Obama - Socratic midwife!
October 1, 2011
LATE BREAKING INPUT REGARDING THE POST THAT FOLLOWS:
Looks like Prof. Obama's joining our team - or does this put us on his???
Cf.
http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/06/in-press-conference-professor-obama-demands-answers/
TIME: See Professor Obama attacking with the Socratic method. At one point, he even gave the White House Press Corps homework. “Here’s a little homework assignment for folks.
Professor Obama has a thesis he wants to test. If his proposals poll better than the Republican proposals, he believes he can pressure Republicans to bend to his will or suffer the political consequences. “If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them. I think the American people will run them out of town because they are frustrated and they know we need to do some — something big and something bold,” the President said.
That is the political game of brinkmanship that will define the rest of the year, and possibly Obama’s entire re-election campaign. Both parties have staked out their positions. At some point, the American people will take sides. But like any great professor, Prof. Obama is not just going to give away the answer. He is just going to ask, Why?
Obama to United Nations: “Peace is hard”By Laura Rozen | The Envoy
President Barack Obama, departing from his past soaring rhetoric, delivered a sober speech to world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, declaring that "peace is hard." And while he recounted the tremendous changes the world has witnessed since the same gathering last year--most notably the tyrants toppled in the Arab uprisings and the birth of a new nation, South Sudan--Obama acknowledged disappointment that his administration's efforts to advance an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement have not progressed, but insisted there were no short-cuts to achieving Palestinian statehood.
"It has been a remarkable year: The Gadhafi regime is over. Gbagbo, Ben Ali, and Mubarak are no longer in power," Obama said in a 36-minute speech, referring to the former leaders of Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Egypt. "Osama bin Laden is gone, and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him. Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they will be."
"But let us remember: peace is hard," Obama continued. "Progress can be reversed. Prosperity comes slowly. Societies can split apart. ... And we have more work to do."
Delving into the vexing issue of the stalled Israeli-Palestine peace process, Obama [said]: "One year ago, I stood at this podium and called for an independent Palestine," Obama said. "I believed then — and I believe now — that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that genuine peace can only be realized between Israelis and Palestinians themselves. One year later, despite extensive efforts by America and others, the parties have not bridged their differences."...
"Obama to Palestinians: don't dream dreams. There's an election on," Guardian diplomatic editor Julian Borger posted with evident sarcasm on Twitter.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/obama-united-nations-peace-hard-153352725.html
Not so fast there, Julian Borger - even if you ARE Guardian Diplomatic Editor da-da-da-DUMB Oh, little Freudian slip there! And I’m NOT apologizing for it. “Truth will out,” as my grandmother used to say.
Herbert Schwartz – after some years teaching at Univ. of Chicago, St. John’s Great Books in Annapolis, Georgetown, and I don’t know where else, spent a period of pilgrimage in Mexico. He became the Spiritual Father of the Monasterio de San Jose - Madres Carmelitas, formerly of Santa Maria del Rio, I think now they are closer to Mexico City, but they are still noted for their fervor, especially Mother Josephine and Mother Margarita, whom Herbert gave me for my Carmelite sister.
A Mexican Bishop – of marvelous piety, and he became a Cardinal – intended to ordain Herbert as a priest in his Mexican jurisdiction. This plan was never realized (not surprisingly!), but it was in this connection that Herbert wrote, under obedience to the bishop, a brief autobiographical account of his spiritual odyssey.
In this account Herbert tells how he studied pre-med in college, and despite (or, more likely because of!) a sterling academic record (he was Phi Beta Kappa, inter alia), was not accepted at his choice, Johns Hopkins, because of their quota on Jews. However, Herbert had been irked all along by, for instance, having to memorize all the bones in the body, and his friends noted that he was instead always asking “why”! If you want to know “why”, they said, you should study philosophy. They also advised Herbert that he was by his natural temperament like Plato.
Herbert concluded that if he was already by nature akin to Plato, there was no need to study him, and so he would focus on Aristotle. The well-known editor of Aristotle’s works, Richard McKeon, was at the time teaching at Columbia; as it happened, McKeon was a lapsed Catholic. So in the event, it was via McKeon’s fulminations against Aquinas that Herbert became acquainted with the Angelic Doctor – he said he thought anyone McKeon detested with such venom must really have something going for him!
