rattus rattus’ blog

Of course there is right and wrong,
but you can’t tell one from the other.
Thus, there is no right and wrong.

If someone says you are wrong
you are not
and neither is someone
nor me.

In his comment on Trust not truth, Michael points us to Jenny Holzer‘s Truisms, see for instance the long list of truisms or Jenny Holzer’s on-line edition Please Change Beliefs. Many truisms are wonderful examples of self-referential lies or nontrivial trivialities.

Fortunately, people living in Vienna currently can see street posters with texts of Jenny Holzer in the central districts. They are part of the exhibition Jenny Holzer XX which is still shown at the MAK until September 17, 2006.

More of Jenny Holzer:

• Jenny Holzer @ äda ‘web
• Jenny Holzer @ artsy.net
• Inflamatory Essay
• Pictures: At Flickr and at Google

A friend of mine, after we had been together for about 3 years, once wrote to me:

Why do you react like I am playing an important role in your life? I don’t know but I guess there must be a reason. Anyway, the way you are hurts me, and it puts me off.

I don’t know either, but I think we can call this some painfully sad words. I am afraid, they can make even a liar cry for the hidden double bind. If someone who we do not want to hurt tells us that we do
we are cursed.

These days we hardly have time to make a note of an idea.

Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der wir es uns nicht mehr leisten können, eine Idee aufzuschreiben. Ups.

[X]

Here is one more quote about public opinion:

Die öffentliche Meinung ist der Lärm, der entsteht, wenn die Bretter aneinanderschlagen, die die Leute vor dem Kopf haben.

— Volkmar Muthesius

Wenn wir uns als Teil der “Leute” sehen, so können wir das Zitat auch als eine grobe Variante des Lügner-Paradoxons sehen, abgesehen davon, dass Sehen mit einem Brett vor dem Kopf möglicherweise schwierig ist. Aber so sehe ich das eben.

[According to my available sources there is no English phrase or saying that literally translates German “ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben”, meaning “having a board before your head”. Can anyone help with a translation of the above quote?]