In Marcus’ world, “all things are interwoven with one another.” [7:9] Unity with multiplicity, conformity with individuality. Even this Roman Emperor grasps the Eastern concept of paradoxes, the “mask of eternity” that exists beyond all duality. Individuals are parts of the whole world, and also parts in the divine omnipresent God. To perceive his direction, [...]
The Underground Man represents the common person who has “lost touch so badly that [he] often [feels] a kind of loathing for genuine ‘living life.’” His severe introspection causes him to be incapable of doing anything without regretting it afterwards. Either his spiteful motives or his mean actions lead him to give up being genuine. [...]
The purpose of Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, is to remind us of how transient human civilization is. No matter how vast and powerful our kingdoms, time and nature will ultimately take them away. It is a reaction to the Enlightenment, a time when men of reason proposed that human society is on an endless path [...]
Dear Socrates, I agree with you that a philosopher king would be the ideal governor of the State. However, being philosophers, we must strive for the good of our current State. This model must be feasible for it to be of any use. Can the philosopher king truly exist?
Socrates, you say “the philosophers must become [...]
The Threat of Social Security Privatization
The woman was alone when she found her little check in the mailbox and smiled. Nothing else in life had gone so well for her as this monthly sum of money. Her husband had been cold to her, but he had invested their Social Security money well. The money from [...]
This is a tale of two American aristocracies: one in the North, made up of old New England families; the other in the South, the plantation owners who grew rich off the backs of slaves. They both upheld the European traditions of honor and duty, sometimes more than the Europeans did. Their differences lay in [...]
The theory of truths is a theory of human behavior. Winesburg, Ohio and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape show the difference between small truths and big Truths, between sophisticated and grotesque behavior in their small-town characters. Some hold onto an idea until it warps them, while others tear down their truths and free themselves from artificial [...]
The purpose of Winter in the Blood is to show the reliance of an individual on his community. The Narrator is not given a name, and initially not even a personality. Welch does this to allow the character to stand for the reader, and for the community as a whole. Native American reservations are no [...]
Why Open Source Works
The modern phenomenon of open source software has everybody asking questions. Namely, why would anyone give away what they could just as easily sell? It turns out that the answer to this question also answers the next: how do hundreds of people collaborate on large open source projects? The motivations that drive [...]
The Symbolism of Wine in Ancient Christian Texts
Ah, the myriad tastes of wine. At once the drink of Bacchae and of Christians. Somehow the symbol of the blood of Jesus is also the source of so much debauchery. In ancient Christian texts, wine takes on roles both holy and unholy, fleshly and divine. This seeming [...]