{"id":1495,"date":"2010-07-25T21:39:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-25T21:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2014-03-17T22:35:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T02:35:26","slug":"preface-to-the-meditations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1495","title":{"rendered":"PREFACE<\/span> TO<\/span> THE<\/span> MEDITATIONS<\/span> (written July 25, 2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The extend\u00aded blog entries called \u201cMed\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions\u201d have proven to be the most pop\u00adu\u00adlar items on this web\u00adsite. While some of these essays have some schol\u00adar\u00adly trap\u00adpings (cita\u00adtions, etc.), they are pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly per\u00adson\u00adal doc\u00adu\u00adments, and thus may con\u00adtain col\u00adlo\u00adqui\u00adal prose, pro\u00adfan\u00adi\u00adty, or oth\u00ader non-aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic elements.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Any\u00adone is enti\u00adtled to reprint these pieces, as long as they are not altered, and cred\u00adit is given.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n[Fred\u00ader\u00adick Dou\u00adglass (1818\u20131895), born a slave in Mary\u00adland, U.S.A., secret\u00adly taught him\u00adself to read, and suc\u00adcess\u00adful\u00adly escaped slav\u00adery in 1838. His auto\u00adbi\u00adog\u00adra\u00adphy cat\u00ada\u00adpult\u00aded him to promi\u00adnence in the anti-slav\u00adery move\u00adment. Wide\u00adly known as the \u201cSage of Ana\u00adcos\u00adtia\u201d, Dou\u00adglass was the most promi\u00adnent and influ\u00aden\u00adtial African-Amer\u00adi\u00adcan of his cen\u00adtu\u00adry, and one of the great\u00adest philoso\u00adphers of free\u00addom in human his\u00adto\u00adry. In both word and deed, he strug\u00adgled for the free\u00addom and equal\u00adi\u00adty, not only of African-Amer\u00adi\u00adcan males like him\u00adself, but for women, native Amer\u00adi\u00adcans, immi\u00adgrants, and all oth\u00ader human beings. One of his favorite quo\u00adta\u00adtions was: \u201cI would unite with any\u00adbody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.\u201d]<\/span><\/p>\n

From A Nar\u00adra\u00adtive of the Life of Fred\u00ader\u00adick Dou\u00adglass, an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Slave<\/em><\/strong><\/span> (1845):<\/p>\n

Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kind\u00adly com\u00admenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assist\u00aded me in learn\u00ading to spell words of three or four let\u00adters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once for\u00adbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me fur\u00adther, telling her, among oth\u00ader things, that it was unlaw\u00adful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, fur\u00adther, he said, \u201cIf you give a nig\u00adger an inch, he will take an ell. A nig\u00adger should know noth\u00ading but to obey his master\u2013to do as he is told to do. Learn\u00ading would spoil the best nig\u00adger in the world. Now,\u201d said he, \u201cif you teach that nig\u00adger (speak\u00ading of myself) how to read, there would be no keep\u00ading him. It would for\u00adev\u00ader unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unman\u00adage\u00adable, and of no val\u00adue to his mas\u00adter. As to him\u00adself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him dis\u00adcon\u00adtent\u00aded and unhap\u00adpy.\u201d These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sen\u00adti\u00adments with\u00adin that lay slum\u00adber\u00ading, and called into exis\u00adtence an entire\u00adly new train of thought. It was a new and spe\u00adcial rev\u00ade\u00adla\u00adtion, explain\u00ading dark and mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adous things, with which my youth\u00adful under\u00adstand\u00ading had strug\u00adgled, but strug\u00adgled in vain. I now under\u00adstood what had been to me a most per\u00adplex\u00ading difficulty\u2013to wit, the white man\u2019s pow\u00ader to enslave the black man. It was a grand achieve\u00adment, and I prized it high\u00adly. From that moment, I under\u00adstood the path\u00adway from slav\u00adery to freedom.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

else\u00adwhere, Dou\u00adglas said:<\/span><\/p>\n

To make a con\u00adtent\u00aded slave it is nec\u00ades\u00adsary to make a thought\u00adless one. It is nec\u00ades\u00adsary to dark\u00aden the moral and men\u00adtal vision and, as far as pos\u00adsi\u00adble, to anni\u00adhi\u00adlate the pow\u00ader of reason.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

From Thomas Paine\u2019s The Rights of Man:<\/span><\/p>\n

Man has no prop\u00ader\u00adty in Man.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

