{"id":79,"date":"2021-07-25T14:16:26","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iterudio.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2021-07-25T14:16:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T18:16:26","slug":"honor-eye-for-an-eye-greed-living-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"Honor, Eye for an Eye, Greed, Living Well …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Yahoo! Finance – “Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform that connects learners, educators, and institutions<\/a>” <\/p>\n\n\n

Coursera<\/strong>
With a lot of the “history” classes – the instructor\/presenter is an expert of the subject, teaches at a prestigious university, and has probably written a book. <\/p>\n\n\n

SO the online coursera class becomes “marketing” for the university and professor. Which isn’t egregious – just pointing out that they aren’t engaged in 100% altruism. <\/p>\n\n\n

No, I don’t get anything for mentioning them (edX is good as well, and Hillsdale College offers a lot of fine\/free online classes for history enthusiasts).<\/p>\n\n\n

The “Patrick Henry” class kept getting pushed aside for “other things.” I had actually forgotten about it, but when I logged in the other day – I received a gentle reminder that I hadn’t completed the course. SO after a “deadline reset” finishing the last week of the course was fun.<\/p>\n\n\n

Honor<\/strong>
The “Patrick Henry” course was subtitled “forgotten founder<\/a>.” “Spoiler alert” – the professor argues that Patrick Henry has been “forgotten” (as in “not held in as high regard as he deserves”) because Thomas Jefferson had a deep personal animosity towards Henry.<\/p>\n\n\n

That thesis is easy to accept – considering that Thomas Jefferson seemed to “have issues” with most of the other founders – i.e. he had a long personal “feud” with John Adams (which was resolved before they died). The early history of the U.S. is often described as a contest between “Hamiltonian” and “Jeffersonian” philosophies (saying Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were “rivals” is an understatement).<\/p>\n\n\n

What exactly Jefferson’s problem was with Patrick Henry is debatable – the Professor argues that Jefferson admired Henry early in his career (Henry was the “senior man” in Virginia politics). There was an investigation into Jefferson’s time as governor of Virginia – an investigation which Jefferson blamed on Henry – <\/p>\n\n\n

So, (again the Professor argues) Jefferson probably took the investigation as an attack on his “honor” – and if you are a “Virginia gentleman” attacks on your honor are simply not acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n

My guess is that Henry was less concerned with Jefferson’s personal opinion than Jefferson was with Henry’s – but that isn’t my point today.<\/p>\n\n\n

What struck me was that “personal slights” can have far reaching implications. Or maybe, it is easier to “love your neighbor” when that “neighbor” is a theoretical construct and not someone that you perceive as having “insulted your honor.”<\/p>\n\n\n

I suppose we get thoughts like “normal is what people are, until you get to know them” and\/or “you always hurt the ones you love” (not always intentionally – but that is probably another post) …<\/p>\n\n\n

eye for an eye<\/strong>
I was ready to go on for a couple hundred words – but wikipedia summed up my thoughts ‘”An eye for an eye<\/a>” is a commandment found in Exodus 21:23\u201327 expressing the principle of reciprocal justice measure for measure.’<\/p>\n\n\n

“reciprocal justice” implies “The intent behind the principle was to restrict<\/em>\u00a0compensation to the value of the loss.” (also wikipedia).<\/p>\n\n\n

Of course the key concept becomes “justice” as opposed to “vengeance” – which is really what gets glorified in the “modern world.”<\/p>\n\n\n

greed<\/strong>
I’m fond of arguing that “greed” is always bad.<\/p>\n\n\n

Of course “doing what is in your best interest” isn’t “greed.” Greed implies that you are depriving others of something, while you have more than you need.<\/p>\n\n\n

SO seeking “justice” (as in fair compensation for injury) becomes “vengeance” when “greed” enters the equation.<\/p>\n\n\n

e.g. the classic “he stepped on my shoe, so I shot him” example comes to mind. Obviously shooting someone because they stepped on your shoe is overreacting – “greed” comes into play when you consider “honor” the currency in the altercation – but if your honor is all important, the reaction becomes “understandable” if not “acceptable.”<\/p>\n\n\n

Living well …<\/strong>
Saying “living well is the best revenge” always sounds profound – but may still short of the ideal reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n

“living well” as a response falls short if it implies an indifferent\/neutral response. e.g. in the “shoe stepping” incident – if the response boils down to “you are beneath my notice so I do not care what you do one way or the other” …<\/p>\n\n\n

Meanwhile the ideal response is “outgoing concern” for the other person (in some appropriate form) – e.g. “why” did they step on your shoe in the first place? did they trip? was it an accident? were they shoved? do they need assistance?<\/p>\n\n\n

Ok, obviously within reason and within your means – the story of the “good Samaritan”<\/a> comes to mind …<\/p>\n\n\n

ANYWAY <\/strong>
My guess is that Patrick Henry “lived well” overall – but I also get the impression that he PROBABLY could have “handled” Thomas Jefferson better. <\/p>\n\n\n

Of course those were different times and values – so I don’t really intend negative criticism of either Henry or Jefferson – just making observations …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Yahoo! Finance – “Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform that connects learners, educators, and institutions” CourseraWith a lot of the “history” classes – the instructor\/presenter is an expert of the subject, teaches at a prestigious university, and has probably written a book. SO the online coursera class becomes “marketing” for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iterudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}