Herbert very quickly became so renowned for his mastery of Aquinas that he went on to teach at the Univ. of Chicago, where he encountered Mortimer Adler, the then acknowledged kingpin of “neo-Thomism”, which was all the rage at the time. Yet Adler soon came to so fear Herbert as a rival, that he managed to prohibit him from teaching in the philosophy department, having him relegated instead to the department of music. (Herbert’s genius was so wide-ranging that when he was on the faculty of St. John’s Great Books program, he taught 4 disciplines, philosophy, mathematics, music, and literature, and was – most justly, may I say - recognized as an outstanding expert in each.) At Chicago, Herbert just moved his grand piano into his classroom, teaching philosophy via Mozart – something he became legendary for, proving himself also innately akin to Socrates.
In his dialogue The Theaetetus, Plato has Socrates describe himself as a mid-wife:
Well, my art of midwifery is in most respects like [that of professional midwives]; but differs, in that I attend men and not women; and look after their souls when they are in labor, and not after their bodies: and the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth. And like the mid-wives, I am barren, and the reproach which is often made against me, that I ask questions of others and have not the wit to answer them myself, is very just - the reason is, that the god compels me to be a midwife, but does not allow me to bring forth. And therefore I am not myself at all wise, nor have I anything to show which is the invention or birth of my own soul, but those who converse with me profit.
Herbert Schwartz could have spoken these words – indeed, he did so, but in his own New York Jewish idiom. This is the sense of the statement that so encapsulated what Herbert Schwartz was all about that it is engraved on his tombstone: “If God could love me, He could love anybody – even you!!!”
As I noted in my previous memo, Dr. Rudolph Allers points out - via the fox and the grapes the fox dismisses as sour – the boost of encouragement needed to overcome the sense so deeply inscribed within our psyche that we just “don’t have what it takes”. Plato continues:
Some of them appear dull enough at first, but afterwards, as our acquaintance ripens, if the god is gracious to them, they all make astonishing progress; and this in the opinion of others as well as in their own. It is quite clear that they never learned anything from me; the many fine discoveries to which they cling are of their own making. But to me and the god they owe their delivery. (Theaetetus 150 b-151d)
“Go ahead, make a mistake!” Herbert would urge us.
And when we do so, more often than not, that “mistake” turns out to be just what we needed, the game changer that allows us to move forward – as is the case with me at the present moment. Immediately at issue is Russian presidential politics, but – well, please just read on:
September 21, 2011
Obama Rebuffed as Palestinians Pursue U.N. Seat
By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS
UNITED NATIONS — A last-ditch American effort to head off a Palestinian bid for membership in the United Nations faltered. . . .
The extraordinary tableau Wednesday at the United Nations underscored a stark new reality: the United States is facing the prospect of having to share, or even cede, its decades-long role as the architect of Middle East peacemaking. . . .
American diplomats turned their attention to how to navigate a new era in which questions of Palestinian statehood are squarely on the global diplomatic agenda. There used to be three relevant players in any Middle East peace effort: the Palestinians, Israel and the United States. But expansions of settlements in the West Bank and a hardening of Israeli attitudes have isolated Israel and its main backer, the United States. Dissension among Palestinian factions has undermined the prospect for a new accord as well.
Finally, WASHINGTON POLITICS HAS LIMITED MR. OBAMA’S ABILITY TO TRY TO BREAK THE LOGJAM IF THAT MEANS APPEARING TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM ISRAEL. REPUBLICANS HAVE MOUNTED A CHALLENGE TO LURE AWAY JEWISH VOTERS WHO SUPPORTED DEMOCRATS IN THE PAST, AFTER SOME JEWISH LEADERS SHARPLY CRITICIZED MR. OBAMA FOR TRYING TO PUSH ISRAEL TOO HARD.
THE RESULT HAS BEEN TWO AND A HALF YEARS OF STAGNATION ON THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE FRONT that has left Arabs — and many world leaders — frustrated, and ready to try an alternative to the American-centric approach that has prevailed since the 1970s….
The Palestinians have never fully trusted the United States to serve as an honest broker with Israel. But its credibility with the Palestinians has crumbled with the recognition that Mr. Obama may not have the clout to press the Israelis into a peace deal that requires significant compromises….
Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, told reporters after Mr. Sarkozy’s speech that the United States “cannot do it alone” in negotiations for a Middle East peace, and that a collective approach was needed. Mr. Juppe said he thought this time that the five permanent Security Council members should have a direct role in shepherding talks.
