{"id":5462,"date":"2018-01-18T02:38:40","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T07:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5462"},"modified":"2018-12-25T18:32:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T23:32:38","slug":"the-meditations-a-new-preface-march-18-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=5462","title":{"rendered":"THE<\/span> MEDITATIONS<\/span> \u2014 A NEW<\/span> PREFACE<\/span> (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"18-01-18<\/a>

Dem\u00adocri\u00adtus med\u00adi\u00adtat\u00ading on the seat of the soul, by L\u00e9on-Alexan\u00addre Del\u00adhomme (1868)<\/p><\/div>\n

This blog has been online for a dozen years. A good deal has changed in that time. <\/span><\/p>\n

When I began PhilPaine.com in 2006, it was only read by a hand\u00adful of friends. Since I held no aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic posi\u00adtion, and had more or less failed as a fic\u00adtion writer, I did my work in obscu\u00adri\u00adty. I have no degrees, no aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic posi\u00adtion, no insti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u00adal con\u00adnec\u00adtions. My \u201cCV<\/span>\u201d con\u00adsists of a lot of youth\u00adful and incau\u00adtious \u201cadven\u00adtures\u201d in dis\u00adtant places, a good deal of expo\u00adsure to the seamy under\u00adside of my own soci\u00adety, and a sys\u00adtem\u00adat\u00adic pro\u00adgram of read\u00ading. A sin\u00adgle paper, writ\u00adten in col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtion with an estab\u00adlished schol\u00adar, Steven R. Muhlberg\u00ader, was for many years my only claim to aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic legit\u00adi\u00adma\u00adcy, though it was to have an amaz\u00ading endurance and influ\u00adence. Steve\u2019s patient friend\u00adship and emo\u00adtion\u00adal sup\u00adport have been the key to my sur\u00advival. His own blog, the lit\u00ader\u00adate and infor\u00adma\u00adtive Muhlberg\u00ader\u2019s World His\u00adto\u00adry<\/span><\/a><\/span>, pre\u00adced\u00aded mine. We are still col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adrat\u00ading, though nowa\u00addays on the trans\u00adla\u00adtion of a medieval text. I am equal\u00adly indebt\u00aded to Skye Sepp and Isaac White, whose reg\u00adu\u00adlar vis\u00adits, intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal stim\u00adu\u00adlus, and reg\u00adu\u00adlar com\u00adpan\u00adion\u00adship have kept me from going bonkers. I also had emo\u00adtion\u00adal sup\u00adport from old\u00ader friends, scat\u00adtered around the world, who remained in touch by cor\u00adre\u00adspon\u00addence and occa\u00adsion\u00adal vis\u00adits. Of par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly impor\u00adtance to me has been an endur\u00ading com\u00adrade\u00adship with Fil\u00adip Marek of Prague, whose actions dur\u00ading the Czech Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion of 1989 inspired me both intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly and spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly. Over the course of a long friend\u00adship we have trav\u00adeled the roads and trails of Cana\u00adda as far as the Arc\u00adtic Ocean, picked our way through a half dozen ancient Minoan and Myce\u00adnaean sites, and not long ago spent a week hik\u00ading the trails of mag\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcent Mt. Assiniboine.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, in 2018, the pic\u00adture is a lit\u00adtle dif\u00adfer\u00adent. I have a mod\u00adest aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic rep\u00adu\u00adta\u00adtion, and some of my writ\u00adings are wide\u00adly dis\u00adsem\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded. As of this year, I am free to pur\u00adsue my research\u00ades full-time as long as I live fru\u00adgal\u00adly. A few eccentrics in con\u00adven\u00adtion\u00adal Acad\u00ade\u00admia have pro\u00admot\u00aded my work \u2014 notably Jean-Paul Gagnon (now with the Insti\u00adtute of Gov\u00ader\u00adnance and Pol\u00adi\u00adcy Analy\u00adsis in Can\u00adber\u00adra, Aus\u00adtralia). Cita\u00adtions pile up. The blog has a wide inter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal read\u00ader\u00adship. I have wit\u00adnessed some of the ideas which, when Democ\u00adra\u00adcy\u2019s Place in World His\u00adto\u00adry<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span> was first pub\u00adlished in 1993, were nov\u00adel and unortho\u00addox, become a sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant stream of thought sur\u00adfac\u00ading in many quar\u00adters. Though we are enter\u00ading some dark and dan\u00adger\u00adous times, as far as democ\u00adra\u00adcy and civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion are con\u00adcerned, I believe those ideas will ulti\u00admate\u00adly flour\u00adish and tri\u00adumph over barbarism.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

My blog writ\u00ading is not meant to be the same as for\u00admal aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic writ\u00ading, and much of it is rough and unpol\u00adished. Top\u00adics as dif\u00adfer\u00adent as the soci\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy of silent films, cur\u00adrent hot bands, democ\u00adra\u00adcy in the ancient world, how to cook ban\u00adnock, and why you should\u00adn\u2019t climb vol\u00adca\u00adnoes in sub\u00adstan\u00addard sneak\u00aders appear in the blog, hig\u00adgledy-pig\u00adgledy. But among these, in the begin\u00adning years, were a series of arti\u00adcles called \u201cMed\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions on Democ\u00adra\u00adcy and Dic\u00adta\u00adtor\u00adship\u201d which are still reg\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly read today, and have had some influ\u00adence. They still elic\u00adit inquiries from remote cor\u00adners of the globe. They are now buried in the back pages of the blog, so I\u2019m mov\u00ading them up the chrono\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal counter (for the sec\u00adond time) so they can have anoth\u00ader round of vis\u00adi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty, espe\u00adcial\u00adly (I hope) with younger read\u00aders. Over the com\u00ading months, I\u2019ll be re-post\u00ading them in their orig\u00adi\u00adnal sequence. Some ref\u00ader\u00adences in these \u201cmed\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions\u201d will date them to 2007\u20132008, when they were writ\u00adten. But I will leave them un-retouched, though I may occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly append some ret\u00adro\u00adspec\u00adtive notes. Most\u00adly, they deal with abstract issues that do not need updating.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phil Paine, Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog has been online for a dozen years. A good deal has changed in that time. When I began PhilPaine.com in 2006, it was only read by a hand\u00adful of friends. Since I held no aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic posi\u00adtion, and had more or less \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":[1,1494,409],"tags":[968,967,982,998],"class_list":["post-5462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ai-blog-2018","category-meditations-series","tag-democracy","tag-meditations-on-democracy","tag-phil-paine","tag-steven-muhlberger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462","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=5462"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7484,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462\/revisions\/7484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}