Lausen

Stranger than fiction

“Within the body of thought that came to be known as welfare economics and in which some members of the neo-classical school have come to take an interest, a prominent place is occupied by the notion of ‘Pareto Optimum’, an ‘ideal’ general equilibrium position based on perfect competition, free access to all markets and equal knowledge shared by all participants. Anybody feeling committed to this ‘ideal’ would naturally compare the market situations of the real world with it and find them wanting. In this way our judgement on the world as it is comes to depend not merely on the world as we wish it would be, which is quite proper and, in a sense, inevitable. It comes to depend on a comparison with a fictitious state of equilibrium of which nobody has as yet explained how it could come about in reality. After a few strenous exercises in the manipulation of the macro-variables of our model, such as income, outputs or investment, the question of which human actions keep them in being vanishes from sight, and we may permit ourselves to establish the fictitious world of our model as a criterion by which to judge the world as it really is.”

- From Macroeconomic thinking and the market economy, by Ludwig Lachmann

Certainly

“It is possible to imagine a world characterized by complete certainty. All future events and changes would be known in advance and could be predicted precisely. There would be no errors and no surprises. We would know all of our future actions and their future outcomes. In such a world, nothing could be learned, and accordingly, nothing would be worth knowing. Indeed, the possession of consciousness and knowledge would be useless. For why would anyone want to know anything if all future actions and events were completely predetermined and it would not make any difference for the future course of events whether or not one possessed this or any knowledge? Our actions would be like those of an automaton - and an automaton has no need of any knowledge. Thus, rather than representing a state of perfect knowledge, complete certainty actually eliminates the value of all knowledge.”

- In “On certainty and Uncertainty, or: How rational can our expectations be?”, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe 

Instantes

”- Una pequeña orgía de recuerdos para celebrar una de sus raras visitas.

- Cualquiera diría que está usted hablando de una peligrosa droga.

- Pues es una droga peligrosa - contestó -. Nos escapamos a los recuerdos como nos refugiamos en la ginebra o el amital de sodio.

- Se olvida - observé - de que soy un escritor y de que las Musas son las hijas de Memoria.

- Y Dios - añadió rápidamente - no es su hermano. Dios no es el hijo de Memoria; es el hijo de la experiencia inmediata. No se puede adorar a un espíritu en espíritu a menos que lo hagamos en el momento. Chapotear en lo pasado puede ser buena literatura. Como sabiduría, no sirve. Tiempo Reconquistado es Paraíso Perdido y Tiempo Perdido es Paraíso Reconquistado. Que los muertos sepulten a sus muertos. Sí. Si quiere vivir cada instante como el instante se presenta, es necesario morir para cualquier otro instante.”

En “El Genio y la Diosa”, de Aldous Huxley

Invictus

Invictus
William E. Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the Horror of the shade,
and yet the menace of the years
finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul. 

Anatomía de la melancolía

Anatomía de la melancolía
Abelardo Linares 

Alegra el corazón haber vivido,
y no importa del todo que el pasado
no sea ya otra cosa que pasado.
Si nos quemó la llama del vivir,
su huella es una herida hecha de orgullo
y de melancolía. Pues vivimos
una vez como nadie (ni siquiera
nosotros mismos) vivirá de nuevo.
Ese desvalimiento, esa tristeza
que da sentir pasado lo pasado,
es nuestra condición, la misteriosa
ley que, a nuestro pesar, ha de cumplirse
como si fuera el precio de la vida.
¿Y cuál si no es el precio de la vida
sino seguir viviendo aunque sepamos
que la parte mejor ya nos fue dada?
Pero si hay dignidad en la memoria
y admitimos que no fue un precio injusto
el que debió pagar nuestro deseo,
se alegra el corazón de haber vivido
al conocerse brasa de esa llama
por la que ardió en el tiempo. Y ahora sabe,
al fin, aunque lo tema, que le aguarda.