Ciceronianus Profile

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• The Incredibly Credulous
  on Dec 15, 2016 in Facebook Fake News Technology
  We're being told--by the purveyors of news--that we're imperiled by "Fake News."  Fake News is, it appears, something which purports to be actual news, but is not.  It seems it lurks everywhere, but tends to appear and be reproduced especia...
• Stoicism, God and Some Consequences of Belief
  on Dec 5, 2016 in Epictetus God Religion Seneca Stoicism
  The immanent God of the universe which is characteristic of Stoicism would seem to be necessarily different from the anthropomorphic God or gods one finds in most religions of the West. Some contend that two, at least, of the later Stoics--Epictetus...
• Poe's Imp
  on Sep 2, 2016 in Edgar Allan Poe Longfellow Stoicism
  Edgar Poe (it seems he disliked being called "Edgar Allan Poe") wrote a short story with the interesting title The Imp of the Perverse.  The narrator is a murderer who seemingly commits a murder for which he cannot be suspected, but is compelled...
• Of "Trigger Warnings" and "Safe Spaces"
  on Aug 25, 2016 in Education Heidegger Safe Spaces Stoicism Trigger Warnings University of Chicago
  The University of Chicago has made the news because it has sent to incoming freshman a letter (how quaint!) notifying them that it doesn't favor so-called "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces."  I've heard these phrases before, and have seen them...
• Tolstoy and Sanctimony
  on Aug 19, 2016 in Donald Bartheleme George Orwell Tolstoy
  Donald Bartheleme wrote a most amusing story titled At the Tolstoy Museum. It begins with the sentence "At the Tolstoy Museum we sat and wept."  The museum is said to display thousands of pictures of Tolstoy.  In the story, museum...
• The Other Man of Steel
  on Aug 9, 2016 in B.H. Liddell-Hart Goethe Hitler Napoleon Politics Soviet Union Stalin Trotsky
  "Stalin" was a name chosen in the days before the so-called October Revolution; so-called as it actually took place in November according to the modern calendar subsequently adopted.  It means "steel", as all or most now know.  I suppose th...
• Lex Lavacrum
  on Aug 3, 2016 in Cicero Law Religion
  Lex Lavacrum is my best effort to translate into Latin the words "Bathroom Law" or perhaps more appropriately "The Law of the Bathroom."  What seems silly in English acquires a certain majesty when translated into Latin, however loosel...
• The Kingdom of Fear
  on Jul 29, 2016 in Fear Franklin Roosevelt Guns Hunter S. Thompson Politics Rod Serling Warren Zevon
  The late Hunter S. Thompson described our Great Republic as "The Kingdom of Fear" in the title of a book he wrote, and also in a song he co-wrote with the equally late Warren Zevon which appeared in his fatefully titled album My Ride's Here.  Mo...
• Homage to Stephen Crane
  on Jul 25, 2016 in Anton Chekov Bierce Emerson Hemingway Henry James Mark Twain Oscar Wilde Stephen Crane Thoreau
  He was 28 when he died, at a health spa in the Black Forest of Germany.  What had we achieved by that age, reader?  For my part, very little.  Perhaps you achieved more, or much.  But it's his age at death that makes him most rema...
• How Not to Do Things with Words: "Black Lives Matter"
  on Jul 13, 2016 in Black Lives Matter Donald Trump Giuliani Police Politics
  The title to this post is a little play on the title of a work of the philosopher J.L. Austin called How to Do Things with Words.  What prompts me to write it are the antics of the unfortunate Mr. Trump, the maudlin Mr. Beck, and the increasingl...
• Reflections on Independence Day, 2016
  on Jul 5, 2016 in America Augustus Cato Cicero Crassus Julius Caesar Politics Pompey Roman Empire Treaty of Versailles Wilson
  This post addresses the Fabulous Fourth, not the movie sequel, which it seems based on reviews is unworthy of reflection.For two hundred and forty years, our Great Republic has existed and more or less thrived.  Particularly in the last one...
• About Cato the Younger
  on Jun 27, 2016 in Cato Cicero Diogenes Julius Caesar Plato Stoicism
  Marcus Porcius Cato, called the Younger to distinguish him from his grandfather, Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, is not an easy man to like, a grim and dour personality, but has been one that is admired.  That was the case while he was alive and...
• In Dreams
  on Jun 21, 2016 in Descartes Dreams Philosophy
  I know little about dreams and their interpretation.  Some, I know, have studied them; perhaps most famously, or infamously, Freud and his not entirely faithful student, Jung.They were of course thought to be a great importance in ancient times,...
• O Bella Roma
  on Jun 7, 2016 in Augustus Cato Cicero Hadrian Henry James Italy Marcus Aurelius Mussolini Robert Lowell Roman Empire Septimius Severus Titus Trajan
  Relatively fresh from a visit to Italy, specifically those cities which seem to be most visited by tourists like myself (Rome, Florence and Venice), I'm inclined to expound on them here--that place where I am emperor, of ice cream if anything at all.
• Apologetic History
  on May 12, 2016 in History Postmodernism
  I've noted what I think is a disturbing trend, or tendency, in modern works of history I've been reading lately (mostly regarding ancient Rome, with which I'm fascinated).  Each book I read sports a preface or introduction of on average some twe...
• Regarding Al Capp
  on May 6, 2016 in Al Capp Bierce Gore Vidal Joan Baez John Lennon Mencken Walt Kelly Walter Lippmann William F. Buckely Yoko Ono
  I'm not sure what brings him to my mind, but here he is wandering about it, that most perplexing cartoonist, Al Capp.  Liberal in the 1950s, conservative in the 1960s and 1970s, unbearably smug and insulting at times as when visiting John Lennon...
• An Unspontaneous Joy
  on Apr 18, 2016 in Amor Laetitia Family Marriage Pope Francis
  I was uncertain just what an "apostolic exhortation" is, until the current Pontifex Maximus issued his Amoris Laetitia, which I've seen translated as "The Love of Joy."  It's apparently an encouragement, made by the Pontiff, that we or...
• The Magic Christians
  on Apr 4, 2016 in Christianity Constantine God Justinian Marcian Religion
  Some of us remember the film The Magic Christian, a very silly bit of anti-capitalist, anti-greed satire (using that term broadly) which starred Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, and a host of others in cameo appearances, including some of the members of w...
• What's Wrong about Rights
  on Mar 28, 2016 in Epictetus Ethics Law Natural Law Rousseau Stoicism
  Legal rights are, generally, most useful and beneficial.  What we think of as rights is a relatively new development in the law.  The concept of legal or human rights (as we understand them now) seems to almost leap forth in the 18th c...
• As Flies to Wanton Boys
  on Mar 21, 2016 in God Problem of Evil Relgion Shakespeare Stoicism
  The belief in a loving deity, one that created the universe and we humans, one that is good, one that responds to prayers, intervenes in the universe and our lives, has always posed a certain difficulty to any thinking person.  The difficulty ar...