'If the consumer economy depended upon me, we’d be in a deep depression.'
Fran Leibovitz
'If everyone believes one thing, the costs of believing something else increase dramatically, making the consensus opinion the only viable option'
https://stratechery.com/2022/the-current-thing/
There’s a theory in psychology called depressive realism which says depressed people have a more accurate view of the world because they’re more realistic about how risky and fragile life is. It’s the opposite of “blissfully unaware.”
http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/endless-uncertainty/
“If I am I, because you are you, and you are you, because I am I, then I am not I, and you are not you.
But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you, and we can talk.”
― Menachem Mendel of Kotzk
Kundera: I learned the value of humor during the time of Stalinist terror. I was twenty then. I could always recognize a person who was not a Stalinist, a person whom I needn’t fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humor was a trustworthy sign of recognition. Ever since, I have been terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humor.
Excerpt from: "Shop Talk: A Writer and His Colleagues and Their Work" by Philip Roth.
