Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

 Tax the Rich 

Website Wednesday 

Some random thoughts first:

1. During the time I make my Advent scarf, (It's the 24 days before Christmas and I just learned this year [my third for making one] that the people making them are very religious - how did I miss that?), I can't work on it and watch TV. However, listening to Open Culture courses: 

http://www.openculture.com/ 

works very well, So last week, I started with a course on the end of the Roman empire and the beginning of Christianity from Yale but I soon gave up on it. It's the first Yale course that was so boring as the prof. basically droned off names, dates and events. (I'm thinking he was dealing with a controversial subject and wanted to stay PC.) But he did bring up the long forgotten heresy of Manichaeism in the early church. Manichaeism sees the world as divided into forces of good and forces of evil which are constantly battling with each other. As I listened to this, I realized that so many in the US, who consider themselves main-stream religious, are really Manichaeists. That's how the insanity of "If only the teachers had been armed at the school in Newton." can be floated in the MSM. For whenever bad things happen, Americans are ready for battle because the evil in the world is always outside them, never a part of them, always there to be fought and conquered if only they had more weapons. 

2. And then there is Simon Winchester, British ex-pat, writer, traveler, to whom Brian Lamb on C-SPAN was giving very friendly questions during an interview last week. (You should listen to Lamb interview someone with unfriendly questions.) Winchester talked about a revisit he had to the US southern states recently where he wanted to look at the areas of the country he had first visited years ago. In some important, but throw-away lines because Lamb didn't follow up, he said: Those people (MS, west TX were mentioned) don't see any purpose in belonging to the US. They don't think the federal government is doing anything for them. They are ready to secede.

3. And finally for something completely different: I also listened to a course on the close reading of The Iliad. Close reading (also the Great Books method of reading great works) means you only look at the text in front of you for interpretation. If the text is extolling slavery, you analyze that in its time frame; you don't bring a 21st century interpretation of slavery. The prof. had a student dramatically read the first 40 lines of The Iliad and then the class  interpreted them. I thought the class did a good job until.......... 

About an hour before the kids get home I like to get on the treadmill where I use my iPad to read or play games for 50 minutes. So yesterday, I got up the Alexander Pope translation of The Iliad (excellent free translation; Samuel' Butler's is not so hot) and dramatically read aloud the first 40 lines. No one was in the house though I did notice that the dog, in her crate upstairs, seemed unusually active.

Boy, was I good! Not so much in the dramatic reading but my close reading interpretation (also aloud - oh, I do hope no one was lurking outside!) was even better than what I had heard in the course. (Truth in advertising: I do know how to close read and I've done it before for class.) I was amazed at what I gleaned anew from Homer. That guy was a genius! In 40 lines, he laid out enough intrinsic and extrinsic details worthy of an award winning screenplay. Which brings me to my head scratching question: Why don't we read such literature regularly? We relegate it to school courses and then pretend once we're in the "real world" we should spend our time reading what is often popularized dross and near-dross in Book Clubs. (Apologies to Book Clubs which read the classics.) What a waste! 

OK, off my soapbox and my pick for today, unless you want to explore the above Open Culture (WW, 11/9/11) again, is: 

http://www.fullpunch.com/ 

Full Punch is an easy read and look. I'm assuming their lists of tips are correct since DH says: Yes, you can change AAA batteries to AA the way they suggest. There's funny and serious stuff here with probably enough "not for office use" stuff to keep it a home site.

It's up-to-date and it's satirical. So be warned, satire takes no prisoners. Enjoy.


See you next week.