“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
Thursday, May 1, 2025
To St. Tammany's Sons in Boston
69 comments:
Anonymous
said...
\\not to see as the close-up fundamentalist, but from afar, "ironically". Like your "ovo" project... ;)
Do you think *I* too serious about it too??? ;-P
Well. It need to be called somehow. And such a choice of a name play as bragging about knowing Greek. ;-P
Other than that... that is all just playing of a mind -- imagining things.
\\The Master has no bureaucrats, mandarins, or harem guards? He must be like Argus, many eyed; of the peacock throne.
Yeah.
That is what your lousy philosophers did imagine The Ruler -- ideal person (better if philosopher itself, bleh) that leading crowd into Shiny Bright Enlightment. ;-P
Bu-ga-gah! :-))))))))))))))))))))))))
While even lowest peasant knows, that to lead a herd of sheeps, only sheep are most capable. Or... a wolf. ;-P
Well... domesticated.
So... all that dichotomy of P-O-W-er. You straggling to phatome. And what did Chinese trying to phatom.
It's distinguishing without difference -- of who will lead -- sheep(s)? Or wolf(s)? ;-P
Like... currently dRump -- playing Black Sheep. And that's why he is so venerated by crowd -- seeing him as their peer.
Or... as you do -- imagining him being an actual Wolf in Sheep's clothes. ;-P
Or, as Bide-t... tryed to play Wolf. Though old and teethless. And so was dethroned even by surrounding him sheeps.
\\If I wanted followers, I'd be seeking zeros. Or maybe "ones and zeros" (AI). @@
Well. Communication with you allows me to triangulate my own flows...
as well as to keep track of cultural difference.
Though... there is a limit to it. To continue such grows in understanding -- one need to find more and more smart partners. (Or... more and more complex communication environments.)
And that is hella hard prerequisite to achieve. :-((((
So... now you see truth behind my "seeking Ovo", can you? That only communication under roof of such grandiose kind of project -- can allow me to grow more.
\\-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew Posh-Posh by Gosh!
It's St. Tammany's Day!
Kawanio che Keeteru, Q! May 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM
\\Anonymous Sorry. I am thousand years too early to share your such cultural affections.
:-(((
Same as you do.
That's... too intimate. May 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
\\-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew lol! Yes, we gotten much too close. I know soooo much about you. You 1,000 years in the future. Me 1,000 years in the past. May 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Hah. :-)
See.
What a stark demonstration of cultural differences here.
You... see as "gotten much too close"... by your US standard of shallow involvement into each other life/culture.
Just after I just stated that we are "thousand years too early"... to be close to each other.
PS Now, do you not see? How that problem of shallow involvement -- that's exact reason of all your so loathed problems with Identity Politics&Co -- if there is NO actual ground for commonality... there need to be some clutches instead?
It's High Time to Bring Back That Powerful,, and Wonderful, Thing Called Common-sense For example lets talk about that Progressive, Communist, Democrat , “Schiff for Brains” the Corrupt, Liar, Leaker, Evidence Manipulator, Adam Schiff still wants you to be defenseless when he says “It's time to bring back that powerful, common-sense reform again. It's time for the Assault Weapons Ban” AGAIN? NO, You Schmuck! It's time to enforce existing laws and quit plea bargaining away gun charges for instant guilty pleas to lesser charges.] It’s no wonder they call him S”chiff for Brains”
While Law enforcement plays a critical role in public safety, officers cannot be everywhere at once and often arrive only after a crime has occurred. In life-threatening situations, especially those involving multiple or heavily armed assailants, individuals must rely on themselves for immediate protection. Firearms can provide the necessary means to defend one’s home and loved ones when seconds count and help is minutes away.
