Freespace

The Greeks and America's Founding Fathers, part 2

In Part 2 of my series of talks on the influence of the Greeks on America's Founding Fathers, I explain how the Founders learned from the Greeks what not to do, when they wrote the Constitution of the United States. To protect individual rights, and to create a successful union of states, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and others, looked to see what worked and what didn't work in ancient Greece:

Three great modern poets

The newest issue of The Objective Standard has my article profiling the work of three contemporary poets, Richard Wilbur, A.E. Stallings, and Stephen Kampa, who are carrying on the tradition of artistic excellence in poetry today.

I wrote the article because it seems to me that a lot of Objectivists know the classics, but just assume modern poetry is useless trash. True, there's a lot of useless trash, but there are also some outstanding contemporary artists. I picked my three favorites:

Although still in the minority, many contemporary poets—including Dana Gioia, Mark Jarman, X. J. Kennedy, Ted Kooser, William Baer, and others—and journals such as Think, Able Muse, and Measure are keeping alive an honorable artistic tradition focused on selectivity and integration. Three poets in particular—Richard Wilbur, A. E. Stallings, and Stephen Kampa—prove that greatness lives on in poetry today.

Read the rest...

The Greeks and America's Founding Fathers

I've lately been preparing a series of presentations on the influence of the Greeks on America's founding fathers for the Politismos Museum of Greek History. The first, entitled "The Greek Frame," is now available online. In it, I discuss how Epicurus influenced the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, and taught the founding fathers the importance of "the pursuit of happiness."

What if Chopin had written Beethoven's 5th Symphony?

It might have sounded a little something like this....