50 First Lines – #26

The train is full of the dead again this morning, dead eyes staring staring staring at my living flesh.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #25

“Glorp,” stated the dishwasher decisively, “glorp, glipple, glorp.”

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #24

People often ask me what my biggest fear is, and I lie and tell them it’s running out of bananas before the end.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #23

On my twenty-third birthday, a dark-haired stranger walked up to me, handed me a crysanthemum, and said that if we were lucky, we’d never see each other again.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #22

I can’t look at the stars anymore.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

On the Virology of Thought

[This post started as a comment on Mur Lafferty's post for Banned Books Week. As it grew, I realized it was probably too long for a single blog comment, and probably deserved a home of its own. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!]

Ideas are dangerous. In a way, most of the last 2,500 years (and especially the last 500 or so) has been nothing but a war of one idea against, or occasionally alongside of, another. Whether that idea is a religion, a scientific principle, an economic theory, a philosphy, a system of government, or something else entirely, people in recorded history have done more harm and good in the service of ideas than for any other reason. It’s little wonder, then, that so many people feel that society needs to be protected from these dangerous, intriguing ideas.

And the best way to remove a danger is to eliminate the threat, right? So if we ban all these strange radical ideas, then they’ll go away and not bother anyone ever again, right? Right?

Well, no.

Ideas are dangerous. In a way, most of the last 2,500 years (and especially the last 500 or so) has been nothing but a war of one idea against, or occasionally alongside of, another. Whether that idea is a religion, a scientific principle, an economic theory, a philosphy, a system of government, or something else entirely, people in recorded history have done more harm and good in the service of ideas than for any other reason. It’s little wonder, then, that so many people feel that society needs to be protected from these dangerous, intriguing ideas.

And the best way to remove a danger is to eliminate the threat, right? So if we ban all these strange radical ideas, then they’ll go away and not bother anyone ever again, right? Right?

Well, no. Those who think this way profoundly misunderstand the nature of ideas. Ideas, as anyone who has spent much time on the Internet will tell you, are viral.

50 First Lines – #21

Before we go any further, you need to understand that everything I’m about to tell you is true and real, especially the parts that never happened.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #20

I sing of arms and the woman, who first from the orb of Earth, exiled by war, came to Phobos and Martian shores, much scarred in space and asteroid by fires from Sol, through cruel Adam’s unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in vacuum also, till she should build a garden and bring her goddesses to Marineris, whence came the Seraphic race, the Ladies of Nod, and the lofty walls of Eden.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #19

The Angel was short, slightly pudgy, had no wings or halo, and sported a rather unsightly wart to one side of his nose, but Jose knew he was an Angel nonetheless.

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

50 First Lines – #18

Someone in the future once will tell me, “If at first you don’t succeed, build a time machine.”

50 First Lines by Jason Ramboz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.