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Shelley asserts that "Poets and
philosophers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."
It is possible to join him and
those who came before and since; to add to the body of work, our own
words which have "startled" us "by the electric life" contained in them.
This website is an invitation to
you dear reader to become a "mirror" and reflect the "gigantic shadows"
or big ideas, "which futurity" our muse, "casts upon the present".
Shelley's big ideas included a list of 5
very specific reform goals:
We would abolish the national debt.
We would disband the standing army.
We would, with every possible regard to the existing rights of the holders, abolish sinecures.
We would, with every possible regard to the existing interests of the holders, abolish tithes, and make all religions, all forms of opinion respecting the origin and
government of the Universe, equal in the eye of the law. We would make justice cheap, certain and speedy, and extend the institution of juries to every possible occasion of
jurisprudence.
This list was made in 1819-20 and yet
to this day we are still urging our governments to enact them. Notice
that the list of reforms are transportable across time, place and
culture unless your culture craves runaway debt, armies of aggression,
privileged classes beyond liability, religious doctrine as public
policy, and justice unavailable.
My understanding of reading Shelley is that to become a legislator of
the world, to become an agent of reform, a trinity of action is
required.
One must
study the past struggles for liberty handed down through the lineage
of great poets, philosophers and educators. One must
allow the muse or unapprehended future to cast its shadow of words and
images upon us to the degree that we are sincerely astonished. And one
must publish (communicate) our sparks of revolutionary ideas as
lawgivers have done since
Solon of
Athens (638-558 BC) whose poetry and reforms were recorded on "axones"
or wooden "lazy susans".
My
contribution is the 6th reform which caught
me totally by surprise on June 1st 2008 while I was traveling with
members of the Simon Fraser University Graduate Liberal Studies class in
Italy as we traced our way from Montreux to Rome via Venice, Florence,
Siena and other Tuscan and Umbrian towns that either Shelley, Byron or
Rousseau had spent time in. I was allowed to accompany the class as a
member's spouse and although I was not enrolled in the program, I was
expected to complete the course readings and participate in the class
discussions along the way. This fulfilled the first
essential action required in becoming "... a legislator of the world.";
the study of the past masters of thought.
The environment of reading, study,
discussion and travel set up the second requirement of experiencing the
startling excitement generated by the current of power contained in an
idea (the 6th reform), and that led me here
to the third essential of publishing.
One's ideas will not affect the struggle to reform until they are
broadcast and amplified by those in a position to bring about the
change. |
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