Plato's Apology of Socrates (~390 BC) translated by Benjamin Jowett

Plato's Apology

Bonus: 

I'm starting to think these are kind of cop outs.

Summary: Socrates humble brags and nonsequitars for a couple pages.

Commentary: I love when the translation used in T5FSOB is publicly available and still considered decent. Makes it much easier to grab and go. I'll be reading it side by side with the more modern and also popular Grube translation from here. Which one I prefer might effect what translation I use for other texts.

I'll be honest by saying I've never understood the public obsession with THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES! It's this crown jewel of every American gifted program, the cliché example of injustice, the litmus test for whether you're a cool philosopher dude. And it makes perfect sense that they killed him. Socrates was, as far as I can tell, some asshole who spends his day harassing everyone at the market like some kind of pre-social media debate influencer. "Wow, you didn't have a perfectly formed argument for your opinions when you went to buy wine at the market? What a moron!"

People make a big deal about the "corrupting the youth" part of the charges, but he's also accused of not believing in the city's gods, which he did do, and which carried the death penalty for other people. Add in the fact that he was associated with the recently overthrown Spartan puppet government, and I'm not saying we should execute people for being assholes and heretics, just that it doesn't really seem surprising that the Athenians chose to execute this particular asshole/heretic.

I mean, look at this:

 I mean when they told you to be upon your guard, and not to let yourselves be deceived by the force of my eloquence. They ought to have been ashamed of saying this, because they were sure to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and displayed my deficiency; they certainly did appear to be most shameless in saying this, unless by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for then I do indeed admit that I am eloquent.

Yes, Socrates, you're a terrible public speaker, but also totally truthful. This isn't a borderline self contradictory statement at all.

Then he goes and repeats himself for a paragraph or two without actually saying/proving much of anything. Then starts telling some rambly stories that're tangentially related to his actual argument. Seriously, he's literally one of those assholes that yells at random people on the quad while they're just trying to go to class. 

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 8 Discipline (55-56)

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 8 Discipline (55-56)

Bonus: 

PrOcaSTiNATIoN iSN't WEAKNesS, It's A PROteCTION RESPOnSE.

Summary: Do Hard Things if You Want an Easy Life

Commentary: I've decided to move these into the "sand" slot, like the poems, because I can't find a good way to charge through it. I don't want to summarize 4 sections and 20 notes a date, but I also don't want to spend the next month and a half on it. Doing one tonight since I got home from work late and had to roll into my writing group, but hopefully moving to Plato's dialogues (ugh) tomorrow.

55. If you want your family to live happy and easy, learn discipline.

56. Everyone in the family should know their job. There should be a time and place for everything. When in doubt, go with God.

Did William Penn invent, "Do Hard Things if You Want an Easy Life"?

 Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment And Resignation, Murmurs, Censoriousness, Bounds of Charity, Frugality or Bounty, Discipline

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 7 Frugality Or Bounty (50-54)

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 7 Frugality Or Bounty (50-54)

Bonus:

Soup of the Devil!

Summary: Use moderation in your wants to protect from lack, and then help the poor.

Commentary: 

50. Be frugal, and use it to help others.

51. Moderation good.

52. Governments and religions are too rich/poor.

53. If we taxed the rich, we could help people.

54. Host the poor!

Look at William Penn sounding like Bernie Sanders over here.

 Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment And Resignation, Murmurs, Censoriousness, Bounds of Charity, Frugality or Bounty

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 6 Censoriousness (41-46) and Bounds of Charity (47-49)

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 6 Censoriousness (41-46) and Bounds of Charity (47-49)

Bonus: 

Why are there no videos about the money lender/pawn shop balls?

Summary: Glass houses, stones, etc.

Commentary:

Censoriousness

41. We are prone to criticizing others in ways we wouldn't want ourselves. Nothing is worse than harping on others faults and ignoring your own.

42. When we see other people we are quick with critiques, but we are clueless when we're on our own.

43. This is because of our bad nature. We think too highly of ourselves, and would rather criticize than help.

44. (43 repeated, but especially about money.)

45. We refuse to help others with our money and blame them for misfortune.

46. We have a right to criticize, but a heart to help. Anything else is cruelty, not justice.

Bounds of Charity

47. Lend exactly the amount you can afford, not more or less. Especially if it will help others more than it hurts you.

48. If someone pays you back, that's good for you. If not, don't ruin their life to try to get it back. You owe God anyway.

49. Be generous and merciful and you will be rewarded.

These are mostly fine, if repetitive. Could do with a little more "be a good person for its own sake" and less "be good so paradise will be even paradisier."

Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment And Resignation, Murmurs, Censoriousness, Bounds of Charity

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 5 Disappointment And Resignation (32-37) and Murmuring (38-40)

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 5 Disappointment And Resignation (32-37) and Murmuring (38-40)

Bonus: 

Apparently superdickery.com is gone. Luckily, Archive.org has it.

Summary: You should be grateful God only makes your like as shitty as he does!

Commentary: 

Disappointment And Resignation

32. Disappointment that aren't our fault are trials, and we should make sure we benefit from them.

33. Don't whine at God about your problems, turn them into blessings.

34. We deserve so few good things, and we should be thankful for them.

35. We'd go bald if not for God.

36. No matter how bad you are, you're not too bad for God.

37. Jesus is dead, but his love lives on. Turn to him and you'll gain more than you lose.

Murmuring

38. Everything we have (including ourselves) is really God's.

39. Don't be ungrateful for the time God gives you.

40. It's hard to keep an appropriately God slobbering perspective, but do it anyway.

This is something that I dealt with a lot in the original 15MAD entries. Long story short, a lot of Christian authors like to go on and on about how terribly humanity is, how great God is, and how we should all be grateful he doesn't torture us more, or he's not really torturing us, or whatever.

On the whole, I find it pretty incompatible with the base idea of a liberal education, which is that anyone who puts in the time, work, etc. can learn to be a good, thinking person. The "liberal" in liberal education means "free", it's the education that you need to be responsible and effective with your freedom. I don't really see how you can argue to that someone is free if you go on for a couple pages about how God controls anything and we're all pieces of shit.

Not dropping this yet, but thinking about it. If I slogged through every book in the T5FSOB that I hated, I'd have a couple miserable years (and lousy blogposts) ahead of me.

Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment And Resignation, Murmurs 

Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 4 Inconsideration (30-31)

 Some Fruits of Solitude: Part 4 Inconsideration (30-31)

Bonus: 

One time, a lady drove by while I was working in the yard, and told me to chain my car to a stump.

Summary: Measure twice, cut once.

Commentary: The two weeks of hell are almost over! So hopefully less bullshitty entries again starting tomorrow.

30. Not thinking things through is the cause of all unhappiness. Our second thoughts are usually different than our first, but we rarely remember that.

31. It's our own fault we're unhappy, since we do things we know we shouldn't.

Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury, Inconsideration  

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn: Part 3 Luxury (28-29)

 Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn: Part 3 Luxury (28-29)

Bonus: 

Gamefreak actually trying for the first time in a decade.

Summary: Don't put the house before the jewels.

Commentary: Very busy day, so copping out a little with only two.

28. Materially, we want only the best of the best. Spiritually, we'll any garbage.

29. A bunch of analogies: Spirit : Body :: Furniture: House :: Jewel: Cabinet :: Lease : Inheritance

I think this is the most cliche classical ed position. "WE INSIST ON FANCY X, BUT WE CONSUME SHITTY MEDIA"

Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Luxury

I won a Chess Game

 Way back at the beginning of they year, I talked about getting my chess rank up as one of my goals. I've been playing more this year, doing puzzles, etc. Earlier this week, I joined a new league and won my first game.

I'm so tired.

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn 3: Pride (18-27)

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn 3: Pride (18-27)

Bonus: 

Daycore>Nightcore

Summary: Pride=Ignorance

Commentary: 

18. We take a lot of pride in ourselves, but we're only temporary.

19. No one has a good reason for being ignorant of themself.

20. The value of a gift determines how we should respond to it. If you're ignorant of the worth, you can't respond properly.

21. If you don't know yourself, how can you know you creator? Think of how amazing and complex you are, how all the body parts fit together, how your soul animates and lives in them. We should appreciate God more for how well designed we are. But we don't, because we don't.

22. We want people to obey us, but won't obey God. And God is much more above the highest man than the highest man is above the lowest.

23. Humans are cruel and impatient with each other, but God is infinitely patient. (Except all the smiting...)

24. We try to make our bodies pretty, but not our souls.

25. We get nervous and try to show respect to important people, but not to God.

26. When we pray "thy will be done" we mean our own. Or at least act that way.

27. Instead of beginning with God and ending with the world. God should be both Alpha and Omega.

Ignorance of God=Pride isn't indefensible, it's just super specific. I guess you could mostly expand these to a broader concept of "creation" or "order" or something.

26 is the best one. In the original:

26. In his Prayers he says, Thy Will be done: But means his own: At least acts so.

Definitely acceptable as background narration while your warrior monk, holy assassin, etc. preps to go murder heretics or whoever.

