pianogonzology: adams

Showing posts with label adams. Show all posts

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Elections . . .

https://www.egr.msu.edu/swe/news/january-elections

(from 'and yet . . .' Christopher Hitchens Essays)

". . . Where would we be without the tradition of American populism, which adopted for itself the term hurled as an insult by Teddy Roosevelt - "muckraker"? What goes for muck should go for mud. Who would wish to be without that "used-car salesman" innuendo against Richard Nixon, or the broad hint that Barry Goldwater was itchy in the trigger finger? Just let's have no whining when the tables are turned. . . In the election that pitted Thomas Jefferson against John Adams, the somewhat more restricted and refined electorate had its choice between the president of the American Philosophical Society and the president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. . . Yet it's worth looking up what was said, especially about Jefferson, in those days: he was called adulterer, whoremaster, atheist, even deserter in the face of the enemy. There's no doubt that the emergence of parties or "factions" after the retirement of George Washington gave voters a set of clear and often stark choices - and a good thing that was, too. . ."

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Sunday, May 12, 2019

Nothing . . .

. . . new . . .

(from Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood)
". . . But most despairing to Adams were the 'Personal hatreds and Party Animosities' that consumed the capital. . ."

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Thursday, May 2, 2019

Change. . .

. . . has either occurred in our inherent nature or the thinkers and philosophers of old were simply incorrect . . .

(from Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood)

". . . If only the natural tendencies of people to love and care for one another were allowed to flow freelh, unclogged by the artificial interference of government, particularly monarchical government, (Thomas) Paine and (Thomas) Jefferson both believed, society would prosper and hold itself together. . . This would occur because people were innately sociable; they possessed a social sense that naturally bound people together. . . As Jefferson said, "The Creator would indeed have been a bungling artist, had he intended man for a social animal, without planting in him social dispositions.". . . "

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Sunday, April 21, 2019

Character . . .

(from Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood)

". . . He was skeptical about the character of his fellow Americans as well. Even before he knew of the outbreak of the French Revolution, he had worked out a chilling assessment of the moral fiber of his own countrymen, one that prepared him to see the worst of people everywhere. . . Right from the beginning of his own American Revolution, Adams had deep misgivings about whether his fellow citizens had the proper moral character needed to sustain their republican governments. "The only foundation of a free Constitution," he said on the eve of America's declaring independence, "is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. . . "

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Monday, September 10, 2018

A Little . . .

. . . bit at time is advice well taken
In so many instances
Such as food, strong spirits and love . . .

(from https://aeon.co/ideas/moderation-may-be-the-most-challenging-and-rewarding-virtue)
". . . Our political scene offers a clear sign of the little faith we seem to have in this virtue (moderation) without which, as John Adams memorably put it in 1776, ‘every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey’. . ."

A Little At A Time
(A seed of inspiration from which more is to come)

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

Advice . . .

(from https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-twitter-habit-isn-t-very-presidential-george-washington-ncna847746)
". . . In a letter John Adams wrote to Benjamin Rush, Adams famously observed that our first president had “the gift of silence.” Washington knew when to keep quiet — which was most of the time — and was able to make the things that he did say far more consequential. . . A year before George Washington was elected president, his nephew won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. The future president had suggestions for how his younger relative should conduct himself in the state legislature: "Rise but seldom — let this be on important matters — and then make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the subject," Washington wrote. . . "Never be agitated by more than a decent warmth, & offer your sentiments with modest diffidence — opinions thus given, are listened to with more attention than when delivered in a dictatorial stile". . . When George Washington broke his customary silence, he offered good advice — and he did it in concise sentences that would easily fit into one or two tweets. . . "

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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Reflecting . . .

(Thomas Jefferson declining the invitation to attend festivities celebrating the the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence [from John Adams, by David McCullough])
". . . May it be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. . . . All eyes are opened or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few, booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God. These are the grounds of hope for others; for ourselves, let the annual return to this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them. . . "

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Sunday, October 8, 2017

Dangerous . . .

(from John Adams by David McCullough)
". . . Having attended several of the President's levees, Abigail could attest that the "court" of the Washingtons was as crowded, the company as brilliantly dressed as at St. James's, with the difference that here she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Her "station" at levees, she explained to Mary, was to the right of Mrs. Washington - though this Mary must keep to herself, "as all distinction you know is unpopular." If someone mistakenly stood in her place, the President never failed to see the situation corrected without anyone being offended. He "has so happy a faculty of appearing to accommodate and yet carrying his point that is he was not really one of the best intentioned me in the world, he might be a very dangerous one. . . "

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Saturday, September 23, 2017

Nature . . .

. . . cannot be changed . . .

(from John Adams by David McCullough)
". . . To Adams nothing had changed about human nature since the time of trhe ancients. Inequities within society were inevitable, no matter the political order. Human beings were capable of great good, but also great evil. Thus it had always been and thus it would ever be. He quoted Rousseau's description of th "that hideous sight, the human heart," and recounted that even Dr. Priestley had said that such were the weaknesses and folly of men, "their love of domination, selfishness, and depravity," that none could be elevated above others without risk of danger. . . How he wished it were not so, Adams wrote. Thucydides had said the source of all evils was "a thirst of power, from rapacious and ambitious passions," and Adams agreed. . ."

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Friday, August 18, 2017

Change . . .

(from John Adams, by David McCullough)
". . . All that part of Creation that lies within our observation is liable to change. . . Even mighty states and kingdoms are not exempted. If we look into history, we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings and spreading their influence, until the whole globe is subjected to their ways. When they have reached the summit of grandeur, some minute and unsuspected cause commonly affects their ruin, and the empire of the world is transferred to some other place. Immortal Rome was at first but an insignificant village, inhabited only by a few abandoned ruffians, but by degrees it rose to a stupendous height, and excelled in arts and arms all the nations that preceded it. But the demolition of Carthage (what one should think should have established it in supreme dominion) by removing all danger, suffered it to sink into debauchery, and made it at length an easy prey to Barbarians. . . England immediately upon this began to increase (the particular and minute cause of which I am not historian enough to trace) in power and magnificence, and is now the greatest nation upon the globe. . ."

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