miscellany

… First drafts are slow and develop clumsily, because every sentence affects not only those before it but also those that follow. The first draft of a long piece on California geology took two gloomy years; the second, third, and fourth drafts took about six months altogether. That four-to-one ratio in writing time—first draft versus the other drafts combined—has for me been consistent in projects of any length, even if the first draft takes only a few days or weeks. There are psychological differences from phase to phase, and the first is the phase of the pit and the pendulum. After that, it seems as if a different person is taking over. Dread largely disappears. Problems become less threatening, more interesting. Experience is more helpful, as if an amateur is being replaced by a professional. Days go by quickly, and not a few could be called pleasant, I’ll admit.

…

The difference between a common writer and an improviser on a stage (or any performing artist) is that writing can be revised. Actually, the essence of the process is revision. The adulating portrait of the perfect writer who never blots a line comes express mail from fairyland.*

As South Africa’s rooibos tea trade heats up, debate brews over how to give Indigenous experts a fair share https://t.co/QunW8XChjz

— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) January 8, 2022

We have two choices: to strive for power with one another or power over one another.
—Robert Koehler*

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The value of a prediction is in the act of making it, not the prediction itself. Contemplating what may happen encourages us to take responsibility for decisions we make in the present.*

It should be as familiar to us as communism was to the people of the Soviet Union. But the greatest success of this tremendously powerful ideology is its anonymity. And by heck, has it succeeded. https://t.co/oz0OmwjmIw

— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) December 29, 2021

"Chinese Aggression" Is Just China Responding To US Aggression

"One need only imagine what would happen if China began constructing a chain of long-range missile systems off a US coastline to understand who the actual aggressor is between these two powershttps://t.co/CmlmeGd49J

— Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) December 18, 2021

I quote a former American ambassador to China, Stapleton Roy, who told me, ‘Kishore, when Xi Jinping made an offer to demilitarize the South China Sea, America should have grabbed that offer and agreed to stop all our military activities in the South China Sea. That would have pushed the Chinese out.’ Of course, the Americans would be out too. But the South China Sea is much more important to China than it is to America. If America steps out, the Chinese military steps out. And that’s a win for America, right? Instead, the U.S. Navy responded by sending naval vessels. So Xi said, ‘Okay. You reject my offer. So be it.’*

China is not a military threat. The military threat is against China. China is ringed with US bases with nuclear armed missiles, right offshore, aimed at China. It’s China that’s under threat. Not the United States.*