It's definitely one of the weird parts about praying, and something I remember struggling with some in my Sunday school days. "Hey God, please do this thing. If it's what you were going to do anyway, omnipotent, omniscient, dude who sort of listens to me."

The standard response is that God works in mysterious ways, and you just thought you wanted God to grant your prayer, but it'll be worth it when the opposite happens in the long run.

You're just a cosmic child, you don't know any better. 

Topic List: Ignorance, Education, Pride

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn: Part 2 (Education

 Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn: Part 2

Bonus: 

This is some weird education.

Summary: We do education wrong. More nature!

Commentary:

I did not realize how much these flowed from one to another. But I don't really want to do one whole "part" (by his organization) because that's 80+ at a time, and that feels like too much to digest.

4. We teach people to be scholars, not people. To talk about things, not know them.

5. Children know what makes sense.

6. We rush to make kids memorize things they won't use, instead of helping them gain the practical knowledge they have natural interest in.

7. Language is good, but "things" are better.

8. Children would rather make something than memorize.

9. We should study and act according to nature.

10. Follow the pace of nature, and you'll learn at the right pace.

11. The world would no longer be a mystery to us. God set us up to understand nature.

12. People would make better decisions if they studied the world and how it was made.

13. Who would abuse the world if they saw how God is in all of it?

14. Ignorance is what makes us abuse the world.

15. It's a shame we don't have school books about nature written in Latin, so kids could learn both at the same time.

16. Many people in all jobs are ignorant of why they do their jobs. You can only be a master of something if you know both why and how it's done.

17. If man is really the apex of evolution, we only have to know ourselves to know the world. But we are unconcerned with what made us.

Obviously, Penn is very religious. For a lot of these, you can make it work in a more generalized form without religion, but it's pretty hard to twist it out of some. I like the idea of making them more generally applicable, but not overly changing them just to take out God.

Topic List: Ignorance, Education

Some Fruits of Solitude by William Penn: Part 1- Prologue, Ignorance (1-3)

Some Fruits of Solitude

Bonus: 

Weird, and also looks like a scam

Summary: William Penn wanders around in his woods (that's what the name of the state means) and thinks stuff. Some of which he hopes you will find helpful.

Commentary: Penn wraps up the trio of colonial Pennsylvania adjacent authors in volume one. While older than either, I wonder if he might form a kind of link between Franklin and Woolman, being Quaker like the latter and a statesman like the former.

He appears to have grouped his thoughts in groups by topic, which are:

Ignorance, Education, Pride, Luxury, Inconsideration, Disappointment and Resignation, Murmuring, Censoriousness, Bounds of Charity, Frugality or Bounty, Discipline, Industry, Temperance,

Nevermind, I'm not sitting here listing all these or all be here all night. I'll update a list later.

My plan is to take a chunk each day (probably two or three topics) and rewrite them here. Putting something into your own words is a good way to make sure you understand it, and these should be pretty short and manageable.

Off the top of my head, it's interesting that he seems to have primarily chose negative things to write on, as opposed to Franklin's Virtues, Adler's Great Ideas, etc.

Ignorance:

1. It's amazing how many people are totally ignorant of themselves and the world.

2. People take in the beauty of great buildings and works of art, but don't try to learn about themselves. They would benefit from doing so.

3. The world is beautiful, but we know so little about it. That should be the main thing we education children in until their 20s.

I think this is really what this whole project is about. Trying to learn more about myself, humanity, and the world. As I've said before, I don't feel like I got the education I would've hoped for. Some of that is my fault, but I'm trying to correct all of it now. Speaking of, education is the first topic for tomorrow.

Penn's Topics so far: Ignorance

The Journal of John Woolman: Final Thoughts

 This whole thing definitely didn't need to be in T5FSOB. I think if you were making an anthology with shorter pieces/excerpts, you could probably sneak in one chapter (I'd say 2, where he's refusing to write the wills, or 8, where he's dealing with the Indians), but as a whole it's very repetitive, not very well written, and kind of pointless.

1/5 on the pretentious classics scale. Next up, William Penn! (This entire volume is Pennsylvania adjacent.)

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 11

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 11

Bonus: 

I couldn't find an actual TONIGHT... SOMEONE DIES! tv promo, but this song is pretty good.

Summary: THE END

Commentary: It's kind of weird to end a journal with someone else dying...

