"To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. A state also of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties, should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection, unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty."
--Locke's "Second Treatise on Government"
Hobbes definitely did speak on the matter as well, but so did Locke, and Locke's undoubtedly who Jefferson had in mind when he penned his version of the phrase.
"What we need is people who deal with reality, not fantasy. People who substantiate their points with evidence, rather than those who rely on cheap grandstanding and demagoguery."
1. You're as much a dogmatist and a demagogue as anyone I've ever "met"
2. Your support for Stalin, Putin and North Korea come across at best as attention-seeking grandstanding and at worst--that is, if you're serious--as the delusions (or, worse, convictions) of a person idealizing some of the worst men and places in recent history...all the while accusing US of dealing with "fantasy" and not "reality."
On that point,
"What we need is people who deal with reality, not fantasy."
If you don't think art and literature can, does and forever will serve as a formative teaching method and the way by which the reality of our culture and society is forged--that is, the way we come to think, act, regard others, regard ourselves, regard the world and universe around us, etc.--then you are, again, dealing in fantasy and not reality.
Good literature is like good philosophy--
Composed of ideas, constructs and visions of our past, present, future, what we should be, could be, can't be and, most importantly, what we are.
Even Plato, in his attack on poetry in "The Republic," acknowledged the power of poetry, even if it was a "deception" and a "fantasy," insofar as compelling poetry might embolden a hero to action or give rise to conceptual thought.
Marx didn't just shrug literature off, either--
Intended for use here or no, his concept of the Ideological Superstructure DOES still matter and DOES apply largely to what kinds of morals, values and ideologies we put in place and teach to others...and one of the chief ways we do that is through storytelling and expression, ie, art, music and literature.
It's not for nothing that Orwell, Huxley and Bradbury (and I know you hate the former, but contain yourself) have the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton and other great writers destroyed, altered or banned in their dystopian visions of the future...
And there's a reason that in "1984" the Party wants to replace English with Newspeak and eliminate all words relating to discontent, rebellion, and other such thoughts--
Those thoughts MATTER, and the authors who can best convey those thoughts and disseminate them to the people matter as well.
And, yes--they matter more than the average historians of the world, which says more about the power of literature than it does about the nature of a historian's work.
Live in your fantasy where North Korea is the happiest place on Earth, Putin's not discriminating against the gays, and literature doesn't matter.
In fact, by all means, become an average economist or historian.
But you'll forgive me for saying that you'll be "dead and turned to clay" and I'll be a "quintessence of dust" in a few decade's time...
And Shakespeare will still be one of the most powerful and listened to voices in the English language, a voice that sways millions of people and infiltrates the very language that you and I speak.
And men will still be inspired by Donne's assertion that "No man is an island" as "Each man's death diminishes me,/For I am involved in mankind."
Or, to take a writer you seem to actually like, we can be sure that, long after a thousand historians, economists and failed revolutionaries have come and gone, Shaw and his assertion that "The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity" will still resonate with people, and compel them away from the sort of cold, cruel indifference which so becomes you...
That's the reality of what good literature can do.
NFL Week 5: Pick 'em--Wherein, Hey, There Are Actually a Lot of Good/Interesting Games!
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