Barley Literate: Wisdom

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, has an unconventional and incisive point of view. He offers startling, lucid guidance on matters spiritual, contemplative, intellectual and personal. See his comments here at The Center For Action and Contemplation.

Recently he discussed “Community as Alternative Consciousness.” I’m not competent to summarize it, read it for yourself here if you wish.

Here’s an excerpt:

“For instance, I've never once heard a sermon about the tenth commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods," because in our culture that's the only game in town. It is called capitalism. The individual is largely helpless and harmless standing against the system.”

Regarding capitalism, this is more a rhetorical statement than a conclusive definition. Nevertheless, he’s dealing with pith.

Here’s my own rhetorical whack at capitalism: not by its classic philosophical design, but in its inescapable effect, it’s a system that reinforces too many inequities and shields too many wrongdoers from accountability. Too many of us don’t fully understand this reality.

Who did it?

Soda consumption is still dropping

Anything sound familiar here?

A long wait for the perp walk....

Outsourcing: what's it all about?

Another take from Peter Drucker

Book review: American Crisis

The cod in "Cape Cod"

Monday, December 7, 2015

The wisdom of Sam Levenson (part 3)

“One of the virtues of being very young is

that you don't let the facts

get in the way of your imagination.”

Sam Levenson 1911-1980

American humorist, writer, teacher, TV celeb and journalist

I am an insufferable fan of the facts.

Imagination also gets my vote, and sometimes the twain need not interfere with each other.

I have a grandfatherly perspective on this. I love to hear my kids spinning a tale or making up a song on the fly. It’s a wonderment to hear their freelance explanations of Santa Claus and rain and why flowers die and how the astronauts can survive in space.

Their cautionary tales about animal parents taking care of their young are sophisticated in their concern, and carefree in their attribution of human values and familial love….sometimes I feel like I’m on a mission to soak up enough free-range delight and fanciful understanding to keep my brain and my heart from getting older, at least for an hour or two….

I never tell the kids a lie.

Sometimes I collaborate in keeping the dried-up facts in the back pocket for a while.

...but I mean...

The yin and yang of productivity

"You can't dance in a long dress."

A Farewell to Arms

Evolution "deniers"

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

You won’t hear this in the debates

Our politicians today don’t talk about ideas and ideals the way some pols did in days gone by.

I’m not saying—no way!—that politics and politicians were somehow better in the mythical “good old days.” The sham and the shenanigans and the shame have always been there.

Every so often, at least, lip service is given to the notion of doing the right thing for the right reasons.

How about this:

“Public good is not a term opposed to the good of individuals. On the contrary, it is the good of every individual collected. It is the good of all, because it is the good of every one.”

I think that’s a decent approximation of the common sense meaning of “the common good.”

p.s. The quote is from Thomas Paine, 1778. He’s the guy who wrote the blockbuster Revolutionary War pamphlet, Common Sense.

Source:

Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (London: Oxford University Press, 1977), 89.

The Six Grandfathers

Book review: The Bartender's Tale

A dreary contemplation

Student debt: the wrong solution

Same old, same old....

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The wisdom of H. L. Mencken

Mencken didn’t mind drawing blood when he offered his thoughts in public.

I don’t know of anyone who has or had such seething, scything wit.

Here’s Mencken considering the unexceptional talents of President Calvin Coolidge (served 1923-1929):

“There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches. He had no ideas, and he was not a nuisance.”

A Coolidge biographer observed “…he did represent the genius of the average…”

Yikes.

On the other hand, a laid-back Average Joe kind of politician might be a welcome relief for a little while….

Now, if Coolidge had had more hair, who knows?….

Ooops, wrong photo op

No surprise here

Book review: The Reader (Der Vorleser)

The wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt (part 5)

The wisdom of the Cherokees (part 34)

The wisdom of E. L. Doctorow

Thursday, July 2, 2015

The wisdom of Alexander Hamilton

“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.”

Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757-1804)

American politician and Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington

Hamilton was a founding member of the Federalist Party in post-colonial America, and he was significantly involved in the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

He observed, rightly enough, that “men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.” In simple words: human beings are not profoundly rational, civil, democratic, decent beings.

Orwell's Animal Farm

Hamilton was shooting duds when he argued that government is intended somehow to rationally, civilly, democratically and decently constrain the passions and actions of its citizens. As he knew very well, government consists of men and women who, in the main, are doing their best to stay in power so they can exercise authority.

The rational, civil, democratic, decent stuff is not their primary motivation.

Reliable political polling is dead

"Voter fraud" is not the problem....

Let's try "Truth or Dare!"

Trump for president?

California dreamin'....about water

Monday, June 15, 2015

The wisdom of Lyndon Baines Johnson

“If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read 'President Can't Swim.' “

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)

36^th President of the United States

Lyndon Baines Johnson was a man of many faces and many talents and….otherwise….

I’m no particular fan of LBJ, but I’m very sure it hurt him deeply when anti-Vietnam War protestors chanted “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”

The 36^th president of the United States was a confident and determined practitioner of realpolitik. He could mock the injustice of “President Can’t Swim” even as he understood the comic, insane reality of the zinger.

I think the willing leader of the “War on Poverty” believed that political zingers are not the essence of our polity.

Nevertheless, they seem to be the essence of our politics.

Who will be president in 2017?

First woman to run for president

Beyond goofy....

Is there really a Republican Party?

The Kent State thing

A backstory of income inequality

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

“What do you do, sir?”

“If the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?”

Attributed to John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

British economist, the first Keynesian

Even if Keynes didn’t actually say that, he might have said “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?”

Even if he didn’t actually say that, the zinger is on target.

Too much of what passes for political debate and public discourse is based on tightly held opinion that is too often unattached to any recognizable collection of facts.

Reasonably changing one’s opinion should be a mark of respect, and not an excuse for a “gotcha.”

And that’s a fact.

Who will be president in 2017?

First woman to run for president

Beyond goofy....

Is there really a Republican Party?

The Kent State thing

A backstory of income inequality

Spoiler alert for Ferguson voting

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The wisdom of Arnold H. Glasow

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to
recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."

Arnold H. Glasow (1905-1998)
American humorist

OK, now here is one fascinating guy. In the humorist field, he's well known.... he published jokes for 60 years…..and he doesn't have a Wikipedia page. I think I'll start being on the lookout for people who are somehow celebrities but don't have a Wikipedia page.

Anyway, his pronouncement on leadership rings a familiar bell for me, I'd be rich if I had pocketed $20 during my working career every time somebody said to me "Susan hasn't filed the variance reports for the last three months, and our quarterly report has to be sent in today" or "the vendor just called, we were supposed to get our regular monthly shipment tomorrow but it's going to be late" or something along those lines. Somebody, somewhere, was in charge but didn't take action when the problem was just getting started. Somebody, somewhere, was in charge but didn't routinely ask every day "How are things going? Are we having any problems?" Maybe nothing like this ever happened to you.

Maybe today you'll see some little problem that you can nip in the bud.

Go ahead, nip.

Gee willikers, six miles an hour!

Women who pioneered electronic music

"...the peregrines..."

Software upload

"Many waters cannot quench love."

Why doesn't every headline say "stupid"?

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The wisdom of Edgar Allan Poe

Everything I write now is posted on my website:

http://richardsubber.com/

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"And so being young
and dipped in folly,
I fell in love
with melancholy."

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Poe offers much to like for so many people, I think his poetry is under-appreciated….and try reading The Tell-Tale Heart when you're home alone some evening, and it's unpleasant outside, and you would really prefer to feel pleasant inside, except you're reading the masterpiece…

I really only like the first half of Poe's snippet, melancholy ain't my thing….."dipped in folly" suggests the exotic and self-indulgent excess of youth, mostly not fatal because it's usually hauled along by optimism and rescued once in a while by love….

If you're not personally in the "youth" category any more, be prepared to supply the love, let's keep pushing melancholy into the next county somewhere…

Chautauqua, revisited....

....another 3rd grade tour

Before comic books there were....

"Blood-and-thunder" for only 10 cents

When the next step is a jump....

Pay your taxes to rebuild schools

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The wisdom of Gustav Mahler

"Tradition is tending the flame, it's not worshipping the ashes."

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

I think it's not well known that this late-Romantic Austrian composer worked primarily in his life as a conductor, and only later did his music become as popular as it is today. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten acknowledged influence from Mahler's musical legacy.

Mahler's forward-looking comment about tradition appeals to me…..I tend to think of myself more as a traditionalist than as an early adopter, but I take Mahler's point: the great benefits of tradition are not the reward for looking backward, they are the energy and revelation we can adapt as we work at living a good life…

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The wisdom of Winston Churchill (part 2)

"The greatest lesson in life
is to know that even fools are right sometimes."

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

I'm happy to believe this, and goodness knows I have been a fool at times, it's somewhat comforting to know that I might nevertheless have been right on a few of those occasions….

It is one mark of a decent intellect that, from time to time, the possibility of being wrong is honestly entertained, however briefly….

I'd like to apply Churchill's wisdom in the political sphere, even when the going gets a bit fuddled or bogs down with the refrain "Don't go there"………..I'd like to be generous in the case of the present crew of pols sitting in Congress and cavorting on the campaign trail, but for too many of them, a re-classification to "Fool" would be the necessary first step, and that would necessarily be a step up….

Too many books, so little time

Whoa

The good old Dewey Decimal System

The history of spoiler alerts

"Blood-and-thunder" for only 10 cents

"...the peregrines..."

Let's put one more thing in context....

Take another look....

....another 3rd grade tour

Gee willikers, six miles an hour!