Blog5.21.2021

 

TALKING/THINKING/WRITING

 

Under the influence of pandemic, my terms of engagement with everyday life have made me a bit strange unto myself  and more conservative than I was twenty years ago.  My conservatism is more philosophical than political, although I can't escape from language which is a priori a feature of polis.

Unless I refuse to use language, refuse to speak and write, I am existentially "political."  My conservatism is idiosyncratic, endlessly amusing, and a source for profound moral anxiety.  Recent conversations with my trustworthy friends keep me trembling on the brink of recognition.  My new conservatism makes me want to hold fast to what is good and just in African American history and cultural traditions, to hang on to being a product of three continents. Hanging on to anything under the influence of pandemic is a mighty struggle.

 

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            May 12, 2021

 

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