People have forgotten… “That the very bones of the United States — the constitution we claim to hold so dear — was crafted by highly educated political idealists of the Enlightenment, who firmly believed that freedom and a more just society are possible only through the actions of an enlightened and educated population of voters.
Frankly, it’s sickening, not to mention dangerous. If the haters, fearers, and political opportunists have their way, they will gut one of the greatest institutions in human history and, in the process, will cut the throat of this country, draining its lifeblood of future creativity.”
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Thank you to Angela Zito, director of Religious Studies at NYU and my academic advisor, who pointed to this post, “a great, sobering summary of the magnitude of the decline” of our nation’s relationship to academia.
And thanks to Terran Lane, (formerly) of U. New Mexico, for writing it over at Ars Experientia.
On this date in 1821, Sir Richard Francis Burton was born in Great Britain. The colorful adventurer and explorer, educated at Oxford, served in the army in India, where he began to study languages and Muslim culture. Burton became fluent in nearly 30 languages. Posing as a pilgrim, he was the first non-Muslim to partake in the rituals of Mecca, writing a book about the experience. He made famous translations of the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, and traveled extensively in the Mideast, Africa, and South America. Biographers, including his niece, Georgiana Stisted (True Life of Sir. R.F. Burton) considered Burton a rationalist, at most an agnostic or Deist. He was married to a highly superstitious Catholic woman* who had last rites administered at Burton’s death. D. 1890.
