Dale Easley's Favorite Quotations

Dale Easley's Favorite Quotations

Peck, Scott

A World Waiting to be Born

Peck, Scott

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn criticized the culture of narcissism in American society for its ethos of ``legalism,'' by which he meant our unfortunate attitude that ``as long as it's legal, it's okay.'' It was an accurate and devastating criticism, The fact that an act is legal doesn't necessarily mean that it is ethical or civil. [p.112, from the 1978 Harvard commencement address.]

The wealthiest segment of Americans gives away to charity a smaller portion of their income (approximately 2.1 percent) than does the middle or working class (approximately 2.8 percent). Because of their great wealth, the total they donate is greater, but the percentages are a telling commentary on the spiritual impoverishment of most who are financially rich. They mean that, on average, those for whom it is the easiest, the least painful, to give are the least likely to do so. The statistics are even more telling when one considers the fact that some of the very wealthy routinely give away half of their income. When you figure this into the averages, it means that most of the wealthy don' t give away anything at all. [p.~241]

Consensus is a group decision (which some members may not feel is the best decision, but which they can all live with, support, and commit themselves not to undermine), arrived at without voting, through a process whereby the issues are fully aired, all members feel they have been adequately heard, in which everyone has equal power and responsibility, and different degrees of influence by virtue of individual stubbornness or charisma are avoided so that all are satisfied with the process. The process requires the members to be emotionally present and engaged, frank in a loving, mutually respectful manner, sensitive to each other; to be selfless, dispassionate, and capable of emptying themselves, and possessing a paradoxical awareness of the preciousness of both people and time (including knowing when the solution is satisfactory, and that it is time to stop and not reopen the discussion until such time as the group determines a need for revision). [p.~291] Copyright by the Valley Diagnostic and Surgical Clinin of Harlingen, Texas, and the Foundation for Community Encouragement.

A World Waiting to be Born
Peck, Scott
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn criticized the culture of narcissism in American society for its ethos of ``legalism,'' by which he meant our unfortunate attitude that ``as long as it's legal, it's okay.'' It was an accurate and devastating criticism, The fact that an act is legal doesn't necessarily mean that it is ethical or civil. [p.112, from the 1978 Harvard commencement address.] The wealthiest segment of Americans gives away to charity a smaller portion of their income (approximately 2.1 percent) than does the middle or working class (approximately 2.8 percent). Because of their great wealth, the total they donate is greater, but the percentages are a telling commentary on the spiritual impoverishment of most who are financially rich. They mean that, on average, those for whom it is the easiest, the least painful, to give are the least likely to do so. The statistics are even more telling when one considers the fact that some of the very wealthy routinely give away half of their income. When you figure this into the averages, it means that most of the wealthy don' t give away anything at all. [p.~241] Consensus is a group decision (which some members may not feel is the best decision, but which they can all live with, support, and commit themselves not to undermine), arrived at without voting, through a process whereby the issues are fully aired, all members feel they have been adequately heard, in which everyone has equal power and responsibility, and different degrees of influence by virtue of individual stubbornness or charisma are avoided so that all are satisfied with the process. The process requires the members to be emotionally present and engaged, frank in a loving, mutually respectful manner, sensitive to each other; to be selfless, dispassionate, and capable of emptying themselves, and possessing a paradoxical awareness of the preciousness of both people and time (including knowing when the solution is satisfactory, and that it is time to stop and not reopen the discussion until such time as the group determines a need for revision). [p.~291] Copyright by the Valley Diagnostic and Surgical Clinin of Harlingen, Texas, and the Foundation for Community Encouragement.

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