It seems to me undeniable that we have lost to a considerable degree the vigor and passion of the English language in a utilitarian purge as a sort of reward for "good behavior" in our too comfortable mental prisons. (The nadir of this practice is fulsomely displayed in the inane practice carried over from computer coding in abbreviating concepts by their first initials. This is tantamount to the authoritarian cultural imposition of the errant and ludicrous formulation of artificial intelligence by these seemingly feckless nerds.)
For instance, in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar Calphurnia says: "O Caesar these things are beyond all use, and I fear them." Now "beyond all use" for us today, as a mere (and tame) audience of supposed English users, we interpose the commonplace term "unusual" here. We very seldom would stop to reflect how "usual" is formed from "use." Thus we have lost a connection with meaning in this way, the which Shakespeare's dialogue would have us remember. Much as Socrates demonstrates the mnemonic power in Meno. A power inherent in the striving after the substantial reality that Leibniz referred to as sufficient reason in a sometimes unheard internal dialogue going on behind the curtain-- will we, nil we.
Thus today, when we ever so tamely refuse to impute a bestial motive to the economics of austerity and appeasement of the financial oligarchy does "conscience does make cowards of us all." For we err and sin against the sacred mission in the scholastically named General Welfare clause of our Constitution when we forget or better yet refuse to ask this lurking question. So we lull ourselves rather than looking within. And we lose the urgent need of holding up to ourselves the keen mirror provided by master Shakespeare.
Eratosthenes first measured the circumference of the earth from the shadows cast by the sun. Today, humanity's fitness to survive will be measured by our ability to conquer that same thermonuclear fusion that casts those shadows. Thus, Prometheus will truly be unbound.
Friday, July 06, 2012
Comment Upon Reading Julius Caesar During the Late and Prolonged Power Outage
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