By Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, translated by Andrew Hurley
...
In that empire, the art of cartography attained such perfection that the map of a single province occupied the entirety of a city, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those unconscionable maps no longer satisfied, and the cartographers guilds struck a map of the empire whose size was that of the empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following generations, who were not so fond of the study of cartography as their forebears had been, saw that that vast map was useless, and not without some pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the inclemencies of sun and winters. In the deserts of the West, still today, there are tattered ruins of that map, inhabited by animals and beggars; in all the land there is no other relic of the disciplines of geography.
— Suarez Miranda, Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV, Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658
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4 comments:
jerry pdx
Looks like your Mayor De Blasio has the same mental disorder Gavin Newsom does: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-announces-guaranteed-health-care-for-all-new-yorkers-including-illegal-immigrants
And I thought our mayor is a liberal/socialist fruitcake. This is taxation without representation, the middle class pays for this and gets nothing in return except the sight of posing and posturing politicians reveling in their sanctimony.
What's most galling is that these shitheads have the nerve to claim it's actually savings us money because if illegals come in for regular doctor visits they won't have more catastrophic illnesses later on that are more expensive. That's wrong on so many levels I don't know where to begin. EVERYBODY eventually breaks down physically with some kind of catastrophic illness so even if it's true, which is very debatable, it's only postponing the inevitable and racking up lots of doctor visits in the meanwhile. It would actually be better if they didn't go to the doctor out of fear of being deported because a lot of them will die and not cost us anything. Sound harsh? Ask me if I care. Plus these politicians don't account for how free health care is another incentive that will motivate more illegals to come to this country, meaning the costs of treating them goes up an up.
I'm actually not against giving anybody ER service, even an illegal, but that's different from going to the doctor for regular health care services, I'm not going to say turn emergency cases from the doors and having car accident victims, etc... dying outside the doors of hospitals but that's as far as we go. People aren't going to be motivated to immigrate just because they could get patched up at the emergency room, but they will migrate for free long term health care and it's not our responsibility to supply it for them.
I rarely go to the doctor because I'm in excellent health and have no physical problems but that could change anytime and it's outrageously expensive even with insurance. Then these politicians expect us to pony up so illegals can have free health care is sheer lunacy.
I cannot understand what that cartography lesson is all about. It is fiction?
"Looks like your Mayor De Blasio has the same mental disorder Gavin Newsom does: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de-blasio-announces-guaranteed-health-care-for-all-new-yorkers-including-illegal-immigrant"
That has been the case for decades. Anyone showing up at the emergency room and the hospital by law must treat you for your ailment no matter what legal status of insurance yes or no. They MUST treat you.
Anonymous said... Wednesday, January 9, 2019 at 9:39:00 P.M. EST
It's a metaphor for pedantry gone wild. Borges must have written it a long time ago, because such pedantry is long gone, replaced by racial socialist propaganda.
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