Maximus Veritas

“Belief” … according to Death …

scene from — The Hogfather: a movie based on the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchet

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies

Official Trailer #1 (Feb 2016)

An answer — Why we are afraid:

A 1,400 year secret — by Dr. Bill Warner

People want to live their lives
— life, liberty, and the pursuit of elusive ideals
— like: happiness, truth, justice, honor, perfection
— like: wisdom, knowledge, virtue, progress
— like: strength, spirit, health
People want to make progress in their lives
— to do better for themselves than the good they have already achieved
— liberty to do the best they can
— freedom to fail
— strength to start again
People want to give their children better conditions for life than the conditions they enjoyed
— abundance
— freedom
— opportunity
— wisdom
People want to feel the future is bright
— they will be free
— they will have hope and optimism
— they will know tolerance of themselves and others
— they will experience abundance

When people feel:
— their lives are threatened
— progress can not be made
— their children’s lives are poor
— their future is bleak

People stand up

You Tried to Ruin My Name
Wilma Lee Cooper (1951)

O Sister! the women’s bluegrass collection
(buy on Amazon)

All The Way

“WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of  the  very  few, at  the  expense  of  the  very  many.  Out  of  war  a  few people make huge fortunes.”

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War will persist until the day humanity agrees to take the profit out of waging war.

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General Butler’s 15 page message (1935)
(read the pamphlet online)

BBC:
One last question. Suppose, Lord Russell, this film were to be looked at by our descendants … in a thousand years time. What would you think it’s worth telling that generation about the life you’ve lived and the lessons you’ve learned from it?

Bertrand Russell:
I should like to say two things, one intellectual, and one moral.

The intellectual thing I should want to say to them is this—when you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you wish to believe or by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed. Look only and solely at what are the facts. That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say.

The moral thing that I would wish to say to them is very simple. I should say: love is wise; hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other; we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way; but, if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.