“Which is the more pitiful I cannot decide — being accused because of a friendship, or accusing a friend.” Tacitus. The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero. Oxford World’s Classics. Translated by J.C. Yardley. Introduction and notes by Anthony… Read More ›
Thoughtlets
Thoughtlets. XLX
Resistance is not raising up an army and trading fire, by that time too many have needlessly suffered — as will many more. Resistance is inviting someone you’ve been taught (and are expected) to hate to your table and treating… Read More ›
Thoughtlets. XLIX.
CIVIL RIGHTS HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN IN INTELLECTUALLY SAFE SPACES
Thoughtlets. XLVIII.
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Thoughtlets. xxxvi. (Repost; January 27,2021)
Tacitus, an Roman historian, writes these words in the Annals sometime around 117 CE: “I wanted to dispel the fictions of hearsay, and to ask people into whose hands my book may come not to prefer widely circulated and eagerly accepted… Read More ›
Thoughtlets.XLVII.
Just when news anchors’ hemorrhoid-inducing overuse of mindless phrases such as walk it back and double down starts to wane, another wave of brain-deadening soundbites inevitably waxes. And at its crest is the phrase bad actors. This phrase doesn’t refer… Read More ›
Thoughtlets. XLVI. Observing patterns of human behaviour.
Some find Tacitus’ Annals tedious. Some of it is. But his work keeps me riveted. I’m not so interested in history, per se. Rather I’m interested in identifying patterns of human behaviour, events that repeat over millennia, and asking why… Read More ›
Thoughtlets. XLV. Theodicy revisited.
News media characteristically brings us one story after another about the kinds of things humans to do each other which are broadly characterized as ‘evil.’ And these stories tend to generate accusations of ‘evil-doers’ which are then dispatched with the… Read More ›
Thought experiment: the last humans. (Thoughtlets. XL.)
Thought experiment. Imagine some cosmic event renders all humans sterile. After a number of decades pass, humankind literally enters a Golden Age, with an exclusively senior population. Although, ‘senior’ might lose its current meaning when the youngest among us is… Read More ›
Thoughlets. XLIV.
Do you ever wonder what future generations will look like? Look in a mirror. You are the future generations of those who lived before you. And do you ever wonder what future future generations will think of you and your… Read More ›