Of course this applies broadly, but as far as I’m concerned this is a really poignant point on children. Still on his opus magnus, The Muqaddimah:
“Severity to students does them harm. This comes about as follows. Severe punishment in the course of instruction does harm to the student, especially to little children, because it belongs among the things that make for a bad habit. Students, bondsmen, and servants who are raised with injustice and arbitrary force are overcome by it. It causes them to feel oppressed and results in inertia. It makes them indolent and induces them to lie and be insincere. That is, their outward behavior differs from what they are thinking or feeling. This is because they fear that if they tell the truth, they will be punished and will suffer tyrannical treatment. Thus, they learn deceit and trickery. This becomes habitual and part of their character.
“They lose that attribute that accompanies all social and political organizations and gives people their humanity, namely, the ability to protect and defend themselves and their homes, and they in turn become dependent on others for this. Indeed, their souls become lazy and lose the desire to acquire the virtues and qualities of good character. This, in turn causes them to fall short of their human potential and never realize their humanity. As a result, they revert to the ‘lowest of the low’. This is what has happened to every people who have come under the yoke of tyranny and learned through it the meaning of injustice. This can easily be proven by simply looking at anyone who is not in control of his own affairs and has no authority on his side to guarantee his personal well-being.”
Laffer himself says so. “It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.“
I’m writing this blog just to get away from doing other more important things.
John Perry: “Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
Read more, maybe you can become an effective and useful procrastinator.
Masuk milis SMA mengingatkan saya ke banyak hal. Banyak kenangan.
Saya tidak akan mengatakan bahwa kenangan itu berguna karena kita bisa menarik pelajaran darinya. Pelajaran apa? Bagaimana menariknya? Kapan kepakainya? Setiap titik di kehidupan ini punya latar, warna dan koordinat yang berbeda. Kenangan dulu kadang malah merusak garis kita sekarang.
Ah, tapi mengenang juga memberikan diri kita ini identitas. Masak sih? Bukannya identitas setiap orang selalu berubah setiap saat di setiap titik. Banyak orang yang sekarang ada di koordinat yang berdekatan dengan kita, tapi punya kenangan masa lalu yang jauh dengan kita. Dan orang-orang yang kita kenang, bukannya sekarang identitas mereka sudah berjauhan dengan kita? Buktinya? Mereka harus kita kenang untuk hadir.
Saya ingin bisa mengenang harapan masa lalu. Tapi apa ada, berapa panjang? Semua harapan lalu itu pendek, selalu berubah. Itu yang harus diubah.
Saya ingin mengenang masa depan. Biar juga ingat masa depanku bukan melulu masa laluku.
Biar aku melihat titik yang menunggu di depan, dan belajar mencapainya.
Biar aku merasakan, mengharapkan, bergidik melihat calon-calon identitasku di masa depan.
Biar anak-anakku punya harapan yang dikenang, dan kenangan yang penuh harap.
Biar aku selalu berkenang ke hari penantian.