It is a proven fact that gun control laws Do Not Stop Criminals, The Mentally Unstable, or Terrorists from committing violence, because by their very nature, those individuals Do Not Respect Laws. They don’t Obey the Law! And in many cases, attackers don’t even rely on guns, instead they are using knives, and vehicles, or improvised weapons to Intimidate, Harm, or to Kill. The Progressive, Communist, Democrats, are consistently pushing for sweeping gun control measure, and stronger laws s while turning a blind eye to the rampant violence plaguing inner cities, where they govern, areas where Minority-on-Minority Crime is disproportionately high. Instead of cracking down on Gang activity, or siding with the Law Breaker and enforcing existing gun laws, or prosecuting repeat violent offenders, they pursue policies that disarm law-abiding citizens and weaken the police. Like the District Attorneys who push for No Bail! Like the Liberal Attorney Generals that do the same. And the Sanctuary City Governors that generally involve restrictions on sharing information with federal agencies like ICE. While some states and hundreds of cities and counties have adopted Sanctuary Laws or Policies, And then they wonder why Crime has exploded in their city under their jurisdiction, when they are the ines who are responsible for those lenient legal decisions and judgments.! And they wonder why someone like Donald Trump became so popular! Why these new people who are Tough on Crime are being elected, and people like Chuck Schumer have 17 percent approval ratings. And people like Hakeem Jeffries, and Cory Booker are sitting on the Steps Singing Songs! And you Libs wonder why the Supreme Court agrees with President Trump who says MS13 gangster Kilmar Abrego Garcia must Stay in El Salvador! And you wonder why that Giggling Hyena Kamala Harris Lost, and is not charging her supporters $25.00 to listen to her IDIOTIC Pay Per View Speech . While Donald Trump gives a Wonderful, well appreciated speech to the University in Alabama .
,,,and now, perhaps, it's so far away that it elicits "indifference". If it moved even closer, it might elicit hate. The ironic are much more useful than fundamentalists... jes sayin'. Beyond an Observation of the Feelings of the Beautiful, and of the Sublime...
Welcome to George Orwell's "Animal Farm". Is it time to celebrate the Lupercalia? Where did I put my februs? I must have lent it to Elon Musk and his DoGE team...
Some people literally love "stinky cheese". The stinkier, the better.
My tastes go more towards "peasant foods" though. I leave the caviar and stinkiest cheeses to those who judge a meal's worth by its' price/cost. Have you seen "The Menu"?
It's funny, but I grew the most arguing against my frenemies. There was a blogger I knew as mr. ducky who taught me everything I know today. He was raised as what we call in the US a "red diaper baby", loved the director Jean-Luc Godard and the "French New Wave" style of film-making.
From trying to understand him, I learned everything that I had avoided and feared to investigate because it had been made anathema by my own culture.
So I'd encourage you to make some frenemies... and try to understand them. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but it generally works.
Virtue cannot be taught. It can only be learned. But that doesn't mean one can't be pointed in the wrong direction, and still learn it. Sometimes the anti-thesis provides the best lesson, the "why". All men are autodidacts.
No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early. I am 1,000 years too late. The medium of internet encourages everyone to swipe-right and avoid all intimacies. It tends to match like with like. As Byung-Chul Han would say, it seeks "sameness". As Plato said in his "Statesman" 2,500 years ago...
STRANGER: But him who cannot, we will not designate by any of the names which are the subject of the present enquiry.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very right.
STRANGER: The courageous soul when attaining this truth becomes civilized, and rendered more capable of partaking of justice; but when not partaking, is inclined to brutality. Is not that true?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
STRANGER: And again, the peaceful and orderly nature, if sharing in these opinions, becomes temperate and wise, as far as this may be in a State, but if not, deservedly obtains the ignominious name of silliness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Quite true.
STRANGER: Can we say that such a connexion as this will lastingly unite the evil with one another or with the good, or that any science would seriously think of using a bond of this kind to join such materials?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Impossible.
STRANGER: But in those who were originally of a noble nature, and who have been nurtured in noble ways, and in those only, may we not say that union is implanted by law, and that this is the medicine which art prescribes for them, and of all the bonds which unite the dissimilar and contrary parts of virtue is not this, as I was saying, the divinest?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.
STRANGER: Where this divine bond exists there is no difficulty in imagining, or when you have imagined, in creating the other bonds, which are human only.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How is that, and what bonds do you mean?
STRANGER: Rights of intermarriage, and ties which are formed between States by giving and taking children in marriage, or between individuals by private betrothals and espousals. For most persons form marriage connexions without due regard to what is best for the procreation of children.
YOUNG SOCRATES: In what way?
STRANGER: They seek after wealth and power, which in matrimony are objects not worthy even of a serious censure.
YOUNG SOCRATES: There is no need to consider them at all.
STRANGER: More reason is there to consider the practice of those who make family their chief aim, and to indicate their error.
STRANGER: They act on no true principle at all; they seek their ease and receive with open arms those who are like themselves, and hate those who are unlike them, being too much influenced by feelings of dislike.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How so?
STRANGER: The quiet orderly class seek for natures like their own, and as far as they can they marry and give in marriage exclusively in this class, and the courageous do the same; they seek natures like their own, whereas they should both do precisely the opposite.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How and why is that?
STRANGER: Because courage, when untempered by the gentler nature during many generations, may at first bloom and strengthen, but at last bursts forth into downright madness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Like enough.
