miller, Evas Erwachen. Über die Auflösung emotionaler Blindheit, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 2001, S. 125)

 

"(...), daß die Ignoranz der Gesellschaft von ehemaligen Kindern getragen wird, die, wie ich, so stark, so geschickt und vor allem so früh von ihren Eltern eingeschüchtert wurden, daß sie auch noch als Erwachsene unter diesem Terror stehen und ihn verteidigen." (Alice Miller, Bilder einer Kindheit. 66 Aquarelle und ein Essay, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1985, p. 21)

 

 

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