Thursday, April 23, 2020

April 15, 2005

"One must resolve still more firmly to run some slight risk of encouraging the canting and self-righteous anti-Americanism that in Europe today so commonly masquerades as well-informed criticism of this country....  The appropriation of some of this self-criticism by foreign ideologies for purposes that go beyond its original scope or intention is an inevitable hazard.  But the possibility that a sound enterprise in self-correction may be overheard and misused is the poorest of reasons for suspending it"--Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963 preface)

Dreamed of visiting New York City; quoting the famous Midnight Cowboy line (said by a country boy who's moved to NYC) "Uh, well sir, I ain't a f'real cowboy.  But I am one helluva stud!"

Headache.

Dinner was spaghetti.

Started reading Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.  Looks like it's still relevant four decades later.

Saw Hou Xiaoxian's The Time to Life and The Time to Die at the Cinematheque.  It's quite a good story about growing up in postwar Taiwan. 

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