Category: Cultural Reflections
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Open Letter: Every Citizen is the Salvation of the Republic
The sharpest critics of American white supremacy fluently spoke the civic-republican language, whether we bring to mind David Walker critique of our once “slaveholding republic” that betrayed republican principles; Frederick Douglass’s speeches on “composite nationality” and the Roman-republican ideal of civic membership; Martin Delany’s neo-Roman republicanism; the Haitian Revolution’s liberty against domination; or even twentieth-century…
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Thoughts on Costin Alamariu’s Selective Breeding
INTRODUCTION I have presented in some recent articles a philosophical and historical argument that ancient Greek and Roman thought, particularly through REPUBLICANISM and Stoicism, undermines any notion of inherent racial or biological hierarchies. It emphasizes universal reason (LOGOS), cultural malleability, civic virtue, and cosmopolitanism as the core of its classical ideals, and I use Aristotle,…
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Threat to the Humanities, the Right’s Identity and the Limits of American Civilization
MODERN CRITICISMS OF THE HUMANITIES THREATEN REPUBLICAN TRADITION Americans often have ideas of how our society should be structured without really understanding the roots of the ideas that our thinking brings out. Political slogans and speeches are often in memorialized moments using the terminology every American citizen kind of understands without having to think too…
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Perfect Political Systems as a Trap in Republics
I had recently edited and added points to a piece I think strongly explains my views in Where Authority Lies: Republicanism, Liberalism, and Progressive Morality: Here, it helps to not think of Democracy as a God, or perfect system. Be careful. “Perfect systems” belong to the autocrat, divine monarch, technocrat and utopian. Why do we want…
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Frederick Douglass’s Travels to Italy and Egypt (1886-1887)
Reflections tying classical worlds to Black American history and Douglass’s rhetorical strategy in engaging with classical antiquity and critiquing aspects of Catholic ceremonial from a republican, Protestant perspective. In the waning days of September 1886, Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and statesman set sail from New York aboard the steamer City of Rome, beginning an extended…
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Six Topics: Apoliticism, Russian-Ukraine War, Artificial Intelligence and Rebellious Writing Styles
SPOOKED THEOSOPHISTS AND SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION I hope you do not think I have veered off topic discussing politics and religion. I have combed through some thoughts in an old article challenging the concept of Apoliticism and the history or understanding of Apoliticism in the Theosophical Movement; and two of the intersecting contexts surrounding…
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Civic Republicanism in the Haitian Revolution: Toussaint Louverture and His Influence on John Brown
There is nothing I write about unconnected or unrelated to my life and studies in my personal life. Within the digital space of my work, I am working on, e.g., a comparative analysis between John Brown, Giuseppi Mazzini, Henry Steel Olcott and Helena P. Blavatsky on the approach, strategy and issues (even flaws) of adherence…
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Introduction to Black Republicanism: Five Early Figures, Wheatley to Douglass
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a small but influential group of Black intellectuals engaged deeply with Greco-Roman classics and the ideals of classical republicanism. This engagement was multifaceted in that they drew on ancient texts to demonstrate Black intellectual capacity in the face of racist denials. This challenged e.g., claims by Thomas…
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I Need A Roof — Mighty Diamonds
“I need a roof over my headI need a roof over my headAnd bread on my tableAnd bread on my tableThis love in my heartIt′s love for everyone(Remember Garvey say)Remember weh Garvey say, sayTime a go dread out dehEverybody a go run now(Remember Garvey say)”
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Feeling Soul — Bob Andy
“To be true to one another.To be kind and gentle to each other.To give your best when it’s asked of you.To do what you have to do when you’re supposed to. You’ve got to feel it.You’ve got to feel the soul down inside of you.You’ve got to feel it, mmm.” 🎶
The American Minervan 