From Wiki.
As an academic discipline, Western political philosophy has its origins in ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. One of the first, extremely important classical works of political philosophy is Plato’s The Republic, which was followed by Aristotle’s Politics. Roman political philosophy was influenced by the Stoics, and the Roman statesman Cicero wrote on political philosophy.
The early Christian philosophy of Augustine of Hippo was by and large a rewrite of Plato in a Christian context. The main change that Christian thought brought was to moderate the Stoicism and theory of justice of the Roman world, and emphasize the role of the state in applying mercy as a moral example. Augustine also preached that one was not a member of his or her city, but was either a citizen of the City of God (Civitas Dei) or the City of Man (Civitas Terrena). Augustine’s The City of God is an influential work of this period that refuted the thesis, after the First Sack of Rome, that the Christian view could be realized on Earth at all – a view many Christian Romans held.
Other political philosophies that have influenced today’s world include:
And some good music about the epic struggle for freedom during the Boer wars.
Hows your Afrikaans CT?
I could probably read it fairly well, but speaking it would be a whole other thing altogether.
Afrikaans is closely related to Dutch, as the original settlers in South Africa were from the Netherlands. I picked up a fair amount of Dutch while living in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is close enough to the Dutch border to be able to pick up Dutch TV. The foreign shows were telecast in the original language with Dutch subtitles. Dutch is kind of a cross between German and English, so reading it was relatively easy for me.
I started out by watching American and British shows and reading the Dutch subtitles. By the time I left, I could watch shows in other languages (e.g. Portuguese, Swedish, etc.) and follow what was going on by reading the subtitles. I’d also watch shows in Dutch (especially the news), and at one time I could follow it pretty well if I was listening without distractions through headphones.
The Afrikaaners are a pretty interesting people, not unlike the early Texians. It’s my understanding that they settled the largely uninhabited southern Africa before many of the indigenous people did.
I’ve always wondered about the inexact term “African-American.” Shouldn’t Afrikaaners who immigrate to the United States be called African-Americans? Even John Kerry’s wife Teresa should be called an African-American, because she was born and raised in Mozambique. But the term is used exclusively to refer to race, even though most of our “African-American” citizens and their descendants haven’t set foot on African soil in over 300 years. By this logic, I should be called a European-American, because my family has only been in the U.S. since the late-1880’s. Go figure.
But the term is used exclusively to refer to race, even though most of our “African-American” citizens and their descendants haven’t set foot on African soil in over 300 years.
I’d like to be in the audience at an Obama rally and get to ask a single question. I would ask why he calls himself Black rather than White. The answer is obvious but the response would be interesting. Of course it would be anything but the truth. The truth being, black or African American, is code for special privilege,treatment or standing.