These med\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions are con\u00adstruct\u00aded with a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar dis\u00adci\u00adpline. Every effort will be made to ensure that their ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00ado\u00adgy is con\u00adsis\u00adtent and mean\u00ading\u00adful. The read\u00ader will prob\u00ada\u00adbly notice the con\u00adspic\u00adu\u00adous absence of some terms that are else\u00adwhere accept\u00aded. The terms \u201ccap\u00adi\u00adtal\u00adism\u201d and \u201csocial\u00adism\u201d, for exam\u00adple, are not used any\u00adwhere because I con\u00adsid\u00ader them to be buzz\u00adwords with\u00adout iden\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adable mean\u00ading. The terms \u201cleft\u201d and \u201cright\u201d, sup\u00adpos\u00aded\u00adly rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00ading a \u201cpolit\u00adi\u00adcal spec\u00adtrum\u201d of ideas and prac\u00adtice, have nev\u00ader been used in my work. This clas\u00adsi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion of polit\u00adi\u00adcal ideas is per\u00adni\u00adcious non\u00adsense, and its use reduces any polit\u00adi\u00adcal dis\u00adcus\u00adsion to inco\u00adher\u00adent gib\u00adber\u00adish. Instead, I will rely on a ratio\u00adnal clas\u00adsi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion of polit\u00adi\u00adcal move\u00adments and ideas. The terms \u201cWes<\/em>t\u201d and \u201cWest\u00adern<\/em>\u201d, along with their reveal\u00ading\u00adly ten\u00adden\u00adtious cor\u00adre\u00adlate \u201cNon-West\u00adern<\/em>\u201d, are also renounced. They are embar\u00adrass\u00ading rem\u00adnants of a nar\u00adrow-mind\u00aded past, still used with annoy\u00ading impre\u00adci\u00adsion and capri\u00adcious\u00adness. Worst of all, they came into use because of a pro\u00adfound mis\u00adun\u00adder\u00adstand\u00ading of the world\u2019s mosa\u00adic of soci\u00adeties. My rea\u00adsons for these judg\u00adments will be expound\u00aded in an appen\u00addix to the Meditations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from this dis\u00adci\u00adpline, I\u2019ll avoid cre\u00adat\u00ading an idio\u00adsyn\u00adcrat\u00adic jar\u00adgon of my own. I pre\u00adfer plain lan\u00adguage. When I use a word or a phrase in some way that dif\u00adfers from gen\u00ader\u00adal cus\u00adtom, or the rea\u00adson\u00adable expec\u00adta\u00adtions of read\u00aders, I will make every effort to make my mean\u00ading clear. How\u00adev\u00ader, lan\u00adguage being a slip\u00adpery thing, I can expect to fail at this now and then.<\/span><\/p>\n

Works of seri\u00adous thought are not writ\u00adten with\u00adout an implied audi\u00adence. The writer can\u00adnot avoid hav\u00ading some men\u00adtal image, how\u00adev\u00ader vague, of who is like\u00adly to be read\u00ading their words. Often it can be eas\u00adi\u00adly rec\u00adog\u00adnized, for exam\u00adple, that a giv\u00aden writer assumes that the read\u00ader resides in their own coun\u00adtry, or is of the same gen\u00adder, or has a sim\u00adi\u00adlar social or edu\u00adca\u00adtion\u00adal back\u00adground. The more seri\u00adous the sub\u00adject mat\u00adter, the more nar\u00adrow this assumed audi\u00adence is like\u00adly to be. Occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly, a \u201cwe\u201d or an \u201cus\u201d will appear in a work that makes it plain that the author assumes that \u201cwe\u201d or \u201cus\u201d excludes most of the human race. This is not one of those works. It\u2019s intend\u00aded for all human beings, every\u00adwhere on the plan\u00adet. If I had my druthers, I would pre\u00adfer it to be simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adous\u00adly writ\u00adten in every lan\u00adguage. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, I can only write expres\u00adsive\u00adly and pre\u00adcise\u00adly in one lan\u00adguage, Eng\u00adlish. For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, that lan\u00adguage is the world\u2019s most wide\u00adly dis\u00adtrib\u00aduted, and a work writ\u00adten in Eng\u00adlish can find it\u2019s way into the hands of a diverse read\u00ader\u00adship, scat\u00adtered across the globe. I am more con\u00adcerned that my ideas reach peo\u00adple in places like Papua New Guinea, Tran\u00adsyl\u00adva\u00adnia, Bourk\u00adi\u00adna Fas\u00adso, or Bur\u00adma than that I gain pop\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adty among my own com\u00adpa\u00adtri\u00adots. I have friends and acquain\u00adtances in all these places, and the men\u00adtal pic\u00adture of a read\u00ader that hov\u00aders in my mind, as I write, includes them. They have big\u00adger prob\u00adlems to deal with than my own coun\u00adtry\u00admen. The sub\u00adjects I dis\u00adcuss are more urgent for them. I live in the aston\u00adish\u00ading\u00adly lucky coun\u00adtry called Cana\u00adda. Com\u00adpared to most places in the world, it has no seri\u00adous polit\u00adi\u00adcal prob\u00adlems to speak of. I will try not to for\u00adget that, and I will try not to glibly dis\u00admiss the expe\u00adri\u00adence of peo\u00adple for whom the def\u00adi\u00adn\u00adi\u00adtion and appli\u00adca\u00adtion of democ\u00adra\u00adcy are life-and-death issues.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The extend\u00aded blog entries called \u201cMed\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions\u201d have proven to be the most pop\u00adu\u00adlar items on this web\u00adsite. While some of these essays have some schol\u00adar\u00adly trap\u00adpings (cita\u00adtions, etc.), they are pri\u00admar\u00adi\u00adly per\u00adson\u00adal doc\u00adu\u00adments, and thus may con\u00adtain col\u00adlo\u00adqui\u00adal prose, profanity, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditations-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5400,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions\/5400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}