Rush's quote

I've been working crazy radio hours in addition to translating and reading stuff for the anthology, but I managed to find some downtime at work today to read an article about a radio person here in the USA who has absolutely profited from syndication and consolidation: Rush Limbaugh.

People seem to either love him or hate him. On the air, he sounds arrogant and often twists information to fit his world view (as any idealogue does), but he's a talented radio pro, and he's raked in hundreds of millions of dollars because of it.

You should definitely read the article because it demonstrates what radio has become, and how the average shmoe has been squeezed out of it. Syndication and consolidation have put his show in hundreds of stations throughout the country (and Canada, I think), and if he weren't so entertaining, it wouldn't have happened. But the relaxed American laws (thanks to successful corporate radio lobbying) in the mid-90's helped extend his exposure, and people in every market reacted positively.

There are various parts of the article that are revealing and interesting, including the description of his early failures and his extreme current wealth. But this is perhaps the most interesting quote:

“I thank God for my addiction,” he told me. “It made me understand my shortcomings.”

Being Limbaugh, he said he believes that most of these shortcomings stemmed from his inability to love himself sufficiently. “I felt everyone who criticized me was right and I was wrong,” he confided. But, he says, he left his insecurities behind in Arizona. “It’s not possible to offend me now,” he said. “I won’t give people the power to do it anymore. My problem was born of immaturity and my childhood desire for acceptance. I learned in drug rehab that this was stunting and unrealistic. I was seeking acceptance from the wrong people.”

I never thought we'd read such words from him because his persona is so egotistical (though a lot of on-air talent is off the air as well as on), so it made the article even more worthwhile.

Wherever you go, there you are

I was thinking about how the phrase "Wherever you go, there you are" is true. But it was hard to find the source of that quote. Actually, if I were to do the research in a library, I would probably find the answer, but I don't have such time. But I found an article that cites The Imitation of Christ as the source, written by Thomas a Kempis.

It would require further research to see if this really is the source of the quote. It's just so common now, it's hard to tell where it came from.

What a weirdly negative comment

I came upon this quote:

Emilio Azcarraga, the billionaire head of Mexico's Televisa: "Mexico is a country of a modest, very f----d class, which will never stop being f----d. Television has the obligation to bring diversion to these people and remove them from their sad reality and difficult future."

I wanted to see the Spanish source of that quote, and found both the exact quote and the larger context. According to what I read (and assuming my lame Spanish is good enough to understand), he said it at a press conference in 1993.

Here's the Spanish version (from an academic speech that referred to what he said):

México es un país de una clase modesta jodida, que no va a salir de jodida. Para la televisión es una dura obligación llevar la diversión a esa gente y sacarla de su triste realidad y de su futuro difícil...

And here's the larger context (with help from an essay that refers to the quote):

Estamos en el negocio del entretenimiento, de la información, y podemos educar, pero fundamentalmente entretener… México es un país de una clase modesta jodida, que no va a salir de jodida. Para la televisión es una dura obligación llevar la diversión a esa gente y sacarla de su triste realidad y de su futuro difícil...los ricos pueden hacer muchas cosas que los diviertan, pero la clase modesta, que es una clase fabulosa y digna, no tiene ninguna otra manera de acceder a una distracción más que a la televisión

There's a lot to say about such thoughts, but basically, it seems more than cynical: it seems hopeless and mercenary in a way, because he knows that he's creating television shows to get people out of their misery while wanting to make a ton of money from them. But then later, he acts like he respects those people by saying they're "fabulosa y digna". It's like he's backtracking because he just put them down by saying they're trapped in misery, but he probably didn't want them to be angry with him, so he ended up complimenting them.

Fake and messed up, for sure.

Great advice

I told someone that sometimes we have to endure bad situations to keep our foot in the door, and they told me this:

A foot in a snake pit is a foot nowhere.

That's great advice, and an excellent quote.

Something to think about

I am *still* reading Inside George Orwell, which I started a while ago, possibly a few months ago. During that time, I read other books and lots of meaty stuff online, and I should have finished this book, but it is not an easy read, partly because they reference historical events, people, and literary figures that I don't have background knowledge on. Plus, one sentence can have several heavy-duty ideas within it. Basically, the older he got, he became extremely intellectual and analytical, and he was friends with other brainy people, so the biography becomes more complex and his life progresses.

There are many amazing statements in this book, and if I were more organized, I would've marked them. But here's one that I just came across:

A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial: that is, when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud. Such a society, no matter how long it persists, can never afford to become either tolerant or intellectually stable. It can never permit either the truthful recording of facts, or the emotional sincerity, that literary creation demands.

He also predicted the Cold War. Incredibly smart guy.

To the point

I was reading about Edna St Vincent Millay, who had a crazy life. Even the way she died was odd: she "was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in her house...having broken her neck in a fall."

Among her interesting writing is a quote that's to the point:

Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell.

Italian George?

I came across an Italian proverb:

Meglio sola che male accompagnata.

Better to be alone than in bad company.

But then I found a similar quote from George Washington:

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

So which came first: the Washington quote or the Italian one? Or did they create those independently? Or maybe George Washington was Italian ;) Either way, it's good advice.

Eccentric endangerment

Rose (whose blog I unfortunately discovered too late because she's not blogging as much anymore) had a post with a quote from John Stuart Mill:

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.

Well, I don't think a lack of eccentricity is a "chief danger," but then again, he wrote that before a lot of horrible stuff happened even as societies became more "civilized" and industrialized and modern. But I do see how a lack of individuality creates group think and apathy.