STRANGER: And then, again, the soul which is over-full of modesty and has no element of courage in many successive generations, is apt to grow too indolent, and at last to become utterly paralyzed and useless.
YOUNG SOCRATES: That, again, is quite likely.
STRANGER: It was of these bonds I said that there would be no difficulty in creating them, if only both classes originally held the same opinion about the honourable and good;—indeed, in this single work, the whole process of royal weaving is comprised—never to allow temperate natures to be separated from the brave, but to weave them together, like the warp and the woof, by common sentiments and honours and reputation, and by the giving of pledges to one another; and out of them forming one smooth and even web, to entrust to them the offices of State.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How do you mean?
STRANGER: Where one officer only is needed, you must choose a ruler who has both these qualities—when many, you must mingle some of each, for the temperate ruler is very careful and just and safe, but is wanting in thoroughness and go.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly, that is very true.
STRANGER: The character of the courageous, on the other hand, falls short of the former in justice and caution, but has the power of action in a remarkable degree, and where either of these two qualities is wanting, there cities cannot altogether prosper either in their public or private life.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly they cannot.
STRANGER: This then we declare to be the completion of the web of political action, which is created by a direct intertexture of the brave and temperate natures, whenever the royal science has drawn the two minds into communion with one another by unanimity and friendship, and having perfected the noblest and best of all the webs which political life admits, and enfolding therein all other inhabitants of cities, whether slaves or freemen, binds them in one fabric and governs and presides over them, and, in so far as to be happy is vouchsafed to a city, in no particular fails to secure their happiness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Your picture, Stranger, of the king and statesman, no less than of the Sophist, is quite perfect.
\\No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early.
Obviously... that was use of figural saying. To highlight that obvious matters, that even though I demonstrate decent level of use of your native lang and common sense knowledge -- that do now guaranty understanding of your thoughts, even less -- feelings.
For that... I'd need to share experience of you living there in USA. Most probably alongside you. Even tourist experience would be not enough, as too shallow.
And that is real world limitation. Of kind you trying to oppose existing. AFAIU
\\I seek "Otherness". it would appear that so do you.
Well... but it seems that we doing it out of quite different motivations.
Like I -- in pursue of Knowledge AKA Understanding. With some practical purpose in mind.
And you... what in it to you?
Or you still not worked it up -- to pull it on the level of your conscious understanding? Still straggling in that world of smoke and mirrors some call "unconscious" euphemistically. ;-P
\\No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early. I am 1,000 years too late. The medium of internet encourages everyone to swipe-right and avoid all intimacies. It tends to match like with like.
Naaah.
That's just the same as in real world.
Manliness -- seeking "otherness". And news. And adventures.
Female -- burgeoning on "sameness".
And Internet... at first it was sanctuary of males, puny, scrawny, nerdy... but now, when it becomes more and more common place -- rules of damsels came into it too. :-(((((
And well... there's too few of people who able to support such a open-minded style of discussions...
So few, that practically you are just one with whom I talking, this passing years.
So... I either need to devise some other plan. Or... stop trying at all... going as that ancient greek -- going by street with a lamp, in shine of a day, with making people ask "what a hell you doing???" :-(((
I'm all for the "grand tour" method of education, Emile. Deciding for oneself what type of 'regime' to adopt and live under is a great challenge today. Most people accept what they have. I lived under Franco in Spain as a child. Under Leoni and Caldera in Venezuela. And was born in US with Eisenhower as President. I don't know of a better way to learn, than experience. But I don't advise visiting those places for the sites and scenery. When we visited the "home farm" in iowa, we went there to work.
I suppose that depends upon one's perspective. For many its' for self-aggrandizement, not their "immediate" self-preservation, but for some "Future" idealized state of affairs... a more "luxurious" state of affairs.
Although I like the story of Leto's children better. Apollo & Artemis. Apollo, born on the "floating" sacred island of Delos.... Zeus' "stolen' paternity.
Western Civilization is grounded in the exogeny of female choice. After the disaster of Helen of Troy, Greece learned the lessons of Hypermnestra and the Suppliant Maidens.
erratum - Exogamy in mate selection refers to a mating pattern where individuals choose mates from outside their immediate social group or lineage. This contrasts with endogamy, where mating occurs within the group. Exogamy is believed to have several evolutionary advantages, including increased genetic diversity and reduced risk of inbreeding depression
But here I stated it from systemic perspective -- as a (any?) system government most immediate goal are -- self-preservation. Well, it is not that necessary for a system to be bent on self-preservation. But. System that need to have property of longetivity and continuity (and you wanna that from government, isn't it?) -- MUST do self-preservation.
