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Theres a famous statement from a  revolutionary on being told by an arresting officer that they'd been beaten "Yes but you have to win every time, whereas we only have to win once"

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sun Jul 3rd, 2011 at 08:43:58 AM EST
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  I'm not sure what "winning" is intended to mean in this context.  

  What, if anything, lasting and remaining was "won" from the welter of struggles through the 1960s to the early 1970s?  Nothing that I can point to.

  Instead, human nature remains mortal and ever subject to having to relearn the "lessons" of the past.  Fortunately, on the upside, it also implies that our errors aren't permanently fixed either--unless, of course, they amount to our own species-ending errors.

  So, either I don't understand what "we only have to win once" means or, if I understand it, it's a dangerously mistaken idea.  Whatever we "win" has to be preserved carefully and transmitted, or it will surely be lost.

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

by proximity1 on Mon Jul 4th, 2011 at 12:18:28 PM EST
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