No, it was not you who took me to task for my error. And for sure we are all imperfect!
I was very taken with Socrates and Plato when I first began my exploration of Greek philosophy, and I still think aspects of the cave analogy are completely valid.
For myself, when I found myself intellectually exhausted in the midst of a then incomplet…
No, it was not you who took me to task for my error. And for sure we are all imperfect!
I was very taken with Socrates and Plato when I first began my exploration of Greek philosophy, and I still think aspects of the cave analogy are completely valid.
For myself, when I found myself intellectually exhausted in the midst of a then incomplete college education in 1966, and the draft was coming for me, I (as we used to say) enlisted to avoid it. It turned out to be a very mixed blessing, in which feeling I daresay I was not alone. The best that came of it was that since the odds were at least even that I'd end up in Vietnam (which, thank god I did not!), I set out to discover why it was that after four centuries of mass warfare, we still overindulged ourselves in it. I can't say I've found an answer that satisfies me, but as in any such quest, I ended up pursuing a rather larger issue - that of our origins and evolution as a species. I took my degree in anthropology, and I'm still on that one, albeit more as a sort of intellectual hobby than a focused pursuit.
I ended up teaching US and ancient history at the elementary level, at which I spent just over 40 years, and I have not regretted one day of that profession. I too love a good argument, and I'm certainly not above insisting on my own interpretation, at times somewhat past the point of reality. I always had my classes sit in a circle rather than at a row of desks, and I think of these online discussions, which I relish, as somewhat the same kind of thing, albeit in a rather larger 'room' in which I am participant instead of teacher. I'm very grateful to Dr. Richardson and to so many of her 'regulars' for stimulating this one.
As I said to Gary Loft: copy that, Peter, copy that all the way. On the ghastly war in lndochina, in 1967 I was ten and playing with model airplanes, living in Australia. As we would sail on week-ends, I was an inattentive jib-man because I was too busy with my model airplanes (W.W.2 Navy fighters) single-handedly liberating Hanoi. There had been push-back, including by some relatives, against that wretched war when we left the U.S. in 1966; I was simply unaware of it.
When we returned to the U.S. in December 1968, everybody was against the war and hated my proxy grand-pa, Lyndon Johnson. I have never really been able to wrap my head around the ghastly war in Viêt Nam. It was, and remains, a stain on the American soul. We need to remain mindful of that stain. My sympathies these days go out to the young men placed in an impossible situation, the great majority of whom did their country proud.
Chicken-hawks like me who, unlike you, never served, need to be particularly mindful. Thank G-D that you came through unscathed. My mother was a teacher of grade school English and History. A noble calling; good for you. An honor to correspond with you, Sir. 🙏
No, it was not you who took me to task for my error. And for sure we are all imperfect!
I was very taken with Socrates and Plato when I first began my exploration of Greek philosophy, and I still think aspects of the cave analogy are completely valid.
For myself, when I found myself intellectually exhausted in the midst of a then incomplete college education in 1966, and the draft was coming for me, I (as we used to say) enlisted to avoid it. It turned out to be a very mixed blessing, in which feeling I daresay I was not alone. The best that came of it was that since the odds were at least even that I'd end up in Vietnam (which, thank god I did not!), I set out to discover why it was that after four centuries of mass warfare, we still overindulged ourselves in it. I can't say I've found an answer that satisfies me, but as in any such quest, I ended up pursuing a rather larger issue - that of our origins and evolution as a species. I took my degree in anthropology, and I'm still on that one, albeit more as a sort of intellectual hobby than a focused pursuit.
I ended up teaching US and ancient history at the elementary level, at which I spent just over 40 years, and I have not regretted one day of that profession. I too love a good argument, and I'm certainly not above insisting on my own interpretation, at times somewhat past the point of reality. I always had my classes sit in a circle rather than at a row of desks, and I think of these online discussions, which I relish, as somewhat the same kind of thing, albeit in a rather larger 'room' in which I am participant instead of teacher. I'm very grateful to Dr. Richardson and to so many of her 'regulars' for stimulating this one.
As I said to Gary Loft: copy that, Peter, copy that all the way. On the ghastly war in lndochina, in 1967 I was ten and playing with model airplanes, living in Australia. As we would sail on week-ends, I was an inattentive jib-man because I was too busy with my model airplanes (W.W.2 Navy fighters) single-handedly liberating Hanoi. There had been push-back, including by some relatives, against that wretched war when we left the U.S. in 1966; I was simply unaware of it.
When we returned to the U.S. in December 1968, everybody was against the war and hated my proxy grand-pa, Lyndon Johnson. I have never really been able to wrap my head around the ghastly war in Viêt Nam. It was, and remains, a stain on the American soul. We need to remain mindful of that stain. My sympathies these days go out to the young men placed in an impossible situation, the great majority of whom did their country proud.
Chicken-hawks like me who, unlike you, never served, need to be particularly mindful. Thank G-D that you came through unscathed. My mother was a teacher of grade school English and History. A noble calling; good for you. An honor to correspond with you, Sir. 🙏