And humans-politicians -- are ordinary biological entities too... and as such MUST self-preserve itself too.
If pushed to the extreme, this doctrine would, of course, do away with all education, since when we send children to school or influence them in other ways without obtaining their approval for what we are doing, are we not "tampering" with them, "moulding" them like pieces of clay with no purpose of their own? Our answer has to be that certainly all "moulding" is evil, and that if human beings at birth had the power of choice and the means of understanding the world, it would be criminal; since they have not, we temporarily enslave them, for fear that, otherwise, they will suffer worse misfortunes from nature and from men, and this "temporary enslavement" is a necessary evil until such time as they are able to choose for themselves--the "enslavement" having as its purpose not an inculcation of obedience but its contrary, the development of power of free judgement and choice; still, evil it remains, even if necessary.
Communists and Fascists maintain that this kind of "education" is needed not only for children but for entire nations for long periods, the slow withering away of the State corresponding to immaturity in the lives of individuals. The analogy is specious because peoples, nations are not individuals and still less children; moreover in promising maturity their practice belies their professions; that is to say, they are lying, and for the most part know that they are. From a necessary evil in the case of the education of helpless children, this kind of practice becomes an evil on a much larger scale, and quite gratuitous, based either on utilitarianism, which misrepresents our moral values, or again on metaphors which misdescribe both what we call good and bad, and the nature of the world, the facts themselves. ...
For we, i.e. those who join with us, are more concerned with making people free than making them happy; we would rather that they chose badly than not at all; because we believe that unless they choose they cannot be either happy or unhappy in any sense in which these conditions are worth having; the very notion of "worth having" presupposes the choice of ends, a system of free preferences; and an undermining of them is what strikes us with such cold terror, worse than the most unjust sufferings, which nevertheless leave the possibility of knowing them for what they are--of free judgement, which makes it possible to condemn them--still open.
Virtuous people, not virtuous State's.
“There is no such thing as collective guilt or collective innocence; guilt and innocence make sense only if applied to individuals.
69 comments:
\\not to see as the close-up fundamentalist, but from afar, "ironically". Like your "ovo" project... ;)
Do you think *I* too serious about it too??? ;-P
Well. It need to be called somehow. And such a choice of a name play as bragging about knowing Greek. ;-P
Other than that... that is all just playing of a mind -- imagining things.
Yawn.
\\The Master has no bureaucrats, mandarins, or harem guards? He must be like Argus, many eyed; of the peacock throne.
Yeah.
That is what your lousy philosophers did imagine The Ruler -- ideal person (better if philosopher itself, bleh) that leading crowd into Shiny Bright Enlightment. ;-P
Bu-ga-gah! :-))))))))))))))))))))))))
While even lowest peasant knows, that to lead a herd of sheeps, only sheep are most capable. Or... a wolf. ;-P
Well... domesticated.
So... all that dichotomy of P-O-W-er. You straggling to phatome. And what did Chinese trying to phatom.
It's distinguishing without difference -- of who will lead -- sheep(s)? Or wolf(s)? ;-P
Like... currently dRump -- playing Black Sheep. And that's why he is so venerated by crowd -- seeing him as their peer.
Or... as you do -- imagining him being an actual Wolf in Sheep's clothes. ;-P
Or, as Bide-t... tryed to play Wolf. Though old and teethless. And so was dethroned even by surrounding him sheeps.
Yawn.
Or put-in.
Or Xi.
\\...but the cheesecake at Lindy's get's better and better! ;p
Smelly cheese? ;-P
\\Anonymous
Yap.
You gotcha.
That's why it's better to have (and use) more instruments in your toolbox. ;-)
And try to INCREASE their number.
May 1, 2025 at 1:31 AM
\\-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew
...so long as you can still see the forest, for all the trees.
May 1, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Well... that's exactly why Meta-Thinking and overview from Hawk Eyes distance needed -- to keep yourself on-track. To know where you heading.
In a forest, no less... ;-)
\\I need a volcano to throw all the heretics into...
Teach you technology of making volcanoes? ;-P
\\If I wanted followers, I'd be seeking zeros. Or maybe "ones and zeros" (AI). @@
Well. Communication with you allows me to triangulate my own flows...
as well as to keep track of cultural difference.
Though... there is a limit to it. To continue such grows in understanding -- one need to find more and more smart partners. (Or... more and more complex communication environments.)