About a Quarter before six, the same Morning, he seemed to fall into an easy Sleep, which continued about Half an Hour; when, seeming to awake, he breathed a few Times with more Difficulty, and expired, without Sigh, Groan, or Struggle!

End of the Journal

Woolman probably killed him. 

 

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 10

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 10

Bonus: 

Rum: Bad. Sodomy and the Lash: TBD

Summary: John Woolman goes on a boat.

Commentary: 

Now, concerning Lads being trained up as Seamen; I believe a Communication from one Part of the World to some other Parts of it, by Sea, is, at Times, consistent with the Will of our heavenly Father; and to educate some Youth in the Practice of sailing, I believe, may be right: But how lamentable is the present Corruption of the World! how impure are the Channels through which Trade hath a Conveyance! how great is that Danger, to which poor Lads are now exposed, when placed on shipboard to learn the Art of sailing!

I was expecting more about why it's so corrupt and stuff, but we don't get a ton (other than that they drink a lot). 

Rising to work in the Night is not commonly pleasant in any case; but, in dark rainy Nights, it is very disagreeable, even though each Man were furnished with all Conveniences: But, if Men must go out at Midnight, to help manage the Ship in the Rain, and, having small Room to sleep and lay their Garments in, are often beset to furnish themselves for the Watch, their Garments or something relating to their Business being wanting and not easily found, when, from the Urgency occasioned by high Winds, they are hastened and called up suddenly, here is a Trial of Patience on the poor Sailors and the poor Lads their Companions.

It is cold and miserable, though.

I miss Two Years Before The Mast.

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 9

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 9

Bonus: 

I WAS PROMISED JUGGLING!

Summary: John Woolman hates juggling.

Content: 

This Man, at the Time appointed, did, by slight of Hand, sundry Things; which, to those gathered, appeared strange.

The next Day, I, hearing of it, and understanding that the Shew was to be continued the next Night, and the People to meet about Sun-set, felt an Exercise on that Account: So I went to the Publick-house in the Evening, and told the Man of the House that I had an Inclination to spend a Part of the Evening there; with which he signified that he was content. Then, sitting down by the Door, I spake to the People as they came together, concerning this Shew; and, more coming and sitting down with us, the Seats of the Door were mostly filled; and I had Conversation with them in the Fear of the Lord, and laboured to convince them that, thus assembling to see those Tricks or Slights of Hand, and bestowing their Money to support Men, who, in that Capacity, were of no Use in the World, was contrary to the Nature of the Christian Religion.

Man, fuck John Woolman. Why you hatin' on juggling, man?

 

The Journal of John Woolman: Part 8

 The Journal of John Woolman: Part 8

Bonus: 

This wouldn't happen if we were all Quakers.

Summary: Selling Indians rum is bad! (Also slavery bad)

Commentary: I'm just happy John's writing about something else. 

I perceived that many white People do often sell Rum to the Indians, which, I believe, is a great Evil; first, they being thereby deprived of the Use of their Reason, and their Spirits violently agitated, Quarrels often arise, which end in Mischief; and the Bitterness and Resentments, occasioned hereby, are frequently of long Continuance; Again, their Skins and Furs, gotten through much Fatigue and hard Travels in Hunting, with which they intended to buy Clothing, when they become intoxicated, they often sell at a low Rate for more Rum; and afterward, when they suffer for want of the Necessaries of Life, are angry with those who, for the Sake of Gain, took the Advantage of their Weakness: Of this their Chiefs have often complained, at their Treaties with the English. 

Quakers are mostly anti-drinking as a whole, but I think he takes special offense on selling to Indians. Partially because he probably thinks they can't handle their liquor (as most people did at the time) and partially because they're already poor, which makes tanking advantage of them worse. Honestly, the parts about the Indians have been the most interesting in this whole piece so far.

The Journal of John Woolman: Chapter 7

 The Journal of John Woolman: Chapter 7

Bonus: 

John Woolman getting his certificate.

Summary: John Woolman visits other Quakers and says slavery is bad.

Commentary: These chapters are all the same.

Evilution is Trash

 I was going to move the Doom posts over to the other blog, but it felt weird to have the first one there be this one, so I'll finish it out on here.

I finished Evilution. It's garbage all the way down (I think there's maybe 1 decent level in the back third) ending with an Icon of Sin (ughhhhhh) fight that's not even set up properly.

Apparently, there was a lot of drama when Final Doom came out over the fact that what was going to be a free wad got bought out at the last minute. The drama should've been that id paid for this shit and allowed it to be published under their name.

I'd be willing to bet you could put together 30 better levels from the pile in Maximum Doom.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, never touching these again.