Our Hero James Baldwin who died today in 1987
The Doom and Glory of Knowing Who You Are: James Baldwin on the Empathic Rewards of Reading and What It Means to Be an Artist
“A
society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he
must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven,” James Baldwin (August 2, 1924–December 1, 1987) wrote in his classic 1962 essay “The Creative Process.”
By then, he was already one of America’s most celebrated writers — an
artist who shook up the baseboards of society by dismantling the
structures of power and convention with unflinching fortitude, dignity,
and integrity of conviction.
Think so?
absolute power depends on absolute control over knowledge, which in turn necessitates absolute corruption
Think about this
“Politicians, Priests, and psychiatrists often face the same problem: how to find the most rapid and permanent means of changing a man’s belief…The problem of the doctor and his nervously ill patient, and that of the religious leader who sets out to gain and hold new converts, has now become the problem of whole groups of nations, who wish not only to confirm certain political beliefs within their boundaries, but to proselytize the outside world.”
– William Sargant “Battle of the Mind”
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