And that is hella hard prerequisite to achieve. :-((((
So... now you see truth behind my "seeking Ovo", can you? That only communication under roof of such grandiose kind of project -- can allow me to grow more.
\\And if you're over-educated (and over-capitalized) all you need is a bigger calculator. A sharper pencil just won't do...
Educated? Or... self-educated? ;-)
Do you NOT see the difference here?
Education -- that is mildly called euphemism for brainwashing -- to meet somebody's OTHER criteria of what (and for what purpose) you are smart.
Self-education (self-actualization) -- means that it all yours. ;-)
\\-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew
Posh-Posh by Gosh!
It's St. Tammany's Day!
Kawanio che Keeteru, Q!
May 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM
\\Anonymous
Sorry. I am thousand years too early to share your such cultural affections.
:-(((
Same as you do.
That's... too intimate.
May 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
\\-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew
lol! Yes, we gotten much too close. I know soooo much about you. You 1,000 years in the future. Me 1,000 years in the past.
May 1, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Hah. :-)
See.
What a stark demonstration of cultural differences here.
You... see as "gotten much too close"... by your US standard of shallow involvement into each other life/culture.
Just after I just stated that we are "thousand years too early"... to be close to each other.
PS Now, do you not see? How that problem of shallow involvement -- that's exact reason of all your so loathed problems with Identity Politics&Co -- if there is NO actual ground for commonality... there need to be some clutches instead?
It's High Time to Bring Back That Powerful,, and Wonderful, Thing Called Common-sense
For example lets talk about that Progressive, Communist, Democrat , “Schiff for Brains” the Corrupt, Liar, Leaker, Evidence Manipulator, Adam Schiff still wants you to be defenseless when he says “It's time to bring back that powerful, common-sense reform again. It's time for the Assault Weapons Ban” AGAIN?
NO, You Schmuck! It's time to enforce existing laws and quit plea bargaining away gun charges for instant guilty pleas to lesser charges.] It’s no wonder they call him S”chiff for Brains”
While Law enforcement plays a critical role in public safety, officers cannot be everywhere at once and often arrive only after a crime has occurred. In life-threatening situations, especially those involving multiple or heavily armed assailants, individuals must rely on themselves for immediate protection. Firearms can provide the necessary means to defend one’s home and loved ones when seconds count and help is minutes away.
It is a proven fact that gun control laws Do Not Stop Criminals,
The Mentally Unstable, or Terrorists from committing violence, because by their very nature, those individuals Do Not Respect Laws. They don’t Obey the Law! And in many cases, attackers don’t even rely on guns, instead they are using knives, and vehicles, or improvised weapons to Intimidate, Harm, or to Kill.
The Progressive, Communist, Democrats, are consistently pushing for sweeping gun control measure, and stronger laws s while turning a blind eye to the rampant violence plaguing inner cities, where they govern, areas where Minority-on-Minority Crime is disproportionately high. Instead of cracking down on Gang activity, or siding with the Law Breaker and enforcing existing gun laws, or prosecuting repeat violent offenders, they pursue policies that disarm law-abiding citizens and weaken the police. Like the District Attorneys who push for No Bail! Like the Liberal Attorney Generals that do the same. And the Sanctuary City Governors
that generally involve restrictions on sharing information with federal agencies like ICE. While some states and hundreds of cities and counties have adopted Sanctuary Laws or Policies, And then they wonder why Crime has exploded in their city under their jurisdiction, when they are the ines who are responsible for those lenient legal decisions and judgments.!
And they wonder why someone like Donald Trump became so popular! Why these new people who are Tough on Crime are being elected, and people like Chuck Schumer have 17 percent approval ratings.
And people like Hakeem Jeffries, and Cory Booker are sitting on the Steps Singing Songs!
And you Libs wonder why the Supreme Court agrees with President Trump who says MS13 gangster Kilmar Abrego Garcia must Stay in El Salvador! And you wonder why that Giggling Hyena Kamala Harris Lost, and is not charging her supporters $25.00 to listen to her IDIOTIC Pay Per View Speech . While Donald Trump gives a Wonderful, well appreciated speech to the University in Alabama .
,,,and now, perhaps, it's so far away that it elicits "indifference". If it moved even closer, it might elicit hate. The ironic are much more useful than fundamentalists... jes sayin'. Beyond an Observation of the Feelings of the Beautiful, and of the Sublime...
Welcome to George Orwell's "Animal Farm". Is it time to celebrate the Lupercalia? Where did I put my februs? I must have lent it to Elon Musk and his DoGE team...
Let me drive some scapegoats out of the city. DC is literally PACKED with them.
