Social Order & Disorder – Page 17

This time it’s a Machiavellian mis-quote.

Whilst perusing the Net for some material for my book on Machiavelli, I came across this maxim: “Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” It’s attributed on many, many sites to Machiavelli in his most famous work, The Prince. Sounds pretty Machiavellian, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. Machiavelli never wrote those words. Sun Tzu wrote that, “All warfare is based on deception.” (Book 1, 18), which is close. Sun Tzu went on to add in the next two lines (19 and 20), “Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, ……… click below for more ↓

It’s not an Apache blessing, it’s just a Hollywood script

2012-04-08 2016-05-29 Arts / Atheism & Spirituality / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social5 Comments

“May the sun bring you new energy by day,” begins this saccharine saying that has enjoyed a continued life outside Facebook through the fridge magnet and huggable-puppies-and-kittens-on-posters and wedding planner industries. It gets passed off as an “Apache blessing” or “Apache wedding blessing” on Facebook, usually with some hunk-ish Indian brave pictures beside the words or some faux-Indian animal fetish images. The rest of the alleged “blessing” reads: …May the moon softy restore you by night; May the rain wash away your worries; May the breeze blow new strength into your being; May you walk gently through the world and ……… click below for more ↓

Please preserve the CBC: no more cuts!

2012-03-28 2012-03-28 Arts / Canadian Politics / Media Issues2 Comments

Canadians who care about media content, journalistic integrity and fair reporting are anxiously watching for tomorrow’s federal budget announcements. Big cuts to the CBC are expected, according to this Huffington Post story: Cuts to CBC funding expected in the upcoming federal budget could have dramatic implications, touching everything from popular television programming to foreign news bureaus and eliminating hundreds of jobs, observers predict. The CBC’s own story about the predicted cuts doesn’t mention the CBC, but it does say, “…many public servants in Ottawa are bracing for staffing cuts, which may not arrive through relatively painless attrition or early retirement ……… click below for more ↓

So many bad quotes, so little time

2012-03-20 2012-03-20 Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & SocialLeave a comment

I was browsing through my blog posts today and found I have actually written about improperly attributed quotations on the Net nine times since I first started blogging back in March, 2005. On my old Mumpsimus blog, I posted two pieces about these bad memes: A quote misattributed to Henry David Thoreau, November, 2010. A quote misattributed to William Shakespeare, January, 2009. On this new blog, which I launched in mid_December, 2011, I have written seven pieces about bad Internet quotes, starting with the Slowly Dies piece, in January, 2012: A quote mis-attributed to Lao Tzu; A quote mis-attributed to ……… click below for more ↓

James Miles? Goethe? Sorry: this quote is from Malcolm Forbes

2012-03-18 2012-03-18 Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & SocialOne Comment

Another New Age quote showed up on Facebook today, one of those warn-n-fuzzy, touchy-feely sayings that either make you gag or go weak at the knees. This one is ascribed to James D. Miles. Miles was, according to answers.com (a site of dubious factuality and not terribly reliable at the best of timns), “…an associate professor of Psychology at Purdue University.” The author of this answer claimed Miles was “…quoting the German poet, novelist, playwright, scientist and philosopher Johann Wofgang von Goethe (1749-1832).” Miles is, indeed, a professor at Purdue, or at least has been in the recent past. But ……… click below for more ↓

Does This Really Sound Like Sitting Bull?

2012-03-18 2021-08-28 Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social3 Comments

Another quote meme going around on the Internet claims to be from Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake), the famous Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief. A fascinating man in a difficult time, and a source of inspiration today. He was brave, intelligent and, from all accounts, wise. So when I read the quote below, I was torn. It’s a good comment, one that sounds like it should come from a wise man. But was that wise man really Sitting Bull? Or perhaps these words are from someone else. There are many of these false quotations online, words that have been appropriated and misattributed ……… click below for more ↓

Crystal crazy: self-professed psychics on Facebook

2012-03-17 2012-03-17 Atheism & Spirituality / Memes; Internet & Social / Science & Technology2 Comments

The Internet has provided a virtual continent for the colonies of faith healers, psychics, astrologers, UFO hunters, ghost and haunting sightings, crypto-zoologists, promoters of angels, spirits, demons, auras, and a wealth of pseudoscience and claptrap. In a culture where the critical thinking, quest of knowledge and skepticism that characterized the Enlightenment have given way to superstition and fundamentalism, the Net has proven a rich source of believers and followers for the charlatans and hucksters. Facebook and Youtube combine to make the Alexandria Library for the hard-of-thinking. Many of the promoters of this nonsense feed off one another and create their ……… click below for more ↓

Nope, this quote is not from Plato

2012-03-04 2022-04-23 Memes; Internet & Social5 Comments

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Seems like a wise thing to say. And I wish Plato had said it — it would have saved me a lot of time today. I spent many hours today putting together a quotation widget for this blog and trying to ascertain every quote I included came from a respectable, creditable source. Most were fairly easy to confirm, but others — like this one — just didn’t feel right for the attributed author. This quote ……… click below for more ↓

Not a John Lennon quote… just another bad meme

2012-02-28 2015-11-02 Arts / Memes; Internet & SocialOne Comment

Another unsourced, mis-attributed quote is going the rounds, found as are so many on Facebook, this one turning itself into another of those annoying, unsourced Internet memes that people love to share: “When I was five years old, my Mom told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.” Nope, not by Lennon. Just another bad Internet meme, with no source ever listed, but ……… click below for more ↓

It wasn’t Einstein who said it…

2012-02-25 2012-02-25 Arts / Atheism & Spirituality / Books & Reviews / Memes; Internet & Social5 Comments

Yet another incorrectly attributed quotation is being passed around the Internet, this time on Facebook. This one is, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” A saccharine, touchy-feely, warm-puppy quote that appeals to some who take comfort in them, but Einstein never said that. According to Wikiquote’s page on Einstein, This gets almost 500k hits on google, but as far as I can tell, none has a source… Doing a Google book search and restricting the date range ……… click below for more ↓

Why not a Napoleon theme park?

2012-02-18 2012-02-18 History & Biography / Personal Reminiscences / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

There’s a sarcastic, somewhat-tongue-in-cheek commentary in the Guardian this week, called, “Why not have a Napoleon theme park?” In it, Agnès C. Poirier editorializes on a recent proposal by a French MP to build a theme park in France dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. She writes, Abroad, observers could be forgiven for almost choking on hearing this news: why not a Stalin or a Kim Jong-il theme park too? That made me choke, almost pushing my half-swallowed tea through my nose. Imaginations must run very high among her set if anyone can associate Napoleon Bonaparte with two of the Twentieth Century’s ……… click below for more ↓

What Shall We Do With the Mountain View?

2012-02-14 2012-02-14 Collingwood / Urban Design & Growth2 Comments

Here’s a new song for Collingwood, sung to the tune of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? Unbeknownst to council, the town wants to own the Mountain View Hotel for $1.9 million. This little-known fact appeared in the 600-plus page budget document without any fanfare. or even any other sort of notice. You’d have to dig through page after page of mind-numbing arrays of figures to find it. Normally, when the municipality wants to buy property, we go in camera to hear a staff report that justifies the purchase and we discuss the legal ramifications of the offer. ……… click below for more ↓