Simple Gifts

In this season of Thanksgiving, we remember those famous Pilgrims who dared to leave comfort, home, family and the safe structures of society to establish a new life in a new world. This month we celebrate and remember the courage, love and devotion, the strength and sacrifice that founded our country.

In this first poem, "As Weary Pilgrim Now at Rest," by Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) the poet recognizes the difficulty of life in the New World and the blessedness of hope not, as often supposed, in eternal rest, but in the delight of new life in Christ, filled to overflowing with joy in God's presence and service.

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George Orwell's 1984 is classic dystopian literature, but it is also psychologically astute and prescient concerning the totalitarian tendencies of the 20th century's ideologies. With the rise of 21st century Wokism currently in vogue, its message is a clarion call for the present, too. Let us beware of embracing rather than opposing the lies that are being forced upon us, lest we find ourselves, too, living in a world in which we must guard our very thoughts, lest they betray us. Hold fast to the truth, no matter the consequences!

Enjoy ... and be vigilant!

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REPUBLIC, book 6 begins what may be considered the most famous and important passages in all of Western philosophy. Plato begins to systematically present his theory of the Forms in a series of notable analogies, beginning with the Sun and concluding chapter 6 with the Line.

The chapter begins by picking up the discussion that ended chapter 5 on the true philosophers, those who "know best," those who are able to see "the thing itself." It should be clear, Socrates says, that philosophers, defined as "those who are able to grasp what is always the same in all respects," should rule in our city. But, Adeimantus objects, real philosophers, not Socrates' ideal philosophers, are either wicked or useless. Socrates agrees, but explains that only the proper combination of nature and nurture can produce the true philosopher, and it is only in a society like the Kallipolis that the true philosophical nature can be properly nurtured into its greatest potential for good. Such true philosophers will be able to "see" the Good Itself, the Form of the Good, which is like the Sun, illuminating what is and nourishing all that is good. This analogy of the sun leads directly to the analogy of the line, which graphically displays the epistemological insights we began to unfold at the conclusion of chapter 5, and we are told to think of human knowledge as lying upon a continuum between ignorance and true understanding, of which only the philosopher is capable.

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Our centerpiece this month is Booker T Washington's Atlanta Exposition Speech, both historical and controversial. In this excerpt from his book, Up From Slavery, Washington speaks of events following this speech. Enjoy!

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In history this month we read Booker T. Washington's famous "Atlanta Exposition Speech" and selections from his autobiography UP FROM SLAVERY to show the context. In reciprocity, then, the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar contextualizes Washington's words, and is in turn contextualized by them.

Lynchings in the South were peaking as Booker T Washington gave his speech to the Atlanta Exposition. Thus we find in the juxtaposition of poem and speech the real and the ideal, man's most evil deeds and highest aspirations. "The Haunted Oak" is curiously dispassionate, as it is the judgment of nature itself in the old oak tree upon man's inhumanity to man. The final stanzas disclose the psychological horrors of the perpetrator's "debt," and the violent desecration of nature and of nature's God:

George Orwell's 1984 is classic dystopian literature, but it is also psychologically astute and prescient concerning the totalitarian tendencies of the 20th century's ideologies. With the rise of 21st century Wokism currently in vogue, its message is a clarion call for the present, too. Let us beware of embracing rather than opposing the lies that are being forced upon us, lest we find ourselves, too, living in a world in which we must guard our very thoughts, lest they betray us. Hold fast to the truth, no matter the consequences!

Enjoy ... and be vigilant!

If you'd like to support us, donate through Paypal at [email protected]

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

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https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#georgeorwell #animalfarm #classic #classicdystopianliterature #dystopianliterature #dystopianfiction #dystopian #literature #fiction #psychologicalliterature #psychological #psychology #totalitarian #totalitarianfiction #totalitarianliterature #20thcentury #20thcenturyliterature #woke #wokism #orwell

REPUBLIC, book 6 begins what may be considered the most famous and important passages in all of Western philosophy. Plato begins to systematically present his theory of the Forms in a series of notable analogies, beginning with the Sun and concluding chapter 6 with the Line.

The chapter begins by picking up the discussion that ended chapter 5 on the true philosophers, those who "know best," those who are able to see "the thing itself." It should be clear, Socrates says, that philosophers, defined as "those who are able to grasp what is always the same in all respects," should rule in our city. But, Adeimantus objects, real philosophers, not Socrates' ideal philosophers, are either wicked or useless. Socrates agrees, but explains that only the proper combination of nature and nurture can produce the true philosopher, and it is only in a society like the Kallipolis that the true philosophical nature can be properly nurtured into its greatest potential for good. Such true philosophers will be able to "see" the Good Itself, the Form of the Good, which is like the Sun, illuminating what is and nourishing all that is good. This analogy of the sun leads directly to the analogy of the line, which graphically displays the epistemological insights we began to unfold at the conclusion of chapter 5, and we are told to think of human knowledge as lying upon a continuum between ignorance and true understanding, of which only the philosopher is capable.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured

https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords

https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com

#plato, #socrates, #platoandsocrates, #socratesandplato, #republik, #republic, #westerntradition, #philosophy, #rationality, #drjohndwise, #philosopher, #philosophical, #philosophicalauthor #westerntraditionphilosophy, #traditionalphilosophy, #foundations, #foundationalphilosopher, #foundationaltext, #platosrepublic, #philosophy, #dialogue, #dialogues, #greekphilosophy, #ancientgreekphilosophy, #athens, #platonicdialogue, #platonic, #ancientgreeks, #ancientgreece,#hellen, #hellenistic, #athenian, #atheniantradition, #greekcivilization, #greeksociety, #greekhistory

Booker T Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, was born a slave in 1856, and the story of his indefatigable drive to education and accomplishment, as presented in his autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY, is both harrowing and inspiring. On September 18th, 1895 he delivered this historic (and later controversial) speech at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition, designed to display the economic progress of the post-Civil War South. The choice of Washington as speaker was intended to show similar progress in race-relations.

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