Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A hero of the first degree

His Excellency continues to be fascinating and enjoyable. Ellis' is a good storyteller.

In his coverage of Washington, he necessarily touches on Nathanael Greene, who armed Washington with excellent counsel time and time again. While I am familiar with him, Ellis' work has given me a much closer look at him. I admire what I see, enough to put him high on my list of important figures to study. If anyone has a good biography to recommend, please leave a comment.

At a critical juncture, when Washington's competence is being questioned (with cause) and he was spoiling for an all-or-nothing battle, Greene reminded him that he had no choice but to fight a protracted defensive war. "Your Excellency," Greene advised, "has the choice of but two things, to fight the Enemy without the least Prospect of Success...or remain inactive, & be the subject of Censure of an ignorant & impatient populace."

Greene added that not only would Washington risk a defeat with another attempt to repeat the Trenton-Princeton successes of the previous winter in the current winter, but it would also "expose the weakness of the militia to the enemy and not only them but to all europe who now consider them much more formidable than they really are."

Washington accepts Greene's counsel even though its wisdom runs against his grain personally. Ellis writes that Washington's decision not to act "completed his transformation into a public figure whose personal convictions must be suppressed and rendered subordinate to his higher calling as an agent of history, which in this case meant that winning the war was more important than being himself."

While I agree with Ellis that this occasion merits special recognition, I don't share his summation in this case. I hold that there is no higher calling than this—to keep clear the distinction between the "I wish" and the "it is"; that is, to keep clear the difference between your emotions and your rational lock on reality. Washington does that in spades here, fighting through his personal emotions, his past conclusions to see the reality immediately before him, demanding a new approach to solve life and death problems on an historic scale.

In my book, this makes him a hero of the first degree, not because he suppressed his convictions but because he held mightily to his reason, to his ruthless objectivity to serve his admirably selfish interest in winning the war.

God bless him.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The American Cause

In His Excellency, Ellis reports that
widespread support for what Washington described as the "American Cause" was in fact cresting, and would never again reach the height it achieved during the Boston siege. "The spirit of '76" should more accurately (if less lyrically) be called "the spirit of late '75 and early '76," because patriotic fervor began to erode just as the war became politically official and militarily threatening.
Ellis goes on to report the following:
The mythological rendition of dedicated citizen-soliders united for eight years in the fight for American libery was, in fact, a romantic fiction designed by later generations to conceal the deep divisions and widespread apathy within the patriot camp.
Interesting. Among other things, this reinforces in my mind the importance of ideas as opposed to trying to accomplish very difficult (to put it gently) goals across time primarily on emotion. An emotion can carry you only so far. An idea can carry you forever, gaining momentum as you continue to feed it daily with your choice to honor it.

"A race of Amazons in America"

In His Excellency, I came across a particularly enjoyable slice of history.

The context is Washington putting his entire army at risk in the battle in New York during July 1776. Though I'm familiar with how narrowly Washington escaped the British here, I didn't know this—Abigail Adams, upon hearing from husband John that Howe was poised to close the trap utterly to destroy Washington's army, declared "even if all America's brave men were killed or captured...the British army would find itself opposed by 'a race of Amazons in America'".

Man, how I do like Abigail! I admired her when I first got to see her via McCullough's biography of John Adams. But the spirit of that statement sums up so much that is good, all I can say is "Wow!".

Monday, January 21, 2008

Patriots: 18 down and 1 whopper to go

38 year old Junior Seau is one of the solid players who got the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl. Here's hoping the Patriots can pull off one more win to make NFL history!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Bellini's

During the holidays, I enjoyed a very nice dinner at Bellini's Italian Eatery in Clifton Park, NY. It was a pleasant surprise because this fine restaurant was in a strip mall. It seemed oddly out of place. But there it thrives as if it were situated in midtown Manhattan.

Since that's quite a hike, I can't return there regularly, of course. However, I was pleased to find that Bellini's has a location at The Shops at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, CT. That's close to the expansive Buckland Hills Mall, which means it's close to me!

Is Objectivism Winning?

Some friends recently said that they felt Objectivism wasn't winning.

Winning? By what standard?

My standard of judgment is how this philosophy of reason helps and has helped me personally. By that standard, it has already "won". I put that in quotes because I don't embrace the idea of intrinsicism—the view that things can hold value apart from a valuer. To put it precisely, I won, putting these rational ideas to work for my happiness across decades.

What about the rest of the world? Follow my example. Save your own personal world. The more people who focus first on saving their own world, their own life in it, the better off the world as a whole will be.

That said, the critical question "By what standard?" still applies. "Save your own personal world"? Does that mean I can do whatever the hell I want, stepping all over people in the process? Certainly not—that's a Nietzschean view, not an Objectivist view. The standard of judgment here is man's life, man qua man as a rational animal with a life normally spanning decades.

A full exposition of standards and Objectivism is well outside the scope of this post. For starters, visit the Ayn Rand Institute.

I just wanted to write enough to convey this idea: when you ask a question like that be prepared to state your standards.

Grammar Blogs

I was happy to stumble across, of all things, grammar blogs. My happy stumble started with a Google search on "moot point". That brought me to a site named "Language Rules!".

During and after college, I invested long stretches of time in learning English grammar. My elementary education on the subject sucked. So, I had tons of work to do overcome the deficiency. I've been told that the hard work is evident in my writing here and elsewhere. While I welcome the compliment, I find that I'm still learning. Precision of thought as well as its expression is a lifelong challenge.

So, it's no surprise that I welcome finding grammar resources on the net. Thank you, virtual grammar community!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer has passed away. Growing up during the Cold War era, I regarded him as one of my heroes. His epic chess battles against Soviet Boris Spassky was an integral part of that experience. But his amazing success at such an early age was also one my first experiences seeing a superlative mind in action.

That said, he did not remain one of my heroes.

It's not that I "grew up", which is a rationalization too many use to give up on their values. It's the fact that Fischer turned about to be as nutty as he was brilliant at chess. Check out the Globe article referenced above.

In effect, he was my first exposure to a common phenomenon—a compartmentalized mind, one which applies reason to a very narrow range of human activity but not nearly enough to practical matters, including and especially simple justice to other human beings.

Speaking of justice, that's why I took some time to write about his passing here—to take a moment to remember the best within him. His best was simply amazing and a pleasure to behold.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Computer Incantations For World Peace

Computer Incantations For World Peace is an upbeat jazz instrumental by Jean-Luc Ponty on his album Individual Choice. It's one of my favorite tunes.

The title makes me smile because it's a silly, sweet sentiment. I don't care what he calls it; I just like it. :^)