Mark Mancall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Mancall is a Professor of History at Stanford University. A graduate of Harvard, Mancall spent time in Helsinki, Leningrad, and Taiwan, becoming a scholar of diplomatic relations between Russia and China. His more recent academic interests include South Asia and Tibetan Buddhism. He pioneered coeducational housing as the Resident Fellow of Stanford's first co-ed house. He has been the Director of Stanford's Program in Structured Liberal Education since its inception. He is a friend of Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck and was influential in the drafting of Bhutan's new constitution.
Quotes from Mark Mancall's SLE lectures:
“We have a huge proletariat in America, it just happens they all live in China”
“I live in this period of history, I understand that there’s a market, but I sure as hell want a controlled market”
“This laissez-faire market place doesn’t benefit 90-99% of America, let alone the world”
“The choice of means depends upon the historical realities that existed”
"Today Marx would say 'Of course, I was wrong! I was only working with 19th century Europe!'"
“To advocate a violent revolution today in America would be stupid”
"The demand for "originality" is an ideological weapon in the hands of the academic bourgeois scientisticists to suppress the critical faculties the humanities are supposed to develop in citizens."
“If you want to test the premature status of newborn human beings, leave your child here for a few weeks by itself and see what happens. It will die.”
“You think families are about love and all that crap. But really they're about economic exchanges.”
“I love erotic poetry.”
“Reality does not matter, all that matters is theory! Don't pay attention to reality, because it will mislead you.”
"How many of you have read Revelations?" [a few hands go up] "How many of you have read Revelations while high on pot?" [no hands go up] [incredulous pause, followed by large harroomph from Mark] "That is your homework for this weekend. get high on pot and read revelations."
"Shut up! Everyone shut up! I'm beginning the lecture." --Mark's first lecture, 2004-2005 school year
"I love ice cream. I just eat and eat and eat it, because when I was a kid my mother never let me have any. That's why I'm fat." - Mark at dinner time, explaining Freud
"So when you finish your steak or your soup there's a little Chinese there, so you know it's from China"
"You can either do that or become a prostitute, there are very few occupations for bourgeois housewives in the afternoon."
"What’s wrong with being a housewife? It’s unpaid slave labor."
"You’re going to die"
"It’s all a story, just tell a good story and remember at night to dance and sing and have a good time"
"The only way to get through this journey is to tell a good story"
“How are you so smart Mark?” “I’m not smart?” “Yes you are” “That’s bullshit and I don’t even want to talk about it.”
“Have you got a tutu or a ballerina costume for someone that weighs 350 pounds?” “So I went out and got uproariously drunk and went to the party dressed a ballerina costume” “But 350 pounds and ballerinas are contradictory terms”
"Why be angry with Jesus? What right has he got to try and save my soul?"
