Melville’s Billy Budd: a Commentary on Burke vs. Paine?

 
Paine (left) wrote Rights of Man as a dagger against Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
When I began reading Billy Budd, I established a literary and apolitical mindset, but it was an admittedly weak one that could not withstand Melville’s torrent of political references. For example, Melville named Billy’s merchant ship Rights-of-Man, which [...]

The Iraq War, in the tradition of Jonathan Swift

Before reading:
Read Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”. This will help you understand the title and the tone.
http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/modest.html
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFptybbietQ
Intellectuals will understand the nature of this piece without explanation, and those readers who do not will find themselves inspired to defend the Iraqi people, which the media has taught them are subhuman.
It is satirical.  It is supposed to [...]

I hate to keep bashing “educators” but…

Notes from a university political science course, in which we were being taught about ideologies:

Libertarianism

“liberty from government control”
Opposes laws that limit drug use, abortion, speed limits, seatbelts, pollution control
Foreign policy focus [...]

The role of government, as taught in university

I like studying the arguments of those who disagree with me, mostly because of the proof that they provide, that the American educational system is worthless, even at its highest levels. In my earnest opinion (and I think most would agree), Americans should not spend a penny on anything that is worthless, and they [...]

So many reasons to love Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was, by some accounts, the most well-read Englishman ever to live. If you are reading this, regardless of who you are, or how many Nobel prizes you have won, you can rest assured that Paine’s education was more complete than your own. When you read his commentaries on money and the [...]

Nationalists on the Right, Socialists on the Left, compromise for a planned economy with Muslims in concentration camps

The following was a response to the letter that appears below it, and I share as proof that neoconservatives are a little confused about reality–too much Fox News perhaps.  The writer of this rudimentary stream of consciousness–if it can be called that–is to remain anonymous.  I would not sacrifice a friend for a political disagreement, regardless of his [...]

Democrats are not liberals. Republicans are socialists.

The word “liberal” has been butchered in this country, almost beyond repair.  Too often, political pundits in America refer to socialistic or collectivistic beliefs as “liberal,” when in fact these beliefs are anything but liberal.  Republicans like to call Democrats “liberal,” as though the charge is somehow dishonorable, when in fact a liberal person is [...]