I finished reading Anna Karenina tonight on the farm. I would like to do a full review here, but as Francisco d'Anconia would say, I'm not a happy enough man to do it.
The book is a masterpiece. However, although the book is named for the female lead, I finished reading it with the thought that Anna was not the main character, but rather a foil for the real main character, Levin. Levin's final epiphany, in which he accepts that the entire, irrational meaning of life is circumscribed by the admonition to "love thy neighbor as thyself," is the essence of the book. And that main point has particular significance for me, given the peculiar (and not so peculiar) road I have traveled in life.
One other observation about the book. The characters in Anna Karenina, as in other books about educated people, often discuss serious topics in social settings. We can't do that now. It's considered taboo to discuss politics, religion, or philosophy in social settings, and it is out of the question to suggest that anyone's view on a question might be incorrect. In essence, everyone is right and correct about whatever they might think. Thus, our social conversations center on opinions about clothes, homes, possessions, and gossip about others' personal relationships. This gets very tiresome. No one communicates anymore~
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Factions
I have never united myself with any U.S. political party, Republican, Democrat, or any other. I have justified this on the ground that by joining a faction, I am obliged to accept all of its tenets, though I am usually in agreement with only a portion of them.
However, I just read this passage in the Athenian Constitution regarding the laws of Solon:
"Further since [Solon] saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn up, he made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that any one who, in a time of civil factions, did not take up arms with either party, should lose his rights as a citizen and cease to have any part in the state."
In point of fact, I often accept "whatever turns up" from sheer indifference, having much to say on any issue, but in the end casting no meaningful vote because I am not allied with either contestant. Perhaps, in the spirit of public-mindedness, I must choose~
However, I just read this passage in the Athenian Constitution regarding the laws of Solon:
"Further since [Solon] saw the state often engaged in internal disputes, while many of the citizens from sheer indifference accepted whatever might turn up, he made a law with express reference to such persons, enacting that any one who, in a time of civil factions, did not take up arms with either party, should lose his rights as a citizen and cease to have any part in the state."
In point of fact, I often accept "whatever turns up" from sheer indifference, having much to say on any issue, but in the end casting no meaningful vote because I am not allied with either contestant. Perhaps, in the spirit of public-mindedness, I must choose~
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