“One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything.”

Jon Lovett’s commencement address to Pitzer College. (via theatlantic)

Strange that I read this the same afternoon I saw

Insightful column by @casssunstein on "How to Humble A Wingnut"bloom.bg/18fvmG5

— Matt Miller (@mattmillernow)

May 21, 2013

It is what it is...I can se this being performed at graduations all over the world.

via Gizmodo

Don't know whether to moan we should have a stamp this cool in the United States or wonder whether a postage stamp is the medium for calling attention to literature.

At Twitter, @dontgetcaught spotted another story, with audio this time.

The government is cutting music programmes in schools and slashing Arts grants as gleefully as a morbidly American kid in Baskin Robbins. So if only to stick it to the man, isn’t it worth fighting back in some small way? So write your damn book. Learn a Chopin prelude, get all Jackson Pollock with the kids, spend a few hours writing a Haiku. Do it because it counts even without the fanfare, the money, the fame… .

Concert pianist James Rhodes articulates the urgency of finding your purpose and doing what you love. As a wise woman eloquently put it, “Start with a big, fat lump in your throat, start with a profound sense of wrong, a deep homesickness, or a crazy lovesickness, and run with it.” (via explore-blog)