Some people literally love "stinky cheese". The stinkier, the better.
My tastes go more towards "peasant foods" though. I leave the caviar and stinkiest cheeses to those who judge a meal's worth by its' price/cost. Have you seen "The Menu"?
I know where I'm heading... deeper into the forest and as far away from the zeros as I can get before I die.
Like Rousseau and his children, but perhaps tutor a budding Emile as I walk.
I'm done with school science projects.
It's funny, but I grew the most arguing against my frenemies. There was a blogger I knew as mr. ducky who taught me everything I know today. He was raised as what we call in the US a "red diaper baby", loved the director Jean-Luc Godard and the "French New Wave" style of film-making.
From trying to understand him, I learned everything that I had avoided and feared to investigate because it had been made anathema by my own culture.
So I'd encourage you to make some frenemies... and try to understand them. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but it generally works.
Virtue cannot be taught. It can only be learned. But that doesn't mean one can't be pointed in the wrong direction, and still learn it. Sometimes the anti-thesis provides the best lesson, the "why". All men are autodidacts.
No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early. I am 1,000 years too late. The medium of internet encourages everyone to swipe-right and avoid all intimacies. It tends to match like with like. As Byung-Chul Han would say, it seeks "sameness". As Plato said in his "Statesman" 2,500 years ago...
STRANGER: But him who cannot, we will not designate by any of the names which are the subject of the present enquiry.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very right.
STRANGER: The courageous soul when attaining this truth becomes civilized, and rendered more capable of partaking of justice; but when not partaking, is inclined to brutality. Is not that true?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly.
STRANGER: And again, the peaceful and orderly nature, if sharing in these opinions, becomes temperate and wise, as far as this may be in a State, but if not, deservedly obtains the ignominious name of silliness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Quite true.
STRANGER: Can we say that such a connexion as this will lastingly unite the evil with one another or with the good, or that any science would seriously think of using a bond of this kind to join such materials?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Impossible.
STRANGER: But in those who were originally of a noble nature, and who have been nurtured in noble ways, and in those only, may we not say that union is implanted by law, and that this is the medicine which art prescribes for them, and of all the bonds which unite the dissimilar and contrary parts of virtue is not this, as I was saying, the divinest?
YOUNG SOCRATES: Very true.
STRANGER: Where this divine bond exists there is no difficulty in imagining, or when you have imagined, in creating the other bonds, which are human only.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How is that, and what bonds do you mean?
STRANGER: Rights of intermarriage, and ties which are formed between States by giving and taking children in marriage, or between individuals by private betrothals and espousals. For most persons form marriage connexions without due regard to what is best for the procreation of children.
YOUNG SOCRATES: In what way?
STRANGER: They seek after wealth and power, which in matrimony are objects not worthy even of a serious censure.
YOUNG SOCRATES: There is no need to consider them at all.
STRANGER: More reason is there to consider the practice of those who make family their chief aim, and to indicate their error.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Quite true.
STRANGER: They act on no true principle at all; they seek their ease and receive with open arms those who are like themselves, and hate those who are unlike them, being too much influenced by feelings of dislike.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How so?
STRANGER: The quiet orderly class seek for natures like their own, and as far as they can they marry and give in marriage exclusively in this class, and the courageous do the same; they seek natures like their own, whereas they should both do precisely the opposite.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How and why is that?
STRANGER: Because courage, when untempered by the gentler nature during many generations, may at first bloom and strengthen, but at last bursts forth into downright madness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Like enough.
STRANGER: And then, again, the soul which is over-full of modesty and has no element of courage in many successive generations, is apt to grow too indolent, and at last to become utterly paralyzed and useless.
YOUNG SOCRATES: That, again, is quite likely.
STRANGER: It was of these bonds I said that there would be no difficulty in creating them, if only both classes originally held the same opinion about the honourable and good;—indeed, in this single work, the whole process of royal weaving is comprised—never to allow temperate natures to be separated from the brave, but to weave them together, like the warp and the woof, by common sentiments and honours and reputation, and by the giving of pledges to one another; and out of them forming one smooth and even web, to entrust to them the offices of State.
YOUNG SOCRATES: How do you mean?
STRANGER: Where one officer only is needed, you must choose a ruler who has both these qualities—when many, you must mingle some of each, for the temperate ruler is very careful and just and safe, but is wanting in thoroughness and go.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly, that is very true.
STRANGER: The character of the courageous, on the other hand, falls short of the former in justice and caution, but has the power of action in a remarkable degree, and where either of these two qualities is wanting, there cities cannot altogether prosper either in their public or private life.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Certainly they cannot.
