Yes, especially music, I think. However, it's probably best to steer clear of collections of Russian and Chinese 'revolutionary' songs.
I also think ridicule, another potent weapon against tyranny, should be given its due, with the best of it elevated to art form status. Indeed, I'm sure some of it has in the form of satire; but I think we also need something that has more of a punch in the face feel to it.
That punch in the face remark was used metaphorically to open a recent Neil Oliver monologue. He often has a good turn of phrase, though there's some cliches there as well; but I quite like him nevertheless.
I've fallen in love (in a purely platonic way) with Neil Oliver. He's put into words what so many of us are feeling... but somehow it sounds so much better in a Scottish brogue.
PJW is the other end of the spectrum, delivery-wise, but just brilliant.
Nov 8, 2022·edited Nov 10, 2022Liked by Robyn Chuter
I'm pleased you liked Neil Oliver. I don't know if you subscribed to his channel, so here's a couple of his other recent videos I think you'll like, in case you didn't.
You may be disappointed to know that, according to the original concept, you can't just go straight to what is now known as Platonic love. I've managed to find a very short video (1.35 min.) that neatly explains the steps involved.
After watching the video, you may also be asking: "Who was Diotima?" Wasn't this Plato's idea?
I'm not sure philosophers like anything to be straightforward. Pretty much everything we know about Socrates we know from his pupil Plato. Diotima was one of the teachers of Socrates, the other being Aspasia. To make matters more confusing there is scholarly disagreement about whether Diotima was a fictional or real person, and fairly recently it was proposed that Diotima was actually Aspasia, who was definitely a real person.
The ancient Greeks being ancient Greeks, the love referred to in the video was the love between men, which you probably worked out. Socrates was also known to be bisexual, and that he and Aspasia were of similar age, with Aspasia apparently teaching him the erotic arts, while the supposed Diotima taught Plato about what we now call Platonic Love.
Both Socrates and Plato were, to the best of my knowledge, the only male philosophers of their time who advocated for the education of women. Among the pre-Socratics, Pythagoras, the mathematician and philosopher, had many women followers, while Aspasia's father is believed to have had her educated by the Stoics.
From what little we know of her, Aspasia was the best-known and most intellectually accomplished Greek woman of her time, though in recent decades a number of other women philosophers have been identified; but, disappointingly, none of their work has survived. Not that any of Aspasia's work is extant either. If she even left any, that is. Her forte was the art of persuasive argument, the art of oratory.
Pericles, the great Athenian general, politician and statesman, and a bit of an orator himself, divorced his wife to have her as his companion; and, yes, that was the same Pericles whose admonition to Athenian women was: "keep out of sight and don't get talked about by men".
Somehow, Athens in the Golden Age was a stronghold of patriarchal sentiment. Nevertheless, among the Athenian elite, men would bring their wives to hear Aspasia speak, much of which may well have been marital advice, which she was known to dispense.
You might find the following link, which is a short biography of Aspasia, of interest.
I've long been fascinated by Aspasia, as were other men who actually moved in her circle, not that she didn't have enough detractors to contend with as well. Aristophanes of "Lysistrata" fame even accused her of single-handedly starting the Peloponnesian War. But he was a bit of an old-time conservative, so it probably wasn't too much of a surprise to see him take on a woman, which is not to say I think women are beyond criticism. And to be fair to Aristophanes he wasn't a fan of Socrates either.
"Lysistrata", if you don't know of it, is likely his most famous play, and probably the first literary work in history to tell the story of women going on a sex strike en masse. In an oblique way and, at a stretch, I suppose, you could see some sort of mirroring of the play's themes with a 'Platonic' downplaying of the brute physical (men at war), who eventually arrive at a higher understanding wherein peace through mutual pleasure (not quite Platonic, I know) wins out in the end, though I'm nevertheless pretty certain a dispassionate view of the history of women will show they're often not the peace lovers that either sex makes them out to be.
Here's a good, entertaining, short read about what the play is about.
This final link begins with the term "Platonic Love", coined by the Italian Humanist and Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino, then traces its development to "Platonic friendship" in the English-speaking world. (I just love finding helpful links that save me time).
Rather oddly, perhaps, I'd like to end with a redeeming quote by Pericles, which has nothing to do with Platonic love, perhaps free love though, but certainly everything to do with the trouble we find ourselves in today:
“Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”
Gosh-darnit, there I was, thinking I could just indulge in a bit of Platonic love for a shaggy-haired Scottish git, and you've gone and complicated the whole thing for me!
Seriously though, the flowering of philosophy (and art, literature, drama, politics and other spin-offs) in classical Greece has been a source of great fascination for me since I studied Ancient History in high school. It was astonishing to me that Aristophanes' plays were still funny to a person who lived two millennia after he wrote them, and that Thucydides' accounts of the enormous suffering brought about by the Peloponnesian War were likewise still intensely moving. One of the salient features of adolescence (and one of the most annoying features, for parents) is the notion that no one has ever felt, loved or suffered the way the teenager has! Studying history is a fine way to disabuse the self-obsessed adolescent of this notion.
