from unconcealment to mysteries of being

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channeling Heidegger in our century

Obviously, children grow up into a world which is busy and prevalently superficial. Unconcealing richness of life is enlightening.

Over the years, concealment of meaning and opportunity remains especially the case for lower-educated persons. Education dispels
a lot of illusions, but most importantly it reveals one’s integral potential for growth.

Worse yet is living under oppression. Emancipatory address dispels resignation and enlightens hope for freeing life, experiencing decency, and gaining recognition of one's integrity. But most importantly, emancipatory address reveals the elevating power of educational opportunity which may lead to a higher quality of life.

As Jesus said: Truth will set you free. That was an avowal of eman-
cipatory and enlightening potential within “you” and “us.”

But such an enlightened and enlightening view was already integral
to early Greek thought. And given the deep Greek lineage of oral ancestry, we can’t plausibly presume that Parmenides originated the idea that thinking and being are the same, i.e., the conception of thinking was intimately the conception of being. Mental engagement and being (engaging relative to one’s potential?) belong together. Mental engagement is an existential notion. (Recalling Parmenides was Heidegger’s last posting, 1973.) Homeric odyssey was an allegory of enlightenment through adventurous striving (even for Leopold Bloom). Individually prospective and self-determinative life was likely integral to seafaring culture long before the Greek Golden Age. Unconcealing one's potential opens one to primordial possibility.

gardening better humanity

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an email to professor Stephen White [with some explanatory bracketing for here]:

Hi, Professor White,

My Constellations [journal issue contents] email today listed your essay [““The Aesthetics of Democratic Power“]. I recall your name from my Habermasian days. I hope you get lots of positive response. Sorry I can’t be too substantive yet in terms of your full discussion, having seen your article just a short while ago. 

Searching ’value’ in your essay, I think there’s lots of promise in relating aesthetic sensibility to authentic vs. inauthentic versions of appealing to moral-political values of democratic imagination. “...valuable insight...valuable resonance...“: I’m very attached to nesting political thought in value theory and identification with values in one’s life which carry motivation into political engagements.

We who don’t experience oppression in our own lives should want to appreciate the oppression of others as a matter of feeling shared humanity. These days, for example, the chaos in Ukraine (let alone Sudan, now called genocide) should enliven our demand that “America“ not withdraw from its soft power at a global scale. So, therefore, political power that we support must represent our shared humanity effectively. It’s a matter of feeling for the other. Indeed, we should need to “imagine the spirit of freedom and dignity that might have been expressed...“ by those who still can’t, yet may.

“'Morality is for suckers,“ Trump might say.

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“So, what are you going to do about it?“

Protest!

“Whatever.“: “Vance ironically acknowledged the yelling and shouts of ‘You ruined this place!’ [Kennedy Center for the Arts] with a smile and
a wave,“ notes The Guardian.

“Department of Education to investigate UC Berkeley for DEI-related claims,“ The Daily Californian.

“...Federal officials told [Columbia] university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under ‘academic receivership for a minimum of five years.‘ The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of antisemitism,“ AP, i.e., protesting Israel’s degree of military activity. | Mar. 21: But the real reason seems to be revenge for his failing the “art of the deal.” Anyway, Columbia caves in, which creates an extortionist venue evincing considerations of principle by the President of Princeton.

humble attitudes of highland altitude

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Wandering through my textual garden…

Is that a frivolous trope for my library?

No: The work of having gathered preferred flourishings into my own constellation mirrors an oriental holism of value that can prevail over ephemeral news, soon forgotten in disjointing days of our times.

Our times?

We have in common this medium, what may be said, preferring to be here, giving time to this.