As for me, my bed is made. I am against bigness and greatness in all their forms, and with the invisible molecular forces that work from individual to individual, stealing in through the crannies of the world like so many soft rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water. … The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed. So I am against all big organizations as such, national ones first and foremost; against all big successes and big results; and in favor of the eternal forces of truth which always work in the individual and immediately unsuccessful way, underdogs always, till history comes, after they are long dead, and puts them on the top.
—William James, June 7 1899
Curse of Bigness
October 15th, 2005 · 3 Comments
Tags: Old Blog · Gilded Age
3 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Oct 16, 2005 at 10:00 am
“Short people got no reason to live.”
— Randy Newman
2 Rob // Oct 16, 2005 at 8:56 pm
OK, Tom, maybe not bigness in ALL its forms.
3 yuichan // Nov 28, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Emptiness conquers all.
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