P.S. I forgot to mention that no doubt you were suitably chuffed the song acknowledges the contribution of the many Substackers who fight against the tyranny of the official narrative.
Sep 28, 2022·edited Sep 28, 2022Liked by Robyn Chuter
I don't know if you read Joel Smalley's Substack, but he reprinted a post from another Substacker last Friday, which is well worth reading. It's all about that BBC documentary "Unvaccinated" that was screened in the UK in July.
Rather than give you the youtube reference where you can watch it in full (it goes for 1.03 hours), it's best to just type "BBC documentary unvaccinated" in youtube's search function, which will also bring up other related videos, although some are just brief clips from the documentary. There's a video from Norman Fenton, responding to the documentary. Interestingly, both Fenton and the documentary presenter are both mathematicians.
Here's a link from the Substack post to Norman Fenton's written critique of the documentary.
The documentary is a sneaky, underhanded piece of work, deploying the sort of dubious methods we've become accustomed to over the years from the fact-chucking, lamestream misleadia.
I heard about the Beeb's doco about a month ago, on the UK Column podcast (which is always excellent). They went into quite a bit of detail about lead presenter, Hannah Fry's background, which is most interesting.
I've taken a look on a couple of podcast listing sites going back to the start of August to see if I could identify the right podcast. I found one featuring one of the documentary participants, but I didn't think that was going to be the one. There were too many listed on the UK Column podcast that didn't give any inkling about what was up for discussion, so I passed them by. If you've got a reference or even just the date of the podcast that would be great, but don't go to any time-consuming trouble.
I've been meaning to get back on to this story. There was something about her having cancer, so I was going to have a look and see if it was within the timeframe of her being vaccinated. But if, as you say, there's a bit of detail on that podcast, I'll have a listen.
Here's a video that deserves to become a classic.
https://youtu.be/t2LaDrDL4g4
Brilliant! Art is a potent weapon against tyranny.
Yes, especially music, I think. However, it's probably best to steer clear of collections of Russian and Chinese 'revolutionary' songs.
I also think ridicule, another potent weapon against tyranny, should be given its due, with the best of it elevated to art form status. Indeed, I'm sure some of it has in the form of satire; but I think we also need something that has more of a punch in the face feel to it.
That punch in the face remark was used metaphorically to open a recent Neil Oliver monologue. He often has a good turn of phrase, though there's some cliches there as well; but I quite like him nevertheless.
https://youtu.be/95K4phDex3U
There's also Paul Joseph Watson, who's definitely in your face.
https://youtu.be/fz5oYdzm_Z8
Both videos go for ten minutes, with youtube inserting an ad half way through.
I've fallen in love (in a purely platonic way) with Neil Oliver. He's put into words what so many of us are feeling... but somehow it sounds so much better in a Scottish brogue.
PJW is the other end of the spectrum, delivery-wise, but just brilliant.
I'm pleased you liked Neil Oliver. I don't know if you subscribed to his channel, so here's a couple of his other recent videos I think you'll like, in case you didn't.
https://youtu.be/39qBKjRll3c
https://youtu.be/R6y-8kfjEWM
You may be disappointed to know that, according to the original concept, you can't just go straight to what is now known as Platonic love. I've managed to find a very short video (1.35 min.) that neatly explains the steps involved.
https://youtu.be/cYC74mJ-4po
After watching the video, you may also be asking: "Who was Diotima?" Wasn't this Plato's idea?
I'm not sure philosophers like anything to be straightforward. Pretty much everything we know about Socrates we know from his pupil Plato. Diotima was one of the teachers of Socrates, the other being Aspasia. To make matters more confusing there is scholarly disagreement about whether Diotima was a fictional or real person, and fairly recently it was proposed that Diotima was actually Aspasia, who was definitely a real person.
The ancient Greeks being ancient Greeks, the love referred to in the video was the love between men, which you probably worked out. Socrates was also known to be bisexual, and that he and Aspasia were of similar age, with Aspasia apparently teaching him the erotic arts, while the supposed Diotima taught Plato about what we now call Platonic Love.
Both Socrates and Plato were, to the best of my knowledge, the only male philosophers of their time who advocated for the education of women. Among the pre-Socratics, Pythagoras, the mathematician and philosopher, had many women followers, while Aspasia's father is believed to have had her educated by the Stoics.
From what little we know of her, Aspasia was the best-known and most intellectually accomplished Greek woman of her time, though in recent decades a number of other women philosophers have been identified; but, disappointingly, none of their work has survived. Not that any of Aspasia's work is extant either. If she even left any, that is. Her forte was the art of persuasive argument, the art of oratory.
Pericles, the great Athenian general, politician and statesman, and a bit of an orator himself, divorced his wife to have her as his companion; and, yes, that was the same Pericles whose admonition to Athenian women was: "keep out of sight and don't get talked about by men".
