Category Archives: Philosophical, Psychological & Historical Considerations

Bertrand Russell complained about one of his grandmother’s preferred puns, “What is mind? Doesn’s matter. What is matter? Never mind.” And yet we, as a species, continuously attempt to fathom the mystery of the mind, with the help of philosophy, psychology and history. Shakespeare has given us much food for thought on all three, as well as music for those who love the music of words.

Methinks I am a prophet…

Posted on May 3, 2016 by jimmie

No prophet will I trust, if she prove false. (King Henry VI, part 1, act 1, sc. 2)   It’s not even a question of reading “the book of fate and seeing the revolutions of the times…” (1), or of having “a thousand eyes to be filled with prophetic tears”(2). The audacious eloquence of Bernie Read More

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The Bay of Pigs

Posted on April 21, 2016 by jimmie

What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time? The Tempest, act 1. During this April 2016, an anniversary escaped the notice of most – 55 years have run their course since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. All events gradually sink under the accumulating dust of antique time (1), and Read More

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Stalin, Opinions & the Video Series

Posted on April 14, 2016 by jimmie

Good my Lord, be cured Of this diseased opinion, and betimes, For it is most dangerous.” (1)   The recent video production in the series “Historical Sketches” had to do with five episodes covering the life of Stalin. The very popular blog/website thesaker.is has published the links to the various episodes. (those interested can also Read More

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What’s in a name? Nagorno-Karabakh

Posted on April 10, 2016 by jimmie

… that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet… On this point I would disagree with Juliet. If, rather than ‘rose’ the flower were called, say, ‘globularia’, the perfume would be the same, but the overall effect wouldn’t. For in ‘rose’ the initial ‘r’ trembles softly on the palate Read More

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Parallel Departures

Posted on March 3, 2016 by jimmie

… After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. (Macbeth, act 3, sc. 2) Sometimes during the first century AD, the Greek biographer Plutarch decided to compare in tandem the lives of famous men, and to highlight their virtues or vices. He collected the observations in his famous book “Parallel Lives.” For the purpose of this Read More

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Arab Winters

Posted on February 4, 2016 by jimmie

“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York…” King Richard III, act 1, sc. 1 Five years elapsed since the first of the widely acclaimed “Arab Springs”, though it does not seem that long, as the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) conceals its own advance. By Read More

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Sex, War and Patriarchy

Posted on November 23, 2015 by jimmie

“… All this the world well knows, yet none knows well To shun the heaven, that leads men to this hell” (SON 129) In the Sinai desert and Paris, we have just witnessed the triumph of horror, the summit of barbarity, the unseasonal festival of unreason, the waste of shame, the scenes of destruction,

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A Deep Divine

Posted on September 29, 2015 by jimmie

“…meditating with two deep divines, Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.” King Richard III, act 3, sc. 7 Sipping an espresso in the park’s cafe’, I looked at the trees, thinking of that “time of the year… when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang upon Read More

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Atom Bombs, Babes & Cakes

Posted on August 25, 2015 by jimmie

“You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow, To sound the bottom of the after-times.” (K. Henry IV part 2) Given Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, I am re-publishing this post from last year. (May 2016) I think it is relevant, for the accepted vulgata does not tell the whole story. (The year 2015 has already Read More

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French Fries & Strange Flesh

Posted on August 4, 2015 by jimmie

Knowing that flattery is the infantry of negotiations, Octavian, on meeting Antony after a long time, starts the conversation by recounting, for the benefit of the audience, one of Antony’s feats, the fame of which reached even Rome, “…on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look Read More

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