Word: heraclitus
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...Borges recalled Heraclitus: One cannot step into the same river twice, for neither one nor the river are the same...
...break from editing others’ words. The tale is by and about literary legend Jorge Luis Borges. Sitting in Cambridge, Borges encounters a younger version of himself who imagines he has stumbled upon the Rhône’s shore in Geneva. He then recalls Greek philosopher Heraclitus explaining how constant change makes it impossible to bathe twice in the same river. Four decades apart, the two Borges are utterly different men. The peace of the slowly drifting Charles contrasted the SUVs rushing on the other side. Everything seems to move faster nowadays: letters gave way BlackBerrys, caravels...
...step into the same river twice. The philosopher Heraclitus came up with this limpid observation back in 5th century B.C. Greece to show that the world is in a permanent state of flux: the river looks unchanged, but its flow, its fish, the way it reflects light, are no longer as they were when we last visited. Although this awareness of transience has been around so long, we resist change, or at least we want it to be imperceptible, millimetric. This is how we manage to turn a blind eye to life's one immutable: death. We like our flux...
...there really been a paradigm shift? Despite the literal truth explained by Heraclitus, there are some constants no fiery fanaticism can destroy, some issues and conflicts that have not been budged an inch by the devastating events of that sunny Tuesday morning. So what will never be the same again, what has barely blinked...
...often the news just keeps us artificially awake, overstimulated. Information overload produces attention deficit disorder. Heraclitus said you cannot step into the same river twice - each instant, it becomes a different river. For some time, we have been living in the rapids. Just as Edmund Wilson's libido demanded a lifelong drill of undiscriminating erections (a sexual enactment of J. P. Morgan 's dictum: markets go up, markets go down), so the news demands an exhausting procession of moral arousals and judgments - outrage and sympathy, Diana and John, Bill and Monica. We are all Oprah...