tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post1239864709828233106..comments2024-03-28T12:50:25.792-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-34681256307542379072012-06-04T09:43:40.084-04:002012-06-04T09:43:40.084-04:00I can see that I need to hang out with you a bit m...I can see that I need to hang out with you a bit more! I am prepared to embrace that view of the world. What is there to lose? <br /><br />"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;<br /> Or close the wall up with our English dead.<br /> In peace there's nothing so becomes a man<br /> As modest stillness and humility:<br /> But when the blast of war blows in our ears,<br /> Then imitate the action of the tiger;<br /> Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,<br /> Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;<br /> Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;<br /> Let pry through the portage of the head<br /> Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it<br /> As fearfully as doth a galled rock<br /> O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,<br /> Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.<br /> Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,<br /> Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit<br /> To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.<br /> Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!<br /> Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,<br /> Have in these parts from morn till even fought<br /> And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:<br /> Dishonour not your mothers; now attest<br /> That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.<br /> Be copy now to men of grosser blood,<br /> And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,<br /> Whose limbs were made in England, show us here<br /> The mettle of your pasture; let us swear<br /> That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;<br /> For there is none of you so mean and base,<br /> That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.<br /> I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,<br /> Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:<br /> Follow your spirit, and upon this charge<br /> Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'"Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-35516913429772124232012-06-04T05:11:51.321-04:002012-06-04T05:11:51.321-04:00At the risk of sounding like Polyanna, I would tak...At the risk of sounding like Polyanna, I would take heart in the following: it is unlikely that in the 40s, 50s, or 60s, a Marxist, atheist scholar would have been appointed to improve the chances of graduation for young Black women in North Caroline (or that there would be an Afro-American Studies department -?? - and one chaired by a Black woman with a militant activist past). Certainly it would have been impossible then for the handsome son of said Marxist to marry a man. And while in North Carolina 50 years ago a Black man would have been denied service at a lunch counter, this summer a Black man, in North Carolina, will be re-nominated as President of the United States. Arab nations are in revolt. "Occupy" is not only not relenting but seems to be international. It appears to me that all the good raging of those decades past has moved the ball forward quite some distance. Has it accreted "into a force producing a fundamental change in the socio-economic organization of modern Capitalism"? Don't know, but check out the platform of the Coalition of the Radical Left, headed by a young Communist, that now has a decent chance of setting a progressive agenda not just in Greece but in a number of European countries (see their impressive platform here: http://bit.ly/KsNFh2)<br />Bottom line: capitalism is on the defensive just about everywhere. Oh, those laws of motion.Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01427077490696059928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-13601781228257368462012-06-02T13:10:50.664-04:002012-06-02T13:10:50.664-04:00Well, I certainly hope it is prescient! Nothing w...Well, I certainly hope it is prescient! Nothing would ease my last days more. It is not something I like to argue about, because I do not want to discourage actions that might, at the very least, make the world a less bad place. I suppose my pessimism comes from having spent an entire long life hoping for a transformation that has never come. In a way, living through the events of the 40's and 50's and 60's makes the disappointment worse, because for a brief moment it looked as though we were winning.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-22780310011736368322012-06-02T11:57:59.445-04:002012-06-02T11:57:59.445-04:00This Capitalism that we now see rode into existenc...This Capitalism that we now see rode into existence first on the forests of Europe and the Americas, next on coal, now oil. Is it Utopian or merely prescient to, "...commit themselves to direct action to make changes in the world around them?"Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06486945464862663890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-37046584045880471312012-06-02T11:57:01.057-04:002012-06-02T11:57:01.057-04:00And neither will campaigning for Obama....
At lea...And neither will campaigning for Obama....<br /><br />At least the Occupiers are standing firm to principle in the face of defeat, whereas progressive support for Obama is being complicit in defeat.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.com