Somewhat incongruously, Mr. Sarkozy visited Mr. Obama’s hotel on Wednesday afternoon for a previously scheduled meeting with the president, and was effusive, in front of the cameras before the meeting, in his praise for Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama, for his part, refused to engage with reporters assembled for the photo op. “Do you support the French one-year timeline?” one reporter asked. Mr. Obama responded, “I already answered a question from you before.”
Another reporter asked Mr. Obama if he agreed with the French position on Palestine. Mr. Obama smiled and replied, “Bonjour.”
A third reporter queried if that response constituted a “no comment.” The president’s response: “No comment.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/obama-rebuffed-as-palestinians-pursue-un-seat.html
Helene Cooper is one of my favorite New York Times reporters; she always catches onto what’s up.
Then there was the Pope’s trip to Germany, which was hardly given so much as a sneeze by our major media. Every day I searched my sources for something I considered worth – well, the Pope’s first official, trip to his native land, for goodness sake! However, I confess that even when I know what I am looking for, I can be frustratingly (to myself and everyone else!) obtuse and incomprehending.
I actually had the significant item, but it was only in connection with Richie’s question about Putin’s political ambitions in Russia, which he raised last month when we were together, that …… well, please read on:
Pope warns Germans against ignoring religion
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON - Associated Press | AP – Thu, Sep 22, 2011
BERLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI told the German parliament on Thursday that POLITICIANS MUST NOT SACRIFICE ETHICS FOR POWER, EVOKING THE NAZI EXCESSES OF HIS HOMELAND AS A LESSON IN HISTORY….
The pope spoke for 20 minutes in the historic Reichstag parliament building, which was torched in 1933 in an incident used by Hitler to strengthen his grip on power.
"WE GERMANS KNOW FROM OUR OWN EXPERIENCE" WHAT HAPPENS WHEN POWER IS CORRUPTED, BENEDICT SAID, DESCRIBING NAZIS AS A "HIGHLY ORGANIZED BAND OF ROBBERS, CAPABLE OF THREATENING THE WHOLE WORLD AND DRIVING IT TO THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS."
BUT HE SAID THAT EVEN UNDER THE NAZI DICTATORSHIP RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS STUCK TO THEIR BELIEFS AT A GREAT RISK, "THEREBY DOING A GREAT SERVICE TO JUSTICE AND TO HUMANITY AS A WHOLE."
"Even today, there is ultimately nothing else we could wish for but A LISTENING HEART — THE CAPACITY TO DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL, AND THUS TO ESTABLISH TRUE LAW, TO SERVE JUSTICE AND PEACE," HE SAID….
BENEDICT LOOKED OUT ON A MOSTLY FULL HOUSE … AND FINISHED HIS SPEECH TO A STANDING OVATION.
http://news.yahoo.com/pope-warns-germans-against-ignoring-religion-154004406.html
The following news item handily pulled the rug out from under my “educated guess” that Putin was fixing to retire on his laurels, in response to Richie’s raising the issue:
Analysts' view: Putin to return to the Kremlin
By Thomas Grove, Douglas Busvine, Darya Korsunskaya, Andreas Rinke and Steve Gutterman | Reuters
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin accepted a proposal from President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday to run for Russia's highest office in the 2012 presidential election…. Putin, still Russia's most popular politician, is almost assured election.
COMMENTARY:
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL'S SPOKESMAN STEFFEN SEIBERT:
"The Chancellor works very well with President Medvedev and will do the same with any other president, because Germany and Russia are linked in a strategic partnership."
http://news.yahoo.com/analysts-view-putin-return-kremlin-105256141.html
It also PUT THE POPE’S BRIEF REMARKS WHICH MET SUCH THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE INTO WHAT HAS TO BE THEIR INTENDED CONTEXT: THE POLITICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE TWO COUNTRIES DURING THE 20TH CENTURY IS ALMOST PERFECTLY PARALLEL!!! AND BY IT THEY ARE INDEED LINKED IN A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP SUCH THAT THEY MUST HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY GOD FROM ALL ETERNITY TO AT THIS TIME HEAL THE RENT IN THE SEAMLESS GARMENT OF CHRIST, AS BLESSED JOHN PAUL II WAS WONT TO EXPRESS IT.
If I had been on my toes and put 2+2 together when Richie raised the issue –---- although a casual coffee and snack was not the venue in which to introduce such a solemnly Socratic moment, one that easily would rival Plato’s Banquet! Keep in mind that Russia has an almost sacred historical tradition of “writings from prison” by what over time became generations of revolutionaries, a remarkably large number of whom were from the families of priests. The movement was defined as such by the uprising against Czar Nicholas I, in Dec., 1825, of elite officers of the Imperial Russian Guard known to history as the “Decembrists” who took advantage of the confusion surrounding the succession to the throne on the death of Alexander I.
