Alt er i altet

“Fabulous weather, isn’t it?” said the chauffeur, looking up at the sky. “It’s–how can I put it?–crystal clear.”
I nodded.
“When it gets this clear, God’s messages must have no trouble getting through at all,” I offered.
“Nothing of the kind,” said the chauffeur with a grin. “There are messages already in all things. In flowers, in the rocks, in the clouds…”
“And cars?”
“In cars too.”
“But cars are made in factories.” Typical me.
“Whosoever makes it, God’s will is worked into it.”
“As in ear lice?” Her contribution.
“As in the very air,” corrected the chauffeur.
“Well then, I suppose that cars made in Saudi Arabia have Allah in them.”
“They don’t produce cars in Saudi Arabia.”
“Really?” Again me.
“Really.”
“Then what about cars produced in America for export to Saudi Arabia? What god’s in them?” queried my girlfriend.
A difficult question.

– Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase, p. 151

If it’s not me, it’s you

General Ralph Landry: You know, when they forced Khruschev out, he sat down and wrote two letters to his successor. He said – “When you get yourself into a situation you can’t get out of, open the first letter, and you’ll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can’t get out of, open the second letter”.
Soon enough, he gets into a tight situation, and he opens the first letter. It says – “Blame it all on me”. So he blames it all on the old guy, and it worked like a charm.
When he got himself into a second situation, he opened the second letter. It said – “Sit down, and write two letters”.

– Traffic (2000)

Med den rette hånd på roret

‘‘Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?’’ It’s a question I get asked so often that I have a little canned response I can rattle off without thinking: ‘‘In order to be an activist, you have to be both: pessimistic enough to believe that things will get worse if left unchecked, optimistic enough to believe that if you take action, the worst can be prevented.’’

– Cory Doctorow: Techno-optimism