Our Virtues
Every people has its own Tartuffery and calls it its virtues— What is best in us we do not know— we cannot know. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Peoples and Fatherlands #249
Supra-national, Nomadic Man
A friend forwarded to me the address of a conservative web site. The site featured an article that explores the negative reaction expressed by the conservative minded to philosophers who specialize in postmodern thought. In our discussion group there is always push back when an essay is offered, authored by Slavoj Zizek or Michele…
Art
Art lies in concealing art. –Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (December 8, 65 BC – November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). His career coincided with Rome’s momentous change from a republic to an empire. An…
Hope
Open societies, in their pluralism, create an anxiety that brings about a reaction toward a fixed organic state, which, then as now, serves both the interests of an oligarchy and those of a frightened, insecure population looking to arrest change. We live, certainly, in societies that are in many ways inequitable, unfair, capriciously oppressive,…
Diogenes, We Need You
Diogenes used his simple lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt or at least confused society. In a highly non-traditional fashion, he had a reputation of sleeping and eating wherever he chose and took to toughening himself against nature. He declared himself a cosmopolitan…
And On The Other Hand
This same will has at its service an apparently opposite drive of the spirit, a suddenly adopted preference of ignorance, of deliberate shutting out, a shutting of one’s windows, an inner No to this or that, a prohibition to approach, a sort of defensive attitude against much that is knowable, a contentment with the…
The Undying Beast
229. In these later ages, which may be proud of their humanity, there still remains so much fear, so much SUPERSTITION of the fear, of the “cruel wild beast,” the mastering of which constitutes the very pride of these humaner ages–that even obvious truths, as if by the agreement of centuries, have long remained…
This One Got To Me
This poem was delivered yesterday via email. I recommend Poem-A-Day for exposure to a variety of poets, and as a form of therapy to counter the negativity that surrounds us. Deception Story by Solmaz Sharif Friends describe my DISPOSITION as stoic. Like a dead fish, an ex said. DISTANCE is a funny drug and…
Kiss It Goodby
I’m in a funk this morning. The ACA, also known as Obamacare is certain to be repealed and replaced today. The replacement will be something unaccountably cruel. The accounting will come soon enough, when the fixed sum of money allocated to the states runs out. At the same time, there is no cap on…
Pure As New York Snow
A friend issued a challenge to the members of our discussion group. We were asked to conceive an idea or an aspect of experience that is universal, upon which everyone would tend to agree. The idea was to imagine a basis upon which we could begin to dialog with those with whom we usuallyvociferously…
