“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
~ Noam Chomsky

The quote "good artist's borrow, great artists steal" is misquoted and wrongly attributed to Stravinsky as well as Picasso. The actual quote can be traced back to T.S Elliot and is "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”. Quite a different sentiment.

 

Stahlhartes Gehäuse

Disenchantment and Max Weber's "Iron cage"

In sociology, the iron cage is a term coined by Max Weber for the increased rationalization inherent in social life, particularly in Western capitalist societies. The "iron cage" thus traps individuals in systems based purely on teleological efficiency, rational calculation and control. Weber also described the bureaucratization of social order as "the polar night of icy darkness".

Rationalization, as falsely assumed progress, has a negative and dehumanizing effect on society, moving modernity away from the central tenets of enlightenment.