NB: An interesting essay. However, Heyking seems to conflate China and ‘Asia’. DS John von Heyking In order to cut through the two false alternatives – “catch up” and “social harmony” – I appeal to the original figure of Western liberal education, Socrates. Socrates indeed embodies the individual as it has been transmitted throughout the… Read More The Figure of Socrates and its Significance for Liberal Education in Asia
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow On the shores of Gitche Gumee,Of the shining Big-Sea-Water,Stood Nokomis, the old woman,Pointing with her finger westward,O’er the water pointing westward,To the purple clouds of sunset. Fiercely the red sun descendingBurned his way along the heavens,Set the sky on fire behind him,As war-parties, when retreating,Burn the prairies on their war-trail;And the moon, the Night-sun, eastward,Suddenly starting from his ambush,Followed fast those bloody footprints,Followed in that fiery war-trail,With its glare upon his features. And Nokomis, the old woman,Pointing with her finger westward,Spake these words to Hiawatha:“Yonder dwells the great Pearl-Feather,Megissogwon, the Magician,Manito of Wealth and Wampum,Guarded by his fiery serpents,Guarded by the black pitch-water. You can see his fiery serpents,The Kenabeek, the great serpents,Coiling, playing in the water;You can see the black pitch-waterStretching far away beyond them,To the purple clouds of sunset! “He it was who slew my father, By his wicked wiles and cunning,When he from the moon descended,When he came on earth to seek me.He, the mightiest of Magicians,Sends the fever from the marshes,Sends the pestilential vapors,Sends the poisonous exhalations,Sends the white fog from the fen-lands,Sends disease and death among us! “Take your bow, O Hiawatha,Take your arrows, jasper-headed,Take your war-club, Puggawaugun,And your mittens, Minjekahwun,And your birch-canoe for sailing,And the oil of Mishe-Nahma,So to smear its sides, that swiftly You may pass the black pitch-water;Slay this merciless magician,Save the people from the feverThat he breathes across the fen-lands,And avenge my father’s murder!” Straightway then my HiawathaArmed himself with all his war-gear,Launched his birch-canoe for sailing;With his palm its sides he patted,Said with glee, “Cheemaun, my darling,O my Birch-canoe! leap forward,Where you see the fiery serpents,Where you see the black pitch-water!”… https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=283 The Gael – The Last Of The Mohicans Theme
By Regina Sienra Photo: GoFundMe Children have such pure hearts and an 8-year-old from Arkansas named Kayzen recently proved this with a truly selfless act. The young boy formed an unlikely friendship with the waitstaff at a local Waffle House in the Little Rock area, where he frequently has breakfast. In fact, he’s become good friends with his… Read More 8-Year-Old Helps Raise Money for His Favorite Waffle House Worker To Buy a Family Car
NB: A young friend has brought to my notice what this gizmo says about me – its a farrago of lies and half truths. This machine makes me two years older than I am (which is old enough thank you); and attributes to me new-age kind of mumbo-jumbo statements which I have never made. ChatGPT… Read More Noam Chomsky says ChatGPT is a form of High-Tech Plagiarism
Some of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists are providing their services to Ukraine for free – but at the same time, they are taking in millions in fees from Pentagon contractors who stand to benefit from the country’s war with Russia. Following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s internationally condemned decision to invade Ukraine there was an outpouring of support… Read More They’re lobbying for Ukraine pro bono – and making millions from arms firms
Concern is growing in Iran after reports emerged that hundreds of schoolgirls had been poisoned across the country in recent months. On Wednesday, Iran’s semi-official Mehr News reported that Shahriar Heydari, a member of Parliament, cited an unnamed “reliable source” in saying that “nearly 900 students” from across the country had been poisoned so far. The first… Read More Alarm grows in Iran over reports that hundreds of schoolgirls were poisoned
Westra, who died last week, was among New Zealand’s best-known photographers, capturing images of Māori people in the 1960s that drew controversy as well as acclaim by Cornell Tukiri As a Māori and a documentary photographer, I often seek out images of our people from the past. I ask myself: what has been captured? When I read that… Read More New Zealand Māori life captured by famed photographer Ans Westra – picture essay
John von Heyking Conversation and the “Turning Around of the Soul” One of the common criticisms of the contemporary university is that it lacks individuals unwilling or incapable of conversing. Critics such as Anthony Kronman and Stephen Miller rightly observe that there’s something about contemporary culture and the contemporary university hostile to the arts or… Read More Periagoge: Liberal Education in the Modern University
Bharat Bhushan In a public speech in May 2022, the first anniversary of his government, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, switched the official designations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. His faux pas was described as a “slip of the tongue” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, Sarma did not… Read More BJP’s sentinels aggressively defend image of leadership
How conservatives made him their icon and distorted his ideas Kim Phillips-Fein How did Smith’s ideas become so thoroughly integrated into conservative defenses of the free market against regulation? And are these the only ways of reading his work? These are the questions at the heart of Adam Smith’s America, Glory M. Liu’s intriguing account of… Read More The Betrayal of Adam Smith
After the truth-shower 