O gentlemen, the time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long If life did ride upon a dial’s point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. An if we live, we live to tread on kings; If die, brave death, when princes die with us. Now, for our consciences, the arms are fair When the intent of bearing them is just. — Hotspur, Henry IV; William Shakespeare
1. Apart from the cause of form, form is not perceived.
Apart from “form”, the cause of form also does not appear.
2. If there were form apart from the cause of form,
it would follow that form is without cause;
there is no object at all that is without cause.
3. If a cause of form existed apart from form,
it would exist as a cause without fruit;
causes without fruit do not exist.
4. If form existed, a cause of form would be untenable;
if form did not exist, a cause of form would be untenable.
5. Forms which do not have a cause are not at all tenable.
Therefore, do not conceive the concept of form at all.
— Nāgārjuna, Mula madhyamaka karika.
Romanization and Literal English Translation
of the Tibetan Text by Stephen Batchelor
Yet despite this evident and widespread distress, the fact that millions of people show up to work every day convinced they are doing absolutely nothing has not, until now, been considered a social problem. We have not seen politicians denouncing bullshit jobs, academic conferences dedicated to understanding the reasons for the rise of bullshit jobs, opinion pieces debating the cultural consequences of bullshit jobs, or protest movements campaigning to abolish them. To the contrary: if politicians, academics, editorialists, or social movements do weigh in on the matter, it’s usually by acting directly or indirectly to make the problem worse. — David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
195. The system’s thought, the thought of the social organization of appearance, is itself obscured by the generalized sub-communication which it defends. It does not know that conflict is at the origin of all things in its world. Specialists in the power of the spectacle, an absolute power within its system of language without response, are absolutely corrupted by their experience of contempt and of the success of contempt; and they find their contempt confirmed by their knowledge of the contemptible man, who the spectator really is. — Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle