Thursday Poem: T.S. Eliot, Preludes Part 3

3.

You tossed a blanket from the bed
You lay upon your back, and waited;
You dozed, and watched the night revealing
The thousand sordid images
Of which your soul was constituted;
They flickered against the ceiling.
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
Sitting along the bed’s edge, where
You curled the papers from your hair,
Or clasped the yellow soles of feet
In the palms of both soiled hands.

Has there been a better poet writing in English in the past 150 years?   Probably not.

The depth of commitment to his metaphysical vision and the breadth of that vision is remarkable.   Look at the rhyme and meter!  Sinful.

The Decline and Fall Of Declinism: Article in The American

Here is the link.

Many people desperately want America to be imperial, war-mongering and perpetually in decline:  this confirms many of the ideas they want to be true.  

Even Pat Buchanan likes declinism but for different reasons: the moral decline of secular society…. for failure to live up to religious commandments.

So, anti-declinism articles like this one can be a good antidote against all that.  Walter Russell Mead can be too.

Is it all just declinism and anti-declinism out there?

Reminds me of a certain movie…

Photo found here.

More On Daniel Deudney’s Bounding Power

Here is a previous post which includes several links to Deudney’s work:

How Will Deudney’s Book Fare?:  Deudney has said that he has been deeply influenced by the writings of Kant.   Very few people will argue that Kant is a political thinker, and while his moral writings are obviously influential, they’re largely derived from his Critique Of Pure Reason and there are many reasons to disagree with him. 

Kant is often labeled a rationalist, with some deep roots in Leibniz and the 18th century school of German rationalism;  He’s not always welcomed in the anglo-world.

In fact, there is a vigorous school of thinking which includes the depths of David Hume’s arguments (to whom Kant is responding), many other British Empiricists, Friedrich Hayek, much American economic theory influenced by Hayek (Milton Friedman for example), as well as objectivists, Lockeans, etc…..all of whom capable of putting forth some very good reasons why they’re not interested in such a project. 

As insightful as Deudney may be in attempting to merge one of the more important philosophers there is (Kant) with a pretty shrewd understanding of political theory and some practical politics, he is not necessarily assured a welcome audience for his book.

James Fallows On Why Americans Hate The Media

This link has a James Fallows essay on the problems the media currently faces.  It comes by way of Matt Yglesias.

Of course, I don’t know if one can define the “media” in a consistent way, but it’s insightful.   It suggests that aside from being recently idealogically driven (like FOX news), they’ve also lost touch with what they’re able to do and become lazy. 

As much as I may disagree with Bill Moyers, man of the people, he seems to be an example of what many journalists can strive for nowadays.  60 minutes is still pretty good too.

Is journalism really a subject worthy of its own college degree?

Addition:   Perhaps journalism is a subject worthy of study, but one that suffers from too much institutionalization.   Journalism can be very important, but only if news outlets gather enough resources to have journalists gather facts, pursue leads and interpret them usefully to the public.  Most blogs aren’t exactly meeting this standard.

Note to Self:  Beware of people who want to control or blame “the media”, even those like Moyers who work hard to make it better.  Usually, they are not willing to think through their own ideas.

Hurricanes By Popular Demand

Here are some hurricane links I’ve found:

1. A Brief Overview-It’s for kids, but go ahead, swallow your pride.

2. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration

3. The Red Cross-How to Prepare

4. The Weather Channel-One of the best places to track hurricanes once they form.

Here’s one cool photo to check out.

Here’s a video of Hurricane Dean from space (it’s enormous) and here are some people feeling the force of hurricane winds.

Also, read about the deadly Key West hurricane here.

Addition:  Here’s a good link to the 10 most deadly hurricanes.  Click here for some NASA fun.

To An Angry E-Mailer: Why I Am Attracted To Conservative Ideas

One of the reasons I find myself attracted to conservative principles (and sometimes the republican party) is that many of those principles are based in thinking that seeks to understand the limits of understanding, and carries such thinking eventually into policies that allow me economic freedom, educational freedom….and most importantly….time. 

I’m no fan of the religious base of the republican party any more than the idealogues of the left.    I’m frankly a little scared of all true believers, but often find myself resting upon true belief. 

I’m wary of this desire within myself and others.   I want to help others but not without practical application nor understanding of where those ideas could lead…which is why I read these thinkers and find them compelling, yet still harbor doubt.

Most of them (Hayek for example) were forged out of the chaotic European 20th century.  The Austrian left was crumbling from what I understand, and the right was gathering darkly and millions of lives were lost in the following struggle.  But there are also others, and they helped to create a dialogue that continues today.  Many of them fled their countries to America, and there was mutual benefit. 

To answer your question, I will not, and probably can not solve the problem of poverty.  I can recognize it as a problem, doing some good to alleviate it, but I do not spend energy thinking that if I join a group of people, (or worse, a political party) we will eradicate it.  I also live in a country where I’m free to doubt whether or not it is a problem in the way you define it.   I am also free to join such a group if I should change my mind in the future.

This (and other ideas discussed here) seems important to me, and I hope we can agree to disagree. 

See also: The Cambridge Companion To Hayek, Thomas Sowell, even Michael Oakeshott

 

Dr. Lisi In The Economist: E8

Here is a link to the article in the Economist, and, of course, this is the shape that could explain the cosmos.

From the article:

“It is elegant. It is expected to make testable predictions. Unlike some of the more complicated efforts to devise a theory of everything, this one should either succeed relatively rapidly or fail spectacularly. And that is more than can be said for three decades of work by other physicists.”

That’s all that can be said for three decades of work by other physicists?

A theory should either succeed relatively rapidly or fail spectacularly?

Bob Saget: Old English Folk Song (Not Dirty)

Bob Saget’s still around.  You might think differently of him after this.   

Wimshurst Machines: Fun Times

There isn’t a shortage of good pages to find out about this machine.  Here is a page detailing restoration.

Here is a recent bloggingheads episode featuring a Wimshurst and a good explanation of how it works.

It’s a pretty low rent venture here, so you’ll have to click here for a simple diagram and here for photos. Apologies.

Does anyone know where I can get one at a good price?

See also:  Electrostatic induction, Leyden Jars, Van De Graaff, Tesla Coil, Singing Tesla Coil

Addition:  Here’s a good page for direct current electrostatic devices.

Addition:  New bloggingheads this week has a Ruhmkorff coil and a De La Rive tube demonstration.  Er…yes, Ruhmkorff and De La Rive.

Best explanation I’ve of how a Wimshurst works here.

Monday Poem: Emily Dickinson

 XXIV

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, — did you not,
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun, –
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

-Emily Dickinson 

Have you figured it out?

Addition:  A good way to read Dickinson is to pretend you are humming Amazing Grace, or a similar church hymn.