American Civil War

The Home Fires Burn

By

Varo Borja

Never be haughty to the humble; never be humble to the haughty. – Jefferson Davis

The American Civil War was probably the defining epoch of the United States of America. The war claimed the lives of more Americans than any war before or since, and it not only abolished a system that was both repugnant and destructive to the souls of the citizens of the United States, the war solidified under one government the erstwhile sectionally divided and regionally proud denizens of our Great Republic. However, sectional loyalties and regional differences still persist in the United States to this day, and almost no time in the history of America were these loyalties and prejudices more apparent than during the Civil War. Western North Carolinians were especially proud of and loyal to their homeland, as they are today. The common confederate soldier from Western N.C. in the American Civil War, although beleaguered by defeats in battle, sickness in camp, and worries of the home front, never lost sight of what truly mattered to him: his home, his family, and his region.

In 1861, the common Confederate soldier from Western North Carolina was anxious to defend his homeland against the "Northern Aggressor". Seth McBride, a soldier from Western North Carolina wrote to his brother and sister that, on August 25th of 1861 he was, “fat and still fattening” (1861). Food, for the North Carolina resident of the 19th century, was a prized commodity, and to claim that he was growing fatter, although probably an overstatement, reflected that he was content and optimistic. His spirits were high, the esprit de corps of his regiment was in full flower, and he was even grateful that his officers were, “very strict, and I like them better for that” (S. McBride, 1861). This letter was written a little over a month after the Confederate victory at Bull Run, and the general feelings about the war were optimistic and lively. Another letter from a teenage girl in Rutherfordton on January 8, 1861 said,

We are all anticipating war here; we girls are reading all the stories we can find about the women of the Revolution, so that we’ll know how to act bravely and magnanimously in time of war” (Inscoe and McKinney, 59).

With such devotion on the home front, and success in the field, the average Confederate soldier in 1861 had many reasons to believe a bright future lay ahead for the Confederate States of America.

In February of 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant attacked on captured Fort Henry in Tennessee, but was defeated at the battle of Shiloh two months later. Two letters are extant from 1862 that show cooled attitudes towards the war and more sober outlook by the common soldier. The first, from a Western North Carolina Confederate soldier named Alfred G__ states,

I can say to you that I am not well…I have been for two weeks and part of the time very sick…I write this letter as an inquiry also to know if you can tell me anything about my wife. I have wrote her thirteen letters and have never got an answer from her yet since I got to Virginia (1862).

This letter reveals two things: a communication breakdown in the Confederate mail system and the dreaded camp disease so prevalent in both armies during the war. By 1862, reality had set in and most of the populace counted on the war lasting an interminable amount of time. Another letter from a soldier named BL Green who was stationed at Camp Richmond, Virginia in August of 1862 reads,

I this morning take the present time in writing you a few lines which will inform you that I am in common health ever hoping that when these few lines which will inform you that I am in common health…I have nothing much to write that will interest you more than Uncle B and Brother Silas has got back from the North…Uncle is as fat as a Grisley Bear but Silas look sort of slim…Townsel died after they got to New York…As in regard to war news they keep fighting a little almost every day, but know regular engagement…(Green 1862)


This letter is also revealing of the camp sickness endemic in 19th century warfare when it speaks of Silas “looking sort of slim” and Townsel dying mysteriously in New York. There were fears expressed as well about conditions on the home front in Western North Carolina. According to a letter from Confederate lieutenant W.F. Parker, a native of Asheville who was stationed in East Tennessee, Parker expressed fear over a coming invasion from Federal forces towards Asheville, and pleaded with local militia to “erect impenetrable fortifications” to avoid such an attack (Inscoe and McKinney, 108). With infrequent letters from home, lingering camp sickness and possible attack of their native region, Confederate soldiers from Western North Carolina in 1862 had many reasons to look with dread upon the years of war that lay ahead.
After a stunning victory at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, war fever ran high through the Confederate ranks. However, camp sickness and worries of the home front still plagued many soldiers. Most soldiers were reluctant to inform their families of their true states of health or conditions in the field due to extreme loyalty and a desire not to worry their kinfolk, but in some instances poor health could mean a furlough, as is described in a letter from T. B. Edmisten to his parents in July, 1863. The letter reads,

It is improving some but I am not able for duty I hav got so that I can talk nearly as good as eaver My throat is very soare even now now and has been for the last two weeaks I hav not Mother I cant tell whier I wil git of or not the Dr gave me a surtificate for a disch-- charge and it is gone to the general it will be some thing like a month befour I hear from it and if I git the chance I will come home as soon as I can Reduced mutch but I am very weak.

