"Du kannst, denn du willst"

Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever will be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.

- Niccolò Machiavelli

I argue that industrial civilization will yield to the “same passions” that have produced the “same results” in all previous times. There is simply no escape from our all-too-human nature. In the end, mastering the historical process would require human beings to master themselves, something they are very far from achieving. (This is why democracy, considered by some to be an asset in the struggle against the forces that challenge industrial civilization, is in fact a liability.)

- Immoderate Greatness, by William Ophuls

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A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.

- Will Durant.

Forests precede civilizations. Deserts follow them.

- François-René de Chateaubriand

ما لا يُدرِكه أغلبُ المنتفعين من الحضارة وإنجازاتِها هو أنّ الحمايةَ والأمانَ الذي توفره الحضارة (من الأمراض والأحداث الطبيعية والعنف البشري مثلًا) هو أمانٌ هشٌّ ورقيق، بالضبط مِثل وجودِنا البشري على قشرةِ الكوكب، إذ أنّ كلاهما عُرضَةٌ للدمار الشامل ابتداءً من الكوارث الطبيعية مثل الزلازل والعواصف الشمسية وصولًا للأوبئة والحروب والهجمات الإرهابية.

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Cultural solutions are organisms, not machines, and they cannot be invented deliberately or imposed by prescription.

- Wendell Berry

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children the right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

- John Adams

يجب عليَّ أنْ أدرُسَ السياسةَ والحرب، من أجل أنْ يَملِك أبناؤنا الحريّةَ لدراسة الرياضيات والفلسفة. أبناؤنا يجبُ أنْ يَدرسوا الرياضيات والفلسفةَ والجغرافيا والتاريخَ الطبيعي والهندسةَ البحرية والمِلاحة والتجارة والزراعة مِن أجلِ أنْ يمنَحوا أبناءَهم الحقَّ [والحريّة] لدراسةِ الرسم والشِعر والموسيقى وفنِّ المِعمار والنحت والنسيج والصناعة.

But if all the grandchildren are poets, painters, and connoisseurs, who then will man the ramparts, dig the mines, build the dams, run the factories, keep the accounts, or teach the children? In other words, dirty their hands doing the hard and necessary work of preserving the civilization’s political, social, economic, and technological base? Yet precisely this progression from dutiful soldier to effete poet—from vigor and virtue to decadence and decay—has been a factor in the decline of every known civilization.

- Immoderate Greatness, by William Ophuls

لكن إنْ صارَ جميع الأحفاد شعراء ورسّامين وخبراءَ فن، فمَن سيَحرس الأسوارَ ويحفِر المناجم ويبني السدود ويشغّل المصانع ويسجّل الحسابات ويعلّم الأطفال؟ بكلماتٍ أُخرى، مَن سوفَ يَبذُلُ عرقَ جبينِه بالأعمال الشاقة والضرورية مِن أجلِ الحِفاظ على الأساس السياسي والإجتماعي والإقتصادي والتكنولوجي الذي تقومُ عليه الحضارة؟ كما أنّ هذا الإنتقال بالتحديد مِن الجنديِّ الوفي إلى الشاعِر الهَزيل—مِن الحيويةِ والفضيلة إلى الانحطاط—كانَ عاملًا ساهمَ في إضعافِ كلّ الحضارات المعروفة.

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تذكرت شغلة لاحظتها من فترة، هي أنّ الكل يريدون يصيرون كُتّاب ومؤلفين (أو فنانين) بشكلٍ أو بآخر. أتذكر بوقتها حتى لكيت فيديو بعنوان مشابه.

And I'd argue that this is not a good thing, because it's a sign of a preoccupation with fantasy and abstraction, not with reality.
No great writer "wanted" to become a great writer. They simply lived their lives to its ultimate potential until they felt the urge to write. A great book is a result of a great life.
مثل نحلة تحوّل رحيق مئات الأزهار إلى عسل: الكاتب الحقيقي بعد أنْ يعيش حياته ويستغل أكبر قدر من الفرص والتجارب والتأملات والأفكار، رح يحوّلهن كلهن إلى كتاب بيه خلاصة كل اللي عاشه وجرّبه... فقط بعد أنْ يعيش حياته.

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The way I see it, young people usually want to be writers either because they believe they have a great wisdom to share with the world (which is extremely unlikely), or because they think that becoming famous through books will give them a meaning for life (it won't).

the populace thinks primarily of hanging on to what they already have and loses all appetite for conquest or even war. The prospect of dying for one’s country is no longer dulce et decorum, but odious and absurd. So the society buys off enemies or hires mercenaries when fighting cannot be avoided. It even makes a moral virtue of martial reluctance: “Military readiness, or aggressiveness, is denounced as primitive and immoral.”

- Immoderate Greatness, by William Ophuls