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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Declaration II

Blogging:
American Identity



Democratic Writing

"If a speaker or writer has packed a sound bit well, it will unpack well” (Allen, p. 148)

W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

PROLEPSIS

Allusions, quotations -- and fake quotations.

Jefferson's library

The text of the Declaration

Locke on the laws of nature

The real Abraham Lincoln on Euclid and the Declaration:
One would start with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but, nevertheless, he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.
The movie version (look carefully for a now-famous actor playing one of the soldiers):

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