Uncategorized – Excerpted

“Young orators’ tongues are formed before their minds are set”

11 March 201911 March 2019 Drew KaplanUncategorized

Young orators’ tongues are formed before their minds are set. This happened to Martin Luther King, Jr., who had to inhabit a leadership position that he was not yet fully prepared to assume, as it[…]

“…the Korean Talmud, in some ways, is an inversion of the Babylonian Talmud…”

10 February 20197 February 2019 Drew KaplanUncategorized

…the Korean Talmud, in some ways, is an inversion of the Babylonian Talmud – a radical example of “reception”. Classical rabbinic texts from late antiquity (Mishnah, Tosefta, the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds) were composed as[…]

“Original sin became one of the cornerstones of Christian orthodoxy — but not before decades of dispute”

28 June 201726 June 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

Augustine’s tortured recognition that involuntary arousal was an inescapable presence—not only in conjugal lovemaking but also in what he calls the “very movements which it causes, to our sorrow, even in sleep, and even in[…]

“We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror”

9 June 20177 June 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror. This happens because we learn about them from history books, which weave narratives that retrospectively imbue events with logic, making them seem[…]

“In the ghetto narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to isolation; in the gentrification narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to invasion”

19 February 201715 February 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

In the ghetto narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to isolation; in the gentrification narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to invasion. These stories are not necessarily contradictory—they reflect a common conviction that the sorrows[…]

“When violence has been resorted to as a means of effecting change in American society, it has invited a harsh crackdown on those very people it was intended to help”

12 February 20176 February 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

…to any who would make noise about using force to effect change, please grow up. You may have guns. Maybe you’ll buy yourself an AR-15 and learn how to shoot it. Yay. The U.S. Army[…]

“A logo is not a brand. Neither are cute headlines or splashes of color”

6 February 20171 February 2017 Drew KaplanUncategorized

A logo is not a brand. Neither are cute headlines or splashes of color. Logos and colors provide graphic continuity. They are the cover, not the book. Color says nothing about what you stand for,[…]

“None of us, having achieved success in whatever realm, wants to think that it was the product of the circumstances that set us up for success…”

10 January 201731 December 2016 Drew KaplanUncategorized

None of us, having achieved success in whatever realm, wants to think that it was the product of the circumstances that set us up for success, as much as it was our smarts, hard work,[…]

“All history is retrospective”

8 January 201731 December 2016 Drew KaplanUncategorized

All history is retrospective. We’re always looking at the past through the lens of later developments. How else could we see it? We are ourselves, as subjects, among those later developments. It’s natural for us[…]

“…criticizing people based on what they don’t say is lousy, and more often leads to the rhetorical performance of politics than actual meaningful organizing”

11 October 20165 October 2016 Drew KaplanUncategorized

I think the business of criticizing people based on what they don’t say is lousy, and more often leads to the rhetorical performance of politics than actual meaningful organizing. Contesting the silence of others without[…]

Excerpted

Excerpts of Interest

Category: Uncategorized

“Young orators’ tongues are formed before their minds are set”

“…the Korean Talmud, in some ways, is an inversion of the Babylonian Talmud…”

“Original sin became one of the cornerstones of Christian orthodoxy — but not before decades of dispute”

“We imagine the villains of history as cunning strategists, brilliant masterminds of horror”

“In the ghetto narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to isolation; in the gentrification narrative, a poor neighborhood falls victim to invasion”

“When violence has been resorted to as a means of effecting change in American society, it has invited a harsh crackdown on those very people it was intended to help”

“A logo is not a brand. Neither are cute headlines or splashes of color”

“None of us, having achieved success in whatever realm, wants to think that it was the product of the circumstances that set us up for success…”

“All history is retrospective”

“…criticizing people based on what they don’t say is lousy, and more often leads to the rhetorical performance of politics than actual meaningful organizing”