FB 1 and FB2

 

Pandemic Illumination

 

Pandemic is an example of Shakespeare's  Caliban, a Renaissance stereotype,  learning language from Prospero.  The flesh and blood Calibans of our time learn language from Thomas Jefferson,  Karl Marx, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, and an array of white fog theorists. . Cursing in anger is an obvious feature of the 21st century, and we are hard put to minimize the cursing and to pursue the acquisition of knowledge.  Bacon helps.

 

Outside state-controlled  academic spaces, in multi-layered domains of common sense, it is possible to learn life-critique  from Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and his remote kinsman Francis Bacon (1909-1992). The elder Bacon taught valuable lessons about science and the idols (cave, tribe, marketplace, and theatre) that are in possession of human understanding. The younger Bacon taught us how judiciously art can visualize the horrors of the human condition.  Let us resolve to learn from the Bacons.

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.                            March 28, 2021

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