Edmisten goes on in the letter to remind his parents that their letters are a great pleasure to him, and he exhorts his father to “take more rest” because of “advancing age” (Edmisten, 1863). 1863 was the zenith of Confederate success during the Civil War, culminating in Lee’s victory at Chancellorsville in May of that year. On the eve of Gettysburg, a Western North Carolina soldier named JG Huntley wrote to his sister saying,

Dear sister a fiew Lines to you I am in the Best of health at this time hoping this Will find you all in the same Condition I Will only say to you that We have Crossed the potomach and has passed through Meriland and is Now in P A Within 60 miles of harrisburg the Capital of this state We hant herd of any Yankees Nearer than harrisburg the Capital But I Expect that hooker is Nearer than that We are stoped today in a Beautiful Oke grove I Cant tell whare old Lee Will Carry us tow this is One of the finest Countrys that I Ever saw But I hant time to tell you of any of Our ups and downs Now at this time tell pap Not to Come to this War I hant time to tell you Nothing at this time worth any thing may heaven Bless you all (Huntley, 1863)

This letter is very indicative of the feigned optimistic tone found in many Civil War letters from soldiers to family, and foreshadows the calm before the storm at the great Confederate defeat at Gettysburg. Not much longer would the tide ride high for the soldiers of the Confederacy, and camp disease and trouble on the home front were two shadows that loomed constantly in the backs of the their minds.

After crippling Confederate defeats at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, many in the South began to believe that the war was lost. Desertion plagued the Confederate army, and Union forays into the mountains of Western North Carolina left the people on the home front discouraged and disgusted. A letter from G.W. Logan, a Unionist who was elected to the Confederate Congress, relates some of the damage done by the recent campaigning in Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. The letter states,

Dear Sir:A few days ago I visited Camp Winder a Hospital near this place & saw some of your countrymen & gained the following information of casualties in the late battle G.S. Ferguson was wounded in the head, not serious M. Main [?] in the elbow L.W. Murray, in the side H.P. Holland in the hand T.M. Green in the arm The above are the only ones I have heard from. I am sorry I cannot write you something of interest Congress has done but very little, nor do I think it will do much. We are trying to modify the Tax T_____ and impressment laws but I cannot as yet tell the result.Genl Lee has fallen back near this place & it is believed his army will soon be within the entrenchments surrounding the City.It is said Gen Grant is now coming up on the old ground of McClelland & will unite with _____. Both armys are reinforcing largely [?] & the next fight is expected to be the great battle of the War. In the late engage-- ments the loss on both sides was immense, our loss must have been in Killed wounded & prisoners at least 20 or --25.0000 & the Yankees more than double that number.There is but little ap-- pearance of Peace, though the present Congress is much stronger for negotiations than the preceding one.The Dis_______ are determined not to havepeace only in their own way & at their own time. Very Respectfully G.W. Logan

With defeats in the field of this magnitude, an ever-increasing sense of doom was held by many in the Confederate army, and desertion rates mounted steadily. In Western North Carolina, guerrilla warfare was ravaging the countryside with both Union and Confederate troops inflicting damage on the populace, prompting North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance to say in a letter to Confederate General John C. Vaughan after two of Vaughan’s men had been lynched in Watauga county,

No one can more deplore the quasi warfare between the troops and citizens than myself. But sir, the conduct of many of your men…in parts of our mountain country has been sufficient to drive our people to desperation. The stories of robbery and outrage by them would fill a volume and would fully justify the immediate and indiscriminate slaughter of all men caught with the proofs of their villany. From looking upon them as their gallant protectors, thousands in their bitterness of heart have come to regard them as their deadliest enemies (Inscoe and McKinney, 138).

More defeats mounted for the Confederates in 1864, with a substantial loss at Nashville in December and Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea”, in which Sherman inflicted heavy material and moral losses to the Confederate cause and crippled their ability and their will, to fight.

In conclusion, the year of 1865 tolled the bell for the end of the Confederacy after Lee’s army of Northern Virginia gave a last gasp attempt to fight at Petersburg, with battle ending in defeat and ushering in the sack of Richmond. Lee surrendered less than a month later, with General Johnston surrendering nine days later to Sherman and officially ending the war. The common soldiers of Western North Carolina returned home to find guerrilla warfare still reeking havoc among their kinfolk. More than a month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the vestiges of conflict began to die down in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Western North Carolina soldiers had fought a long and brutal conflict, and returned home to chaos and the fear of banditry. What is remarkable about them though, is the ability of these soldiers to retain a positive attitude, at least about their health and their stations in life, even in the midst of a war that for many was hell on earth, and purgatory on the home front. The simple faith in family and Creator held by the men from Western North Carolina sustained them in their tribulations, and although many of them lost faith in their government and even in the war itself, they never gave up on what truly mattered: their immediate families and their homes. More than anything else a sectional and regional conflict, the American Civil War proved the resilience and devotion of a generation of fighting men, and imbued them with the toughness to weather the storm of Reconstruction ahead.

