Thought

T.S. Eliot

Sharing

They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect
that no one will need to be good.
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 — 1965), Choruses from “The Rock” (1934).

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Taking the Initiative (and Referendum)
SharingMaryland State Senator Joan Carter Conway dislikes a certain popular bill, …
Spring’s Decisions
SharingSpring is in the air, and old men’s hearts turn …
The Quadrennial Distraction
SharingAs the leading Republican candidate for the presidency ascends into …
The 22 Franc Minimum Wage
SharingFox News’s Bill O’Reilly and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt …
Pension Tsunami
SharingA humungous national debt. Growing state federal government budget deficits. …

Measures for Measures
November 23, 2024
This year was an interesting one for initiatives.Read More »
Denial Is a River in Argentina?
November 22, 2024
Paul Jacob on one country’s retreat from self-imposed poverty.Read More »
Watch Out!
November 21, 2024
Paul Jacob on strange edits in the Lone Star State.Read More »
The Hill as Hallucinogen
November 19, 2024
Paul Jacob on a false news story, gone but not …Read More »
Elon & Vivek to Cut Government?
November 18, 2024
Paul Jacob on who could help whom do what is …Read More »

Veteran Politicians vs. Veterans
SharingBack in 2005 I testified in the Florida legislature against an …
The Goblins of November
SharingWhich is scarier, Halloween or the Tuesday after? Silly question. Of …
Promises & Limits
SharingLast year, Americans — everywhere from Montgomery County, Maryland, bordering the nation’s …
Sic Transit Gloria Flake
SharingYesterday, a major American politician gave up. Sort of. Senator Jeff Flake, …
Term Limits: Let’s Keep ’em
SharingFormer Clinton Treasury secretary Larry Summers proposes that we switch …

That Time Paul Harvey Called Me on the Phone
SharingPaul reviews the week’s big stories here on Common Sense …
Make Others Pay?
SharingSpecial Olympics has found a way to get kids and young …
Greenlighting Socialism
SharingCan we blame U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D‑NY), really? A decade …
Socialists and Capitalism
SharingNew York Mayor Bill de Blasio helped snag Amazon for …
Yesterday’s NOW
SharingOnce upon a time, the National Organization for Women winked to …

On November 23, 1644, British poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.
John Milton, Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England (1644).

The name “Areopagitica” references a speech by Isocrates, the “Areopagitikós” that itself referenced a hill in Athens, Greece, the Areopagus, which had been the site of an important tribunal that the Greek orator had hoped to restore. It may also refer to the defense that St. Paul made before the Areopagus against charges of promulgating alien gods and outré teachings (see Acts 17:18 – 34).