ARTISTS AND POWER
“For every noble lord, bishop, gentleman or priest enjoying his life of cultured leisure, there exist thousands of impoverished men, women, and children living in desperation. Noble wealth is the blood of The People… [T]he substance of The People is devoured by this class of voracious parasites. The aristocracy’s ‘culture’ ...
COLUMN: I Think, And My MInd Sprouts New Stems
“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle for where we’re going…” -- Neil Young, Candle in the Dark “We are stupid, fickle beings with feeble memories… But who knows? Maybe this time we will not forget what has happened, we will learn from it…”...
History-writing for a time with a hazy future
“You can beat us with wires, you can beat us with chains/ You can roll out your rules, but you know you can’t outrun the History Train.” -- Paul Simon, Peace Like a River “Keep away, old man, you don’t fool me,/ You, and your ‘History’, won’t rule me.” -- The Who, Slip...
Liberty and Limitation, Will and World
“Must be the one whose magic touch can change your mind Don't let another day go by without the magic touch Destroying you (change your mind) Embracing you (change your mind) Protecting you (change your mind) Confining you (change your mind) Distracting you (change your mind) Supporting you (change your mind) Distorting you...
EMPIRE, EXEMPLARS AND EGOTISM
“Hail, Atlantis! Her scientists and wise elders knew such wondrous things as made them seem magicians to the men of earth. Her beautiful sailors carried the knowledge and gifts of the island realm to every shore, and her teachers brought all humanity within the embrace of her blessed ways of life.” ...
Of Politics and Metaphysics
“Man is a political animal.” -- Aristotle Keep on rockin’ in the Free World.” –Neil Young “One gets the government one deserves.” – Polish proverb by Charles Jeanes Federal Election 2015 This is a fine time to be a political watcher in Canada, this election year with three of the party leaders in a dead heat with each having...
Apocalypses and Terminations
“Who killed the world?” -- graphitto in the film, “Mad Max IV” By Charles Jeanes End Times and Revealed Truths It’s pretty obvious why novels and films set in a post-apocalyptic future on earth are popular. We live today with a sense of dread, or at least anxiety. Our planet seems precarious. Climate change is denied by no...
Do These Dots Connect?
By Charles Jeanes Home alone and deranged My manner of choosing a theme for an edition of the Arc is not methodical. I describe it as the Free-Range-Chicken Method. My mind ranges around whatever stimuli come my way, and I entertain interests and responses to random inputs. Not an ideal way to find focus, but it serves the ...
Education, History and Culture: Who Benefits? Who Leads?
“Education should form the Character.” -- John Dewey “When The People are taught what is best, then they can rule themselves.” -- Thomas Paine By Charles Jeanes Good lessons make good people If there is one thing that characterizes the passage from a...
Rules for Living
Arc of the Cognizant LXXXVIII Life and its discontents “When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.” Edmund Burke, English MP, c. 1790 “When life is mysterious, uncertain, full...