STRANGER: This then we declare to be the completion of the web of political action, which is created by a direct intertexture of the brave and temperate natures, whenever the royal science has drawn the two minds into communion with one another by unanimity and friendship, and having perfected the noblest and best of all the webs which political life admits, and enfolding therein all other inhabitants of cities, whether slaves or freemen, binds them in one fabric and governs and presides over them, and, in so far as to be happy is vouchsafed to a city, in no particular fails to secure their happiness.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Your picture, Stranger, of the king and statesman, no less than of the Sophist, is quite perfect.
Hate?
It's just if you'd see your bad parts in me, like in that mirror. ;-P
Lowly peasant from outskirts of civilization... even dunno what you are talking about. ;-P
Cavia... WUT??? ;-P
I seek "Otherness". it would appear that so do you.
Well... I am old enough to understand -- that is useless try, to try to prevent people from going final path they desire... :-/
See... and what is I'd lacked understanding of that cultural reference???
Thesis:Antithesis::Synthesis... the essence of Statesmanship.
...Dialectic.
Meden agan! ;)
\\No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early.
Obviously... that was use of figural saying. To highlight that obvious matters, that even though I demonstrate decent level of use of your native lang and common sense knowledge -- that do now guaranty understanding of your thoughts, even less -- feelings.
For that... I'd need to share experience of you living there in USA. Most probably alongside you. Even tourist experience would be not enough, as too shallow.
And that is real world limitation. Of kind you trying to oppose existing. AFAIU
\\I seek "Otherness". it would appear that so do you.
Well... but it seems that we doing it out of quite different motivations.
Like I -- in pursue of Knowledge AKA Understanding. With some practical purpose in mind.
And you... what in it to you?
Or you still not worked it up -- to pull it on the level of your conscious understanding? Still straggling in that world of smoke and mirrors some call "unconscious" euphemistically. ;-P
\\Thesis:Antithesis::Synthesis... the essence of Statesmanship.
Quite not.
Essence of statesmanship is losy and shallow self-preservation.
As of mere individuals, euphemistically called "politicians", as in all body of politics called government.
Yawn.
\\No, you stated that you were 1,000 years too early. I am 1,000 years too late. The medium of internet encourages everyone to swipe-right and avoid all intimacies. It tends to match like with like.
Naaah.
That's just the same as in real world.
Manliness -- seeking "otherness". And news. And adventures.
Female -- burgeoning on "sameness".
And Internet... at first it was sanctuary of males, puny, scrawny, nerdy... but now, when it becomes more and more common place -- rules of damsels came into it too. :-(((((
And that is shit. Bleh. :-((((
\\Virtue cannot be taught. It can only be learned.
Even by "monkey sees, monkey dos"??? %-))))
\\All men are autodidacts.
Not all.
And what about fems? ;-P
I tried to explain to you... but you not believing me.
That is path ALREADY passed by me. ;-P
So, you could use your argument with me as with your future self... but, you'd never believe me.
Just the same as teen cannot believe becoming old and grumpy grandpa. ;-P
It all working only when looking in the back mirror.
And well... there's too few of people who able to support such a open-minded style of discussions...
So few, that practically you are just one with whom I talking, this passing years.
So... I either need to devise some other plan. Or... stop trying at all... going as that ancient greek -- going by street with a lamp, in shine of a day, with making people ask "what a hell you doing???" :-(((
I'm all for the "grand tour" method of education, Emile. Deciding for oneself what type of 'regime' to adopt and live under is a great challenge today. Most people accept what they have. I lived under Franco in Spain as a child. Under Leoni and Caldera in Venezuela. And was born in US with Eisenhower as President. I don't know of a better way to learn, than experience. But I don't advise visiting those places for the sites and scenery. When we visited the "home farm" in iowa, we went there to work.
Oh, its' purely habit for me. So yes, unconscious. Like smoking.
I suppose that depends upon one's perspective. For many its' for self-aggrandizement, not their "immediate" self-preservation, but for some "Future" idealized state of affairs... a more "luxurious" state of affairs.
Perhaps a "mineral agreement" or some such.
I sure wish YouTube hadn't taken down all those Yanitsaros videos. You would have really enjoyed them.
And I find the ladies very "charm-ing". Especially on Pornhub and OnlyFans. ;)
Zeus, Leda, the Dioscuri, and Helen of Troy+sister.
It was Zeus' job to become what Leda needed from him... and so he did.
Although I like the story of Leto's children better. Apollo & Artemis. Apollo, born on the "floating" sacred island of Delos.... Zeus' "stolen' paternity.
