To read the full text of the podcast and the links to thequoted materials, please see: https://erm76.substack.com/p/quotes-to-help-get-us-through-the
We’re living through a convoluted mess, but it’s also a messthat we have to untangle else the Trumps, the Vances and the Millers of the world will be dictating our future. And that’s one hell I want to avoid and won’t accept.
Centuries ago, Plutarch wrote The Lives of the NobleGrecians and Romans. His biographies were meant to provide moral instruction and were, in a sense, morality plays that could be viewed as models as to how you should live your life.
As Senator Lloyd Bentsen famously told Dan Quayle during the1988 vice-presidential debate, "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy," and just as surely, I’m no Plutarch.
So, as an alternative, I would like to present a smallcollection of works, words, that might help get us through the Trump era. These are quotes and passages from writers, among others, that have special meaning to me. We all have such a collection, and I hope you may find one or two from mine that may resonate with you.
I’ve known some of the works, such as those from T.E.Lawrence and Marcus Aurelius, for years; others, more recently. They’re also reminders, I think, of who we are as individuals and can be as a people. Ultimately, when needed most, they can be a good swift kick to help keep us going.
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Presentism occurs when we examine and evaluate past eventsand individuals primarily according to contemporary values rather than exploring them within the context of their own time.
When applied to language, what we would consider sexist bymodern standards may have been acceptable writing conventions in the past. For example, the term men may have also included women and may have referred to humanity as a whole. Or, at other times, men might simply mean men.
Finally, I‘m going to present the pieces without comment.They stand on their own. And like Plutarch’s Lives, they can support us through tough times, especially when it seems that evil may prevail.
But they also present us with hope. Light still pierces thedarkness, but it’s a light that we must be willing to fight to attain and, ultimately, sustain.
I hope this podcast may inspire you to share some of theworks on your own lists.
Quotes from: Edward R. Murrow, T.E. Lawrence, MarcusAurelius, Harriet Tubman, Theodore Roosevelt, General Nathanael Greene, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, Mohandas Ghandi, Ayn Rand and Groucho Marx