“Mr. Advocate, the rotten tree-trunk, until the very moment when the storm-blast breaks it in two, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The storm-blast whistles through the branches of the Empire even now. Listen with the ears of psychohistory, and you will hear the creaking.”
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications – in short, all the goo and dribble – he found he had nothing left. Everything cancelled out.
Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed.”
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
“Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed.”
I was actually thinking of this exact passage this morning as I drove to work. I had just listened to a short interview on NPR. The man speaking, Mustafa Ali, is the recently resigned head of the EPA Department of Environmental Justice. Here is a link to his interview:
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/13/519954289/epas-chief-environmental-justice-official-steps-down
The last 1:30 is a real masterpiece of saying nothing. (The earlier part is pretty good bafflegab as well.)I wonder how many NPR listeners realized that they were listening to a flim-flam artist.
“But if you close your eyes, does it almost seem like nothing’s changed at all?
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bastille/pompeii.html
FYI a very popular song of late with my 13-year old’s friends. FWIW, it seems that they understand that the walls are about to come tumbling down. Also, I believe that her generation knows – almost without knowing – that a Fourth Turning is underway, and it’s going to fall to them to be the generation that pulls it all together.