Whither Harrowings?
Musing on November 4 and History - Past, Present, and Future
And here we sit, on the precipice of history, the day before Election Day in the United States of America - which, given the way the swing states appear to be aligned - by dint of their very “swinging” status - can not be said to be united at all. It’s a time to reflect, the autumn is upon us and we’re going into winter shortly. For now, we are here.
Generally, “Harrowings” is meant to be apolitical. The paid material being publication and republication of my late father’s work, its a matter of history - a reporting of the detective work in which he engaged, uncovering things lost in the shuffle - hunting down clues. One of the better pieces, “…one good town…,” uncovered the role of John Locke in recommending that my hometown, Williamsburg, Virginia, be established. It was, it seems, a hope of his that it be a place where the concepts of his “Two Treatises on Government” could be played out in reality. This ended up being the case. To see what our latest manifestation of technological prowess in the Information Age would make of the Two Treatises, I ran a little experiment by asking ChatGPT to write an essay in the style of Franz Kafka on Locke’s work and this was the result. I read it and it takes about 4 minutes and 43 seconds to listen to it.
We forget our history too easily. We do ourselves a harm when we forget too. It’s dangerous and we’re about to see the result of this. Callous disregard for the rights of the governed by the government has deleterious results for everyone. However, I’m reminded of Emerson who wrote regarding the laws of the spirit - and how they operate. Treating others with respect is vital for civil society to operate. Locke was inspired to write an essay on the grievances of Virginia and recommend some remedies. These stemmed from the governor resisting the idea of moving the Capitol of Virginia from Jamestown to Williamsburg and resisting the idea of establishing the College of William and Mary as well. He was removed and within two years, the Capitol was established in Williamsburg and a fine building, now reconstructed on its original site was built. It would burn and be replaced by a different but similar building in which Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and others would cut their political teeth.
These must have been harrowing times as the young colony transformed dramatically. In an article that I am still in the process of transcribing, my late father described the actions of the General Assembly of Virginia in establishing laws to attract immigrants to Virginia from not just England, but other countries. These laid the basis for immigration policy that helped our country form as expressed in the Latin phrase “E Pluribus Unum,” - “Out of Many, One!”
It’s harrowing - sitting here wondering how the world will work out. One thing is certain, none of us are permanent - nor are our troubles and we are evolving - learning - and making mistakes as we improvise a life in a world we inherited from others who were trying to make their way from dawn to dusk and back again.