“The uprising, ill-conceived and badly led, was a disaster. Over 3,000 of the soldiers were promptly arrested. Of these, five were hanged. AS IF TO SUM UP THE OFFICERS’ FRUSTRATION WITH BACKWARD RUSSIA, ONE REMARKED, UPON ONLY BREAKING HIS LEGS ON THE SCAFFOLD, ‘THEY CAN’T EVEN HANG A MAN PROPERLY IN RUSSIA.’”
http://www.tristarmedia.com/bestofrussia/decembrists.html
I am quite sure that all responsible parties see this as the moment to at last set Russian on a more sane and balanced course. The Russian Church said:
Moscow, September 26, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church hailed President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal on Saturday that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin run for president as an instance of "kindness and integrity".
"When else has it happened in Russian history that supreme power in the country was handed over in such a peaceful, dignified, honest, friendly way? It is a genuine example of kindness and integrity in politics, an example that, I believe, would have been a source of envy for our predecessors and people who lived in the Soviet period and, moreover, should be a source of envy for the people of the majority of countries in the world, including those that try to lecture us," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax-Religion.
"However, IN A COUNTRY WHERE PEACE, WELFARE, AND EVEN THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE DEPEND ON THE PERSON WHO HEADS THE VERTICAL STRUCTURE OF AUTHORITY, THE HANDOVER OF POWER MUST BE EXTREMELY RESPONSIBLE, IT MUST RULE OUT ANY HEAD-ON CLASHES, NOT JUST BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS BUT BETWEEN LARGE SOCIAL GROUPS THAT SUCH INDIVIDUALS MAY PERSUADE TO TAKE THEIR SIDE," the priest said.
The congress in Moscow of the United Russia party where Medvedev and Putin made their announcements was an event "where many strata of society were represented, many of its active and thinking members, [who] expressed sincere and unanimous support" for the Medvedev-Putin statement, the priest added.
As for KHODORKOVSKY, SOME TIME BACK, AS HE REALIZED HE WAS HIGHLY UNLIKELY TO BE RELEASED ANYTIME SOON, IF AT ALL, HE STATED MOST EMPHATICALLY THAT HE WOULD SERVE THE RUSSIA HE LOVES AS WELL IN PRISON AS OUT OF IT. And I wouldn’t find a jail on a latitude with St. Petersburg if not further north much of an improvement over one from which he could almost see Japan – but I’m a southern girl, while Khodorovsky is Russian. And I see he has landed a job writing for a magazine – it didn’t say what kind, but you can bet if Khodorkovsky is writing for it. It’s rating will soon be sky-high!
To read what I wrote of Khodorkovsky when I first “discovered” him:
1) Visit my website, ingenuously custom re-designed to suit my purposes by Alexandria Nelson - ©Harris and Nelson Consulting
http://www.mamaleh-larisa.com
2) Enter the Ikon Virtual Gallery – click on the Mamaleh-Larisa gallery, then, once in, on Mother of God, Our Protectress – the paradigm of the entire created order – once in,
3) scroll down to:
Solzhenitsyn’s Oak and the Calf, 2010: this time around Putin is
the oak, Khordorkovsky the calf.
Don’t worry, you won’t have to read through Solzhenitsyn’s heavily labored tome, originally “A Calf was Head-butting an Oak tree” – I did a good enough job of making my points without requiring such painful preparation of my readers. ENJOY!!!
Seems we are on the same wave length as the Prez! Read TIME magazine:
See Professor Obama attacking with the Socratic method. At one point, he even gave the White House Press Corps homework. “Here’s a little homework assignment for folks.
Professor Obama has a thesis he wants to test. If his proposals poll better than the Republican proposals, he believes he can pressure Republicans to bend to his will or suffer the political consequences. “If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them. I think the American people will run them out of town because they are frustrated and they know we need to do some — something big and something bold,” the President said.
That is the political game of brinkmanship that will define the rest of the year, and possibly Obama’s entire re-election campaign. Both parties have staked out their positions. At some point, the American people will take sides. But like any great professor, Prof. Obama is not just going to give away the answer. He is just going to ask, Why?
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/06/in-press-conference-professor-obama-demands-answers/
