Words to live your life by

[Banana Woofwoof]

Blake:

To see a World in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

[mrpants]

Johnson:

"...for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

[Saygone]

“If you really want to hurt your parents and
you don’t have nerve enough to be homosexual,
the least you can do is go into the arts.”

“If you can do a half-assed job of anything,
you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.”

“Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which
no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said
to remedy anything.”

“Well, the telling of jokes is an art of its own,
and it always rises from some emotional threat.
The best jokes are dangerous, and dangerous
because they are in some way truthful.”

All from the late Kurt Vonnegut.

[Sheldon Finklestein]

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel - Horace Walpole

[Saygone]

“All of us should treasure his (John Dillinger) Oriental wisdom and his preaching of a Zen-like detachment, as exemplified by his constant reminder to clerks, tellers, or others who grew excited by his presence in their banks: "Just lie down on the floor and keep calm."”

“If you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit.”

“It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.”

"We live in our fantasies and endure our realities."

Robert Anton Wilson.

[sproggy]

"Limeys appear normal, but their weirdness runs deep"

Hunter. S. Thompson.

[Emma Raducanu]

I wandered lonely along as if I was a cloud,
That floats on high over vales and hills,
When all at once I looked down and saw a crowd,
And in my path there was a host of golden,
daffodils so check it

[Pinball]

Ashleigh Brilliant:

"I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy".

[Pinball]

 



http://www.ashleighbrilliant.com

[gazzyk1ns]

<snip>you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

See, (heh), I've always hated hearing that; because in the kingdom of the blind, surely it makes absolutely no difference how many eyes you have?

[boki]

Be excellent to each other

Careful now

If there's a sound to play
That doesn't fit today
Why not just PLAY THE BASTARD anyway?

[Oscar]

<snip>you’re a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind.

See, (heh), I've always hated hearing that; because in the kingdom of the blind, surely it makes absolutely no difference how many eyes you have?

Now I'm confused, because I thought that was the point of that saying. Have I got it wrong?

[gazzyk1ns]

I actually looked it up on Wikipedia to check, before I posted that, and it seems to indicate that its meaning is what I thought:

... Erasmus, who claimed that "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." His thesis being that if all around you are ignorant, then even a little knowledge would make you significant in that community.

...But surely that doesn't make any sense? Just the saying I mean, not the thesis. Whatever the case, Erasmus should probably have concentrated on trying to get his point across clearly, as opposed to trying to sound all clever.

[sick as a pike]

But it does lead us on to another related truth:

"In the Kingdom of the Bald the One-Haired man is King."

[Oscar]

edit: Sick as a pike stole my space! Why, you pesky fish...

Does it help to say: In the kingdom of the blind, the chap with the rudimentary eye that can distinguish between light and dark is king, but possibly just a king of status rather than skill, because the rudimentary eyed king might rely a little too much on his simplistic eye and therefore not develop his other senses to the same high level of his blind subjects.

It's not quite as snappy and some of the original metaphorical meaning may have been lost.

[Mr Colossal]

is the eye not meant to work properly then, or are you just assuming it isn't?  

i know it says 'in the kingdom of the blind', but I always just thought of that phrase as a general put down... like when somebody is singing the  praises of somebody questionable 'in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king' would suggest to me 'well look who's doing the singing!'.

He only has One eye, which is substandard,  but he's better because they have none.

Like any fool can be hailed as a king, if the standards are that low, if that makes sense.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yes, I'm not really sure what exactly is unclear about that either.

[Emma Raducanu]

Glad that's sorted.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I think this version is more truthful:

"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.  That is until mister fucking two-eyes comes swanning along with his expanded peripheral vision and fancy-ass depth perception.  The cunt."

[Emma Raducanu]

This fella's the fucking master

[Labian Quest]

Anthony Burgess (I think) developed that 'kingdom of the blind' saying - in the kingdom of the insane, the rational man isn't the king, he gets lynched.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is a wizard who must be burnt.

[The Plaque Goblin]

But they can't find the matches, heh.

Do you think a bunch of genuinely insane people could get it together to lynch someone?

[The Plaque Goblin]

In the kingdom of the deaf, the one-eared man still looks a bit odd.

[Labian Quest]

Do you think a bunch of genuinely insane people could get it together to lynch someone?

I don't know if Anthony Burgess meant what he said as strictly literally as that, or if it was just a more general comment on insanity/the herd mentality or whatever, but I wouldn't have thought it would be that difficult to lynch someone if the odds were so heavily in your favour.

[gazzyk1ns]

is the eye not meant to work properly then, or are you just assuming it isn't?

i know it says 'in the kingdom of the blind', but I always just thought of that phrase as a general put down... like when somebody is singing the praises of somebody questionable 'in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king' would suggest to me 'well look who's doing the singing!'.

He only has One eye, which is substandard, but he's better because they have none.

Like any fool can be hailed as a king, if the standards are that low, if that makes sense.

Yes, I'm not really sure what exactly is unclear about that either.

I'm not letting this go. In response to Mr C's first sentence - well I think it's supposed to be fine, if I understand the meaning of the phrase correctly (i.e. if Wikipedia was right), but this is my problem with it. I'm not "assuming" it's not working, the only information we have about this fictional kingdom is that it's the kingdom "of the blind". Why would you assume/infer that the rest of the people have no eyes? You don't usually call things with no visual sensory organs "blind", as it goes without saying that they cannot see.

So, in summary, as far as I can see (hah), it's just worded terribly, to the point that it doesn't make any sense unless you've heard the supposed meaning of the phrase from an external source.

[Ciarán2]

I sing myself and celebrate myself
And what I shall assume you shall assume
For every atom that belongs to me as good belongs to you.

[SetToStun]

Do you think a bunch of genuinely insane people could get it together to lynch someone?

Yep - and they can even get it together enough to wear matching white outfits with pointy hoods.

[The Plaque Goblin]

Well, there are lots of different kinds of insane, I suppose.

[boki]

Do you think a bunch of genuinely insane people could get it together to lynch someone?

Yep - and they can even get it together enough to wear matching white outfits with pointy hoods.

Altern-8 wouldn't be so mean, would they?