Jacob-Personal+Possession

The Consequences of the Profit Monster (Click for my essay in a new window)

"Most of those who live in democratic countries are possessed of property – not only are they possessed of property, but they live in the condition of men who set the greatest store upon their property." (De Tocqueville, 636)

media type="youtube" key="rARN6agiW7o" height="315" width="560" Great Gatsby 2012 Trailer

"Nick, on the Buchanans: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" (Fitzgerald, 170)

Hearst Mansion

“Consider any individual at any time period of his life, and you will always find him with fresh plans to increase his comfort” (De Tocqueville, 637).



I think that all bestir themselves within certain limits which they hardly ever pass. Daily they change, alter, and renew things of secondary importance, but they are very careful not to touch fundamentals” (De Tocqueville, 638)

This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from "I" to "we". If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I", and cuts you off forever from the "we". Grapes Of Wrath, Chapter 14, p.158 Click to go back to the main page