This essay is reposted from November 23, 2023 The Republican Party is the single biggest threat to the future of organized human life. Dystopian movies and TV shows create the impression that life under an autocratic state will resemble 1984 or A Handmaid’s Tale
I like “the best way to cope with the Adversary is to confront him in ourselves.”
If all life is connected in unfathomably complex systems, maybe me taking care of the part of myself that IS a bully can somehow reduce the total amount of bullying in the world in ways that extend beyond just one person’s contribution.
Maybe by changing myself, I can send ripples out that change the culture, and maybe those changes to the culture can reach those people who “want to live in the 17th century.”
I have saved both the webpage and a hard copy of this essay. Thank you for writing it and for sharing it. We each are capable of and responsible for bringing illuminating truth in the darkness. Your work is doing that.
Good thing to put in your bunker library! Maybe I need to buy a printer and download some of my favorite blogs’ archives so I can still read by candlelight when the shit hits the fan…
This is brilliant! I’m teaching Ayn Rand this fall, and this post has given me so many ideas for supplemental texts to support my 9th graders’ reading. Thank you, Sean.
Yes, Anthem is terrible . . . and part of the required curriculum. Which is why I think I will spend more time on some of these poets instead. I think it will make the unit much more palatable! And teaching it alongside elections will (hopefully) help? Kids tend to love the ideas in the book but not the book itself. It’s like Fahrenheit 451 in that way, another book I don’t love to teach, but it’s one that lends itself to interesting discussions.
Also, Ciaran Carson's _Belfast Confetti_ and _The Irish for No_, two books of poems from the '80's that made his reputation, and deservedly. Given the great imperial slaughters and repressions carried out by those swell pome-writin' English Speaking Peoples, it's surprising that there isn't more poetry right in front of our eyes on their stay in Ireland--or more that I know, or more that I remember, to be accurate. But Carson's writing is at the forefront, at least in my mind, of how a virtuoso in English portrays growing up in what was an occupied country. Also, his translation of _The Inferno_ can be read as a translation of the internecine lunacy of the Italy of Dante's time into the internecine lunacy of Belfast in the period of the 60's through, really, the 80's. I do go on, but, well, nuff of that. But Carson's worth going on about.
I like “the best way to cope with the Adversary is to confront him in ourselves.”
If all life is connected in unfathomably complex systems, maybe me taking care of the part of myself that IS a bully can somehow reduce the total amount of bullying in the world in ways that extend beyond just one person’s contribution.
Maybe by changing myself, I can send ripples out that change the culture, and maybe those changes to the culture can reach those people who “want to live in the 17th century.”
I have saved both the webpage and a hard copy of this essay. Thank you for writing it and for sharing it. We each are capable of and responsible for bringing illuminating truth in the darkness. Your work is doing that.
Good thing to put in your bunker library! Maybe I need to buy a printer and download some of my favorite blogs’ archives so I can still read by candlelight when the shit hits the fan…
This is incredible.
This is brilliant! I’m teaching Ayn Rand this fall, and this post has given me so many ideas for supplemental texts to support my 9th graders’ reading. Thank you, Sean.
I would not subject 9th graders or any other living thing to Ayn Rand
Yes, Anthem is terrible . . . and part of the required curriculum. Which is why I think I will spend more time on some of these poets instead. I think it will make the unit much more palatable! And teaching it alongside elections will (hopefully) help? Kids tend to love the ideas in the book but not the book itself. It’s like Fahrenheit 451 in that way, another book I don’t love to teach, but it’s one that lends itself to interesting discussions.
Also, Ciaran Carson's _Belfast Confetti_ and _The Irish for No_, two books of poems from the '80's that made his reputation, and deservedly. Given the great imperial slaughters and repressions carried out by those swell pome-writin' English Speaking Peoples, it's surprising that there isn't more poetry right in front of our eyes on their stay in Ireland--or more that I know, or more that I remember, to be accurate. But Carson's writing is at the forefront, at least in my mind, of how a virtuoso in English portrays growing up in what was an occupied country. Also, his translation of _The Inferno_ can be read as a translation of the internecine lunacy of the Italy of Dante's time into the internecine lunacy of Belfast in the period of the 60's through, really, the 80's. I do go on, but, well, nuff of that. But Carson's worth going on about.