tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56250572011-04-21T12:13:35.343-07:00COSMOPOLISsubdivisions of thought . . . Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.comBlogger81100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1104981520409384722005-01-05T18:51:00.000-08:002006-04-03T12:52:18.346-07:00SECRECY AND THE STATE OF THE UNIONInformation is the bulwark of an effective democracy or republic. Democracy as governance is premised on the notion that the citizenry needs to be informed in order to effectively deliberate on the issues of the day and make educated decisions as to the order of the state. Enlightenment thinkers shifted decisonmaking from the king or queen to the populace, who Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1098847192854052562004-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:002004-10-26T20:19:52.853-07:00In the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon notes that the 3 blessings of a capital are:
1. Order
2. Plenty
3. Public Amusements
I think he's right on. Man isn't some sort of social creature or political animal in the Aristotelian sense. Humans, rather, tolerate civilization because it offers the 3 blessings. Toleration is not based on a social contract whereby we enter into thisBaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1098302565820635342004-10-20T13:53:00.000-07:002004-10-23T00:55:39.433-07:00I'm now up and running on trying to write in this damn blog every so often. It was intended to be a more thinking, thought-provoking blog like all the other pseudo-intellectual ones reserved for grad students and law professors. Instead, it's a mix of rants and thought all rolled up into one. I'm now making conscious effort to write, everyday.
What ever happened to the concept of statemanship? Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1098160046875607182004-10-18T21:16:00.000-07:002004-10-20T12:53:05.560-07:00In an online world dominated by sophisticated blogs espousing the ramblings of pseudo intellectuals and the every day jautings of the masses, I struggle to just piece a few words together or even get the motivation to sit and write. I decided today that the county in which I live, Orange County (the OC to my DC peeps), is not a cosmopolis. It is the antithesis of it. There's a shortage of Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1069134569075344762003-11-17T21:49:00.000-08:002003-11-17T21:49:51.920-08:00Adventures in Philosophy: A Brief History of Political PhilosophyBaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1068431236355454662003-11-09T18:27:00.000-08:002003-11-09T18:27:14.066-08:00continued . . .
where I come from, philosophy is a 4 letter word. it denotes the will to dorkdom, a purgatory between geek and freak. any attempt to decipher the intelligence or will behind the world that isn't housed between your legs after 3 or 4 drinks is shunned. being smart isn't cool. Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1068357571679627572003-11-08T21:59:00.000-08:002004-05-19T16:54:50.730-07:00On the death of truth and salvation
there isn't any point in mentioning the word philosophy anymore. the word's been relegated to the provinces of political ideology or stifled as an academic exercise in mental masturbation - some narcissistic objectivity. it appears that disciplines are better respected if "science" follows their title.
truth is ever-abundant in the halls of adolescent Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5625057.post-1059450901481670472003-07-28T20:55:00.000-07:002003-07-28T20:55:01.356-07:00testes: one two . . . three?Baronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14645768287142128890noreply@blogger.com0