Somehow, Athens in the Golden Age was a stronghold of patriarchal sentiment. Nevertheless, among the Athenian elite, men would bring their wives to hear Aspasia speak, much of which may well have been marital advice, which she was known to dispense.
You might find the following link, which is a short biography of Aspasia, of interest.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Aspasia_of_Miletus/
I've long been fascinated by Aspasia, as were other men who actually moved in her circle, not that she didn't have enough detractors to contend with as well. Aristophanes of "Lysistrata" fame even accused her of single-handedly starting the Peloponnesian War. But he was a bit of an old-time conservative, so it probably wasn't too much of a surprise to see him take on a woman, which is not to say I think women are beyond criticism. And to be fair to Aristophanes he wasn't a fan of Socrates either.
"Lysistrata", if you don't know of it, is likely his most famous play, and probably the first literary work in history to tell the story of women going on a sex strike en masse. In an oblique way and, at a stretch, I suppose, you could see some sort of mirroring of the play's themes with a 'Platonic' downplaying of the brute physical (men at war), who eventually arrive at a higher understanding wherein peace through mutual pleasure (not quite Platonic, I know) wins out in the end, though I'm nevertheless pretty certain a dispassionate view of the history of women will show they're often not the peace lovers that either sex makes them out to be.
Here's a good, entertaining, short read about what the play is about.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/lysistrata/themes/sexuality-and-the-battle-of-the-sexes
This final link begins with the term "Platonic Love", coined by the Italian Humanist and Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino, then traces its development to "Platonic friendship" in the English-speaking world. (I just love finding helpful links that save me time).
https://slate.com/human-interest/2010/09/the-origins-of-the-term-platonic-friendship.html#:~:text=The%20Florentine%20scholar%20Marsilio%20Ficino,in%20the%2015th%20century.
Rather oddly, perhaps, I'd like to end with a redeeming quote by Pericles, which has nothing to do with Platonic love, perhaps free love though, but certainly everything to do with the trouble we find ourselves in today:
“Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”
Gosh-darnit, there I was, thinking I could just indulge in a bit of Platonic love for a shaggy-haired Scottish git, and you've gone and complicated the whole thing for me!
Seriously though, the flowering of philosophy (and art, literature, drama, politics and other spin-offs) in classical Greece has been a source of great fascination for me since I studied Ancient History in high school. It was astonishing to me that Aristophanes' plays were still funny to a person who lived two millennia after he wrote them, and that Thucydides' accounts of the enormous suffering brought about by the Peloponnesian War were likewise still intensely moving. One of the salient features of adolescence (and one of the most annoying features, for parents) is the notion that no one has ever felt, loved or suffered the way the teenager has! Studying history is a fine way to disabuse the self-obsessed adolescent of this notion.
P.S. I forgot to mention that no doubt you were suitably chuffed the song acknowledges the contribution of the many Substackers who fight against the tyranny of the official narrative.
Oh yes, many of us would have come close to losing our minds if it wasn't for Substack!!!!
I don't know if you read Joel Smalley's Substack, but he reprinted a post from another Substacker last Friday, which is well worth reading. It's all about that BBC documentary "Unvaccinated" that was screened in the UK in July.
https://metatron.substack.com/p/the-great-unvaxxed-lies-damned-lies?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true
Rather than give you the youtube reference where you can watch it in full (it goes for 1.03 hours), it's best to just type "BBC documentary unvaccinated" in youtube's search function, which will also bring up other related videos, although some are just brief clips from the documentary. There's a video from Norman Fenton, responding to the documentary. Interestingly, both Fenton and the documentary presenter are both mathematicians.
Here's a link from the Substack post to Norman Fenton's written critique of the documentary.
https://www.normanfenton.com/post/a-critique-of-the-bbc2-documentary-unvaccinated
The documentary is a sneaky, underhanded piece of work, deploying the sort of dubious methods we've become accustomed to over the years from the fact-chucking, lamestream misleadia.
I heard about the Beeb's doco about a month ago, on the UK Column podcast (which is always excellent). They went into quite a bit of detail about lead presenter, Hannah Fry's background, which is most interesting.
I've taken a look on a couple of podcast listing sites going back to the start of August to see if I could identify the right podcast. I found one featuring one of the documentary participants, but I didn't think that was going to be the one. There were too many listed on the UK Column podcast that didn't give any inkling about what was up for discussion, so I passed them by. If you've got a reference or even just the date of the podcast that would be great, but don't go to any time-consuming trouble.
This is the one: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-22nd-july-2022
Thanks for that. I thought going back to the start of August was far enough. Obviously it wasn't.
I've been meaning to get back on to this story. There was something about her having cancer, so I was going to have a look and see if it was within the timeframe of her being vaccinated. But if, as you say, there's a bit of detail on that podcast, I'll have a listen.