Source: Making Money
2007 edition, p. 29.
Empire and Communications (1950)
Context: The significance of a basic medium to its civilization is difficult to appraise since the means of appraisal are influenced by the media, and indeed the fact of appraisal appears to be peculiar to certain types of media. A change in the type of medium implies a change in the type of appraisal and hence makes it difficult for one civilization to understand another.
Source: Accelerando (2005), Chapter 2 (“Troubadour”), p. 41
2010s, 2016, August, Speech at rally in Wilmington, North Carolina (August 9, 2016)
“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”
“If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.”
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“People begin to make the biggest changes when they hurt enough to have to.”
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
Rolling Stone interview (2005)
Context: So now — cut to 1980. Irish rock group, who've been through the fire of a certain kind of revival, a Christian-type revival, go to America. Turn on the TV the night you arrive, and there's all these people talking from the Scriptures. But they're quite obviously raving lunatics.
Suddenly you go, what's this? And you change the channel. There's another one. You change the channel, and there's another secondhand-car salesman. You think, oh, my God. But their words sound so similar... to the words out of our mouths.
So what happens? You learn to shut up. You say, whoa, what's this going on? You go oddly still and quiet. If you talk like this around here, people will think you're one of those. And you realize that these are the traders — as in t-r-a-d-e-r-s — in the temple.
