A life in words

  • Come to the Shakespeare Reading!

    I’m hereby invoking the massive online presence that is joshhansen.net to spread the word about tomorrow’s MLK Day Shakespeare Reading for our Curiously Poetic Altoids poetry club. Here’s the announcement: Hi Altoid friends! Tomorrow is the blessed holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, and in honor of its awesomeness we are going to have…

  • Ideologue-y

    Do you ever feel that the previous generation just sees you as another potential acolyte to be indoctrinated and enlisted to fight the next big ideological war? In several situations I have felt like that. These were in linguistics, in economics, and—of course—in politics. In linguistics the philosophical divide basically shakes out as the rationalist,…

  • Quote: Meaning, Grace, and Fulfillment

    In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us…

Of a commonwealth, whose subjects are but hindered by terror from taking arms, it should rather be said, that it is free from war, than that it has peace. For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from force of character….Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus V.4, 1670, trans. A. H. Gosset 1883