The New Year

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year! I know that this is a bit belated, but the pressures of travel and getting back into the swing of teaching do take their toll.

Since I've been teaching about the enlightenment, and made political theory one of my sub-fields when I took my Ph.D., here are a few light pieces of doggerel on some of the shapers of the modern West.

Xanithippe her Socrates bugged,
Her curses his tender ears mugged.
She was lousy in bed
And poured piss on his head.
No wonder the poor guy died drugged!

Niccolo said it is right
For rulers to scheme and back-bite.
But this sneaky slob
Couldn't hold down his job,
And so he was forced to go write.

Hobbes said that lives brutish and short,
You know, of the quite nasty sort,
Are lives quite unfettered,
And need to be bettered
By kings, or else brought into court.

Rousseau, the great Libertarian,
Celebrated the noble barbarian.
Based on science abysmal
He thought society dismal,
And made politics contractarian.

Rousseau said that people are good,
And would say that the thugs in the 'hood
Of our great nation
Come from civilization,
And not from nature or blood.

Of Rousseau and Hobbes, it is said,
That Rousseau stood Tom Hobbes on his head.
Do folks need control
To nourish the soul?
Or is savagery better instead?

In Frace, Baron Montesquieu
Had an interesting point of view.
In the space of an hour
He divided all power.
I think it's amazing, don't you?

With great intellectual arts,
Montesquieu gave power three parts.
Parliament makes the laws,
Kings punish all flaws,
And courts interpret, for starts!

The theory of all things political
Requires minds quite analytical.
If we claim to explain
Publoic passion and pain,
Being stupid would be hypocritical!

A happy new year to all!

祝大家新年快乐！ 可惜，我写的这些诗没办法翻成中文。 它描述极为有名的政治思想家，包括苏柯拉提，马恰为例，赫伯斯，卢梭，和蒙特斯乔。 Hobbes认为若没有政府与社会，人生不能长寿，并且很难过于暴动。法国的Rousseau把Hobbes颠倒了。Rousseau认为原始人生是尊贵的生命，只有文明叫我们变坏了。