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Usurpation Day 2017: Augustine, Freedom and Arendt Footnotes #8

4/9/2017

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PictureUsurpation Day 2017: Arendt Footnotes #8






Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, on 9 April 1792, Congress initiated the representation usurpation we still live under, the one against We the People and our birthright, constitutional representation according to numbers.
 
Usurpation of representation is illegal, immoderate and unconstitutional.
 
Usurpation of representation is a stolen American birthright.
 
Usurpation of representation is an act of war against We the People.
 
Speak your birthright America: for those who believe in the US Constitution, let 2020 begin today.
 
Hannah Arendt
The Human Condition
Section 24: The Disclosure Of The Agent In Speech And Action
(177, bold added)
 
To act, in its most general sense, means to take an initiative, to begin (as the Greek word archein, “to begin,” “to lead,” and eventually “to rule,” indicates), to set something into motion (which is the original meaning of the Latin agere). Because they are initium, newcomers and beginners by virtue of birth, men take initiative, are prompted into action. [Initium] ergo ut esset, creatus est homo, ante quem nullus fuit (“that there be a beginning, man was created before whom there was nobody”), said Augustine in his political philosophy. (footnote 2) This beginning is not the same as the beginning of the world; (footnote 3) it is not the beginning of something but of somebody, who is a beginner himself. With the creation of man, the principle of beginning came into the world itself, which, of course, is only another way of saying the principle of freedom was created when man was created but not before.
 
2. De civitate Dei xii. 20.
 
3. According to Augustine, the two were so different that he used a different word to indicate the beginning which is man (initium), designating the beginning of the world by principium, which is the standard translation for the first Bible verse. As can be seen from De civitate Dei xi. 32, the word principium carried for Augustine a much less radical meaning; the beginning of the world “does not mean that nothing was made before (for the angels were),” whereas he adds explicitly in the phrase quoted above with reference to man that nobody was before him.
 
Next Up: Saturday April 15th and a 2020: Tax Day Disses Our Revolution and Abraham Lincoln.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Good

2/12/2017

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PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Feeling

​Part 8 of 13
 
 
 



“The Good Gus.”
“Isn’t that a feeling Reb?”
“Probably.”
“Plato doesn’t like feelings.”
“He liked The Good.”
“I suppose Gladys and Spoon liked The Good too Reb.”
“Spirited people for sure.”
“Feelings they had.”
“Of course Yank.”
“Plato must have defined this Good.”
“He tried.”
“Got a quote?”
“Sure.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“One on Goodness Gus.”
“Perfect.”
“Here goes: ‘The summit of the intelligible world is reached in philosophic discussion by one who aspires, through the discourse of reason unaided by any of the senses, to make his way in every case to the essential reality and perseveres until he has grasped by pure intelligence the very nature of Goodness itself. This journey is what we call Dialectic.’”

PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Alive





​

​“That’s Plato?”
“From The Republic.”
“That’s us Reb.”
“Us?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“‘Through discourse of reason unaided by any of the senses.’”
“That does sound like us Gus.”
“Surprising.”
“Spirit.”
“That’s why it’s us Johnny.”
“We’re alive via our death.”
“And discoursing unaided by any of our senses.”
“I hear you Gus – a thing unaided by any sense would be dead.”
“So this senseless journey Plato called Dialectic?”
“True.”
“Was Plato talking about the dead?”
“He meant the living.”
“Plato posited humans that don’t feel while journeying?”
“Yes.”
“That would be a Journey of the Dead.”
​“Nice Gus.”
“Humans are truly senseless when dead Johnny.”

PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Again


“One can’t think without sensing.”
“True.”
“One can’t speak without sensing.”
“True again.”
“Or act without sensing.”
“I see why Plato’s Republic didn’t work.”
“No Freedom and Senseless Humans (The Dead) in control.”
“Quite a republic.”
“Certainly.”
“We bring Plato to life Reb.”
“’Cuz we aspire Gus.”
“We do.”
“And persevere.”
“Often.”
“And we discuss.”
“Talking is what we do best.”
“Well let’s discuss the ending of Plato’s Republic before we go.”
“Sun’s setting.”
“Right.”
“How does it end Johnny?”
“With Er.”
“With her?”
“Er.”
“Er?”
 
​
*Next Up: 19 February and part 9 of Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Er.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Meaning

2/5/2017

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PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Herd

Part 7 of 13





​
​
​“Meaning.”
“Like I said Reb, what would Mr. Plato not like about this place?”
“I meant 'meaning' Gus, sort of what people make of things – how they think.”
“Freedom.”
“Yes.”
“Think, Speak and Act Reb.”
“Right.”
“Plato was against thinking?”
“He wasn’t Gus.”
“So what’s up then?”
“The Guardians were to form a single family.”
“Huh?”
“Like a herd.”
“You mean like selecting a bull and a cow to be together?”
“Correct.”
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Why?”
“If you let individuals select a mate, they will sometimes choose unwisely.”
“To each their own.”
“Not in Plato’s Republic.”

PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Common








​
​“Quite a place.”
“It never worked.”
“I see why.”
“Places like this are tempting.”
“Of course.”
“How often did we think of home Gus?”
“Endlessly.”
“That’s what Plato feared.”
“He feared feelings Johnny.”
“Yes.”
“Which is why he didn’t like poets.”
“True.”
“What could Guardians have?”
“They were to have all things in common.”
“Sounds like a Guardian Church Johnny.”
“Same spirit.”
“Community then.”
“The whole over the individual Yank.”
“Makes Plato’s pyramid.”
“Exactly.”




PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW State





​
​“And the interests of the State were atop this pyramid?”
“Correct.”
“What about the children Johnny?”
“For Gladys and Lee?”
“In general.”
“Children were to be held in common too.”
“Meaning?”
“No Guardian was to know their child; no Guardian child was to know their parents.”
“Nuts.”
“Agreed.”
“Why do that?”
“Unity.”
“For?”
“Fealty to State and not family.”
“Sounds like submission to me.”
“The State first Gus.”
“What’s the good in that Reb?”
 
 
​


*Next Up: 12 February and part 8 of Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Good.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Freedom

1/15/2017

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PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Think

​Part 4 of 13



​


 
“Freedom.”
“To do what Reb?”
“Think, Speak and Act.”
“High qualities this Freedom.”
“The highest.”
“You just making this up Johnny?”
“Freedom’s real Yank and from our times.”
“When?”
“1863.”
“The woman atop the Capitol?”
“Goddess.”
“Sure.”
“I helped make her Gus.”
“What’s that Reb?”
“I helped make the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol.”
“You?”

PictureJohnny Reb and Gus Kotka OOW Speak








​
​“The part of me that is US Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.”
“President Reb.”
“Yes.”
“How did Jeff Davis make Freedom?”
“Design oversight.”
“As Secretary of War?”
“Yes.”
“Sensing some irony here Johnny.”
“Me too.”
“He, I mean you, were this War Secretary Davis when?”
“That would be 1853 to ‘57.”
“Before the war.”
“Before the war.”



PictureGus Kotka and Johnny Reb OOW Act




​“A goddess does what Johnny?”
“Patroness.”
“Like Athena for Athens.”
“She was pivotal before Plato.”
“Plato replaced Athena?”
“Dismissed.”
“And with Freedom you see a similarity to Athena.”
“Athena was a teacher of stratagem.”
“Meaning?”
“Wit.”
“Okay.”
“Freedom demands wit Gus.”
“Think, Speak and Act.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“Freedom and Johnny Reb.”
“They go together.”
“More than ever.”
 
*Next Up: 17 January and part 5 of Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Cowpens.
 
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Ascending Athenian American Heritage ~ Usurpation Day 2014

4/8/2014

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Picture
Slavery is the shadow of usurpation (rights taken without right) the way mythology frames America’s beginning: it’s foundational.

Slavery has been edited out of Usurpation Day 2014; it will be duly accorded its role in both Athens and America in June (on the 19th).

Usurpation Day is not a time to be sad; it’s a celebratory day. The usurpation of the representation ratio on 9 April 1792 is our history … it’s not our heritage.

Heritage is ahistorical (timeless) and it is our focus today: specifically, ascending Athenian American heritage. Six greats ~ three from each polis: Plato and Madison, Pericles and Washington, and Athena and Freedom:

Picture
Plato
Plato’s contribution to our heritage is The Republic. In the book he outlines the just society and details three groups (factions/divisions) in his republican form of government: rulers, guardians and craftspeople (producers).

Picture
Madison
Madison’s contribution to our heritage is the addition of the representation ratio to Plato’s republican ideas. Whereas Plato’s republic has three factions, Madison’s republic has a fourth ~ We the People ~ and utilizes the decennial Census to augment representation in accordance with population growth (something Plato’s republican ideas lack).

Picture
Pericles
His era built the Parthenon. He was an Athenian leader during the Peloponnesian War and his Funeral Oration (speech) is noted in Thucydides’ work. 

Picture
Washington
His era built the District of Columbia. Washington was hailed as the first in war and the first in peace. His most famous speech is his Farewell Address. Washington’s library included the Greeks: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Ovid’s Metamorphoses ~ which makes mention of 30,000 spirits who watch over the deeds of humans and bring agricultural bounty.

Picture
Athena
The Athenian’s had a statue of Athena inside the Parthenon. She is noted for many things to the Greeks; in particular, the victory at Troy and the homecoming of Odysseus. She was referred to as Promachus: first (foremost) fighter and one who leads in battle. Also, parthenongenesis is asexual reproduction without fertilization  ~ noting Athena’s birth from the head of Zeus.

Picture
Freedom
We the People have our own Athena: her name is Freedom and she watches over America from atop our acropolis, the US Capitol. There were three versions of Freedom’s statue. The first looked too much like Athena; the second, too much like Minerva (Rome’s Athena); the third they thought looked just about right I guess … you know, for being born in 1863 in the middle of the US Civil War.

Heritage (not history) is the key to Usurpation Day ~ and keep this in mind: America’s best days are ahead of US.

Let us pick-up there on 19 June … Juneteenth.

Bryan W. Brickner    
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    Author

    Brickner has a 1997 political science doctorate from Purdue University, cofounded Illinois NORML in 2001, and was a 2007 National NORML Cannabis Advocate Awardee. He is also publisher and coauthor of the 2011 book banned by the Illinois Department of Corrections – The Cannabis Papers: A Citizen’s Guide to Cannabinoids.

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