No. By holding "right opinion". Of correctly finding and following the Road to Larissa.
Are they whipped into their social roles?
Women do best when they read the story of Telemachus, by Fenelon. And then fall in love with their "mentor".
As did Emile's "Sophie" (Rousseau).
Western Civilization is grounded in the exogeny of female choice. After the disaster of Helen of Troy, Greece learned the lessons of Hypermnestra and the Suppliant Maidens.
Today we call it "hypergamy".
erratum - Exogamy in mate selection refers to a mating pattern where individuals choose mates from outside their immediate social group or lineage. This contrasts with endogamy, where mating occurs within the group. Exogamy is believed to have several evolutionary advantages, including increased genetic diversity and reduced risk of inbreeding depression
I can't spell for sh*t...
Even toddlers? ;-P
Bleh.
\\I suppose that depends upon one's perspective.
That's... by all means.
But here I stated it from systemic perspective -- as a (any?) system government most immediate goal are -- self-preservation. Well, it is not that necessary for a system to be bent on self-preservation. But. System that need to have property of longetivity and continuity (and you wanna that from government, isn't it?) -- MUST do self-preservation.
And humans-politicians -- are ordinary biological entities too... and as such MUST self-preserve itself too.
That's not a habit then, but a character trait.
You gotcha.
Jungian "shadows". We all have them.
Mountain oysters? ;)
You can only point out the roads not taken...
Joe vs the Volcano?
The point being is to understand "schizophrenically". There is no "one" reference... and the "play" comes from switching them up.
They always throw the virgins into the volcanoes, never the sluts (too valuable). Heretics are like sluts. Homo sacer. They contaminate the sacred.
Like "Finnegans Wake". There's no "one way" to read it. Every reading leads to a different understanding.
...the answer simple, holding a lamp in the dark or day so that other people don't run into me. ;p
Imbued with ritual. Opening the laptop is like passing through a torii and mentally stepping into a holy shrine.
Elections are a februus. The people wish to preserve themselves, too.
That's why Trump "purging" the deep state bureaucrats is a long overdue ritual.
...and I have to admit, I enjoy listening to the bleating of the goats chased into the wilderness. Call it Schadenfreude.
Isaiah Berlin, Letter to George Kennan:
If pushed to the extreme, this doctrine would, of course, do away with all education, since when we send children to school or influence them in other ways without obtaining their approval for what we are doing, are we not "tampering" with them, "moulding" them like pieces of clay with no purpose of their own? Our answer has to be that certainly all "moulding" is evil, and that if human beings at birth had the power of choice and the means of understanding the world, it would be criminal; since they have not, we temporarily enslave them, for fear that, otherwise, they will suffer worse misfortunes from nature and from men, and this "temporary enslavement" is a necessary evil until such time as they are able to choose for themselves--the "enslavement" having as its purpose not an inculcation of obedience but its contrary, the development of power of free judgement and choice; still, evil it remains, even if necessary.
Communists and Fascists maintain that this kind of "education" is needed not only for children but for entire nations for long periods, the slow withering away of the State corresponding to immaturity in the lives of individuals. The analogy is specious because peoples, nations are not individuals and still less children; moreover in promising maturity their practice belies their professions; that is to say, they are lying, and for the most part know that they are. From a necessary evil in the case of the education of helpless children, this kind of practice becomes an evil on a much larger scale, and quite gratuitous, based either on utilitarianism, which misrepresents our moral values, or again on metaphors which misdescribe both what we call good and bad, and the nature of the world, the facts themselves. ...
For we, i.e. those who join with us, are more concerned with making people free than making them happy; we would rather that they chose badly than not at all; because we believe that unless they choose they cannot be either happy or unhappy in any sense in which these conditions are worth having; the very notion of "worth having" presupposes the choice of ends, a system of free preferences; and an undermining of them is what strikes us with such cold terror, worse than the most unjust sufferings, which nevertheless leave the possibility of knowing them for what they are--of free judgement, which makes it possible to condemn them--still open.
Virtuous people, not virtuous State's.
“There is no such thing as collective guilt or collective innocence; guilt and innocence make sense only if applied to individuals.
-Hannah Arendt
...but most people try to hide them with mascaritas de cristal. :)
Meden agan... especially vis. "education".
hat which lies behind every mask...
...lies the great (or genuine) pretender!
So join the mascarade!
...and laugh!
...filled with play and laughter.
...and Oedipus/ structuralism doesn't WANT you to "slip the reins" of their control and develop an altogether new category of "understanding".
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