No.8: 2023.09.01

Cicero/Kipling/Orwell/Plato/Pliny/Rawls/Shakespeare/Spinoza/Tacitus/Tolstoy

Here's some things people have been writing:

Rawls’ defence of equality was achieved at the cost of true egalitarianism. Plato and Nietzsche’s views that only a few can grasp the real nature of the good also hold society back. aeon

Tolstoy, Plato, and the other greats are at our fingertips, but we still pick novelty. We’re trapped ourselves in a “never-ending now”. perell, discussion

Cicero, Tacitus, and Pliny had much to say about the mysterious druids. Cicero in particular commented on Diviciacus as skilled in divination. Tacitus, meanwhile, chronicled the Roman army’s destruction of a Druidic sanctuary on Anglesey. aeon

Goethe’s 1774 novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, pinpointedly depicts the age-long trope of unrequited love—a theme that continues today. theatlantic

Orwell and Kipling are on r/bookclub’s docket for discussion in September. Kipling on September 9th. The first check in on Orwell is here) reddit

Shakespeare is the Shakespeare of english. Molière, Dante, Cervantes, Pushkin, &c. are the Shakespeare’s of their own languages. reddit