Primary and Secondary documents

Yes, if you're wondering about below, I did just dismiss a major and often popular philosophic discipline without taking the energy to read any primary documents. Secondary documents, or perhaps tertiary ones here as summaries are all I went by. If I have been unfair to judge the philosophy by its surface summary, forgive me. But I'm my own cat and I'm not about to get tainted by clearly inferior philosophy. My desire to keep everyone I know from wasting any segment of their lives with it is strong enough for me to write a bit about it, with less material than the 14 or so books he wrote. There are far better philosophic books to be gleaned from, and I intend to read them soon, and give my assessment, whether anyone wants to hear it or not. If anyone objects to my unfair treatment of Nietzsche, I'll demonstrate the inferiority by producing my own Farmer/Merchant/Soldier morality that totally trumps his weak system in explaining the conflict of values throughout history. At least, it has some Rochambeau, so it is balanced (his system would have exploded and cannibalized itself long ago). Of course, my system, like his, would be ultimately inadequate to explain all moral phenomenon. Like his, it wouldn't perfectly fit innumerable people's experience with the evaluation that is part and parcel of experiencing life.

The Gettysburg Limerick

Fourscore and seven years (not to the day)
Our fathers got together and said, "Hey,
Let's bring forth a new nation
So that each generation
Will be equipped to keep evil at bay

"We'll dedicate to a singular vision
A simple and clear proposition
That all men are equal
Where it matters - the soul."
But they ignored slavery (as it caused division)

Now we're engaged in a great Civil War
And we're shaken right down to this core
To test if we'll endure
To test if we're sure
If our fate has a greatness in store

We are met on a great battlefield
Where young men gave their lives as a shield
We have come to appropriate
Some of this field and dedicate
It to their memory, how they did not yield

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate
Nor can we, with our words consecrate
Our efforts run shallow
If we try to hallow
This ground, we arrive way too late

Already here brave men have acted
They have lived, and they've died, and exacted
A consecration far greater
Than we bring coming later
We add nothing, nor can we detract it

These words which will fade in a whimper
An obscure speech from the 19th of November
All the words that I say
Will one day fade away
And the world will little note nor remember

But it cannot forget what they've done
It's for us, the remaining, living ones
To dedicate to their work
Which unfinished still lurks
And will linger until all is won

Those who've fought here have nobly advanced
And gave selflessly at the the highest demands
The last full measure of devotion
Has set vict'ry in motion
They have not died in vain to gain land

But they've died for this: freedom's new birth
That this nation, under God, shall lift its curse
And this government of the people
By the people, for the people
Shall not perish from the face of the earth

The Declaration of Limerick

We find this the fitting occasion
To declare to the world: separation
In this historic hour
We hereby claim the power
To become a separate nation

But it would not be much fair to you guys
If we did not even tell you the whys
Why we dissolve all the bands
Why we throw up our hands
Why we say you've been feeding us lies

We hold all these things to be true
That God has made both me and you
And that so we won't fight
He has given us rights
Both of us, and important ones, too

The inalienable rights are a "Doi"
They're Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Joy
And to make these rights sure
We've come up with a cure
Institute government, and all of its ploys

Yet this government has not the power
If not justly derived from the lower
Just powers need consent
From the people who leant
Them the power to to sit in the tower

If this government does not do its job
If it's filled up with tyrants and slobs
If they abuse the rights
And ignore the plights
Of their subjects, who are killed, raped and robbed

Then the people must alter or abolish
Not endure or excuse or try to polish
A government disruptive
A government destructive
A government wanting them to act sheepish

Now we will talk of the present King of Britain
To a candid world, let it be written
He's a long, wicked list
Of a hard iron fist
A man indifferent, indignant, and a villain

We can list a long train of abuses
Usurpations and various misuses
Of these colonies proper
The King's made us all paupers
With his taxes and with threats of nooses

Here are things we have all suffered through
The King won't give a nod to laws new
That might alleviate needs
At our needs, he recedes
And keeps us ever at the end of the cue

He micromanages his Governors fiercely
And forbids them from passing laws merely
On his own untrusting whim
You might say he's quite dim
Or if not, he's been acting quite queerly

He will not give us representation
Which intimates his own nervous station
Only tyrants need fear
From the review of peers
Of his cunningly cruel altercations

He won't let our lawmakers meet in a place
That's convenient for discussing our case
And by shipping them around
He wears them all down
So they'll accept any new law in disgrace

He will not let us have judges to draw
Conclusions in our own courts of law
And the ones he does have
Are economically, his slaves
He manipulates with a flick of his paw

He has erected a slew of new posts
Filled with his cronies that he likes the most
He sends them all here
And they drink all our beer
And they eat all our corn, bread and toast

When it's peaceful, his foul soldiers roam
And set up themselves in our homes
Our policemen are powerless
Our young maidens, flowerless
And the soldiers leave lice in our combs

When his soldiers have murdered someone
Killed in cold blood, they don't even run
He protects them, so vile
With a mock, doctored trial
And the murd'rer recieves back his gun

In temperous tantrum tirade
He has cut off our lifeblood, our trade
He has imposed new taxes
On things like candle waxes
And on all goods that our folk have made

He won't let us be tried by a jury
Cause he's always in such of a hurry
Trumped up charges are laid
So he ships us away
To be tried (if we don't die of scurvy)

He's set up new realms beside us
Canadians that smell stongly of musk
They set precedent
That we must pay high rent
Just to live, and we slave dawn to dusk

Often he's revoked charters he's given
When he's feeling particularly livid
He's suspended our best laws
In a fit of guffahs
And he toys with our lives and our living

He's declared us outside his protection
And severed our once loyal connection
By waging on us war
When we said, "we're too poor
To pay these taxes," (with honest conviction)

Like a pirate he's plundered our seas
Sent his sailors to spread lots of VDs
He's burnt down our towns
At the whim of his Crown
And ignored our concilliatory pleas

He's now importing some mercenaries so gruff
That are foreign and hate us enough
To sow death, desolation and tyranny
Begun with Cruelty and Perfidy
Unparalleled in history and quite rough

He aligns us against our own kin
If on the seas we stray too near to him
His soldiers conscript us
Right after they whip us
And force us to fight body and limb

He has stirred up the injuns agin' us
In a big pincher movement they pin us
They way that they fight
They dont care, wrong or right
They kill women and children (it's heinous)

Now in every above stage we have mentioned
We petitioned for the Crown's intervention
In our humble duress
We just asked for redress
And recieved yet more anal retention

A Prince, whose character is thus
Is unfit to be ruler of us
We call him a tyrant
And we become defiant
And we dissolve now the last of our trust

Nor have we been unfair to our brothers
We've asked kindly just not to be smothered
The reason for our settlement
On this new continent
Was somewhat so that we'd not be bothered

But the British people as well have ignored
And been deaf when we've cried out to the Lord
So we acquiesce in the necessity
To pursue a separate destiny
We'll no longer beg you to put down your sword

We, therefore, the United States assembled
Appeal to the Supreme Judge for the motives we've kindled
We officially declare
That we'll no longer wear
The label of Britain's subjects and tremble

We are now Free and Independent States
We are separate, it's not up to debate
We're absolved of Allegiance
To the Crown and its Regent
Ya'll can't coax us back now ('cause it's too late)

To this end we now pledge mutually
Against threat of death, we claim we are free
For this firm Declaration
God will protect this nation
We trust Divine Intervention, and Providentially

Have a great Memorial Day!