All posts by Bill Cupp

random quip

I am a liberal person opposed to all unnecessary state limitation of individual liberties. Hermeneutics between consenting adults should not, in my view, be the object of any statutory restrictions. I know, only too well, what it would entail. Hermeneutic speakeasies would spring up all over the place, smuggled Thick Descriptions would be brought in by … the Mafia, … Addicts would be subject to blackmail. Consumption of deep meanings … would in no way diminsh, but the criminal world would benefit, and the whole fabric of civil society would be put under severe strain. Never! -Ernest Gellner-

random quip

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum — even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. -Noam Chomsky-