Works Cited

McBride Letter: 1861. Found in LRC at Caldwell Community College. Diane Barefoot
Collection.
G, Alfred Letter: 1862. Found in LRC at Caldwell Community College. Diane Barefoot
Collection.
BL Green Letter: 1862. Found in LRC at Caldwell Community College. Diane Barefoot
Collection.
T.B. Edmisten Letter: 1863. Found at: http://library.wcu.edu/DigitalColl/CIVILWAR/edmon/edintro.htm
JG Huntley Letter: 1863. Found at:

http://library.wcu.edu/DigitalColl/CIVILWAR/huntley/hunttext.htm

GW Logan Letter: 1864. Found at:

http://library.wcu.edu/DigitalColl/CIVILWAR/cathey/INDEX.HTM

Inscoe, John C. and Gordon B. McKinney. The Heart of Confederate Appalachia:

Western North Carolina in the Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of

North Carolina Press, 2000.

Medieval Vs. Modern

Touchstones and Tin Stamps

By

Varo Borja

There’s never a new fashion but it’s old. – Geoffrey Chaucer

Imagine two craftsmen, one laboring away grinding pigment for paint, the other painstakingly carving a chunk of granite. The first craftsman grinds yellow, red and blue chalk into grains finer than sand and then carefully mixes each of his precious piles of pigment with egg yolks in order to produce brilliant tempera paints, letting his concoctions dry as he laboriously prepares the wall of a monastery for the application of fresco, sanding and scraping until his hands are bleeding and dry as dust. The second craftsman hews and hammers his chunk of granite for days with chisel and hammer until the stone meets the exact specifications of the master mason, and then with his hands bandaged from missed strokes of the hammer, puts the finishing touch upon his block of granite with the insignia of his particular guild, taking utmost care in the carving of his own personal, but still anonymous stamp upon the building block he has fashioned for the new Cathedral at Salisbury. So it was with the artists and artisans of the Middle Ages, who labored day after day to create some of the most beautiful and inspirational works of all time. Some of their art has been lost; however, much of the art and architecture of the Middle Ages survives in the churches, monasteries, and galleries of Europe. The artists and architects of the past five decades have created significant works as well, with varying success and degrees of difficulty. However, the visual arts of the European Medieval period far surpass the painting and architecture of the last fifty years; the artists and architects of the medieval period also left a legacy that both inspires and creates an atmosphere of enjoyment for many people in the 21st century.

In the field of painting, artists from the Middle Ages shined brilliantly. Medieval masters with the paintbrush created religious art primarily, focusing on exquisite depictions of the Crucified Christ, the Enthronement of the Virgin Mary, and elaborate scenes of the Apocalypse. An example of the superb skill and deep feeling of Byzantine artists during the Middle Ages is to be found in the immaculate rendition, by an anonymous artist, of the Crucified Christ at the monastery church in Daphne, Greece (Janson 262). This superb painting reflects the utter nobility of Christ and his sacrificial death. Christ is surrounded by St. John and the Virgin Mary, who witness his earth-shattering and immortal gift to the human race (Janson 263). According to History of Art, the Daphne Christ, “has a balance and clarity that are truly monumental” (Janson 260). The background of the painting is done in gold leaf, as are the halos surrounding the pious heads of Christ, Mary, and John. The Daphne artist depicts Christ with two thin streams of blood and water pouring from his left side; a reminder of the water of life that flows from Christ’s heavenly throne and the blood he shed so unselfishly at Calvary for the atonement of mankind’s sins. Visitors to the Daphne monastery today may still feel the sheer power conveyed by the artist who painted this scene over 800 years ago and be uplifted by the passionate, yet reserved display of the crucifixion of Christ. Truly, there is nothing hanging in the galleries or halls of Europe and America that has been produced within the last five decades, that can surpass the spiritual power of the Daphne Crucifixion.

Another illustration of the mastery displayed by Medieval painters is the Madonna Enthroned by Cimabue, found in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy (Adams 452). This elaborate enthronement depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child, surrounded by a throng of angels and bolstered by four prophets of the Old Testament. In addition to the gold leaf used in the background of the painting, Cimabue adorned the regal heads of the young Jesus and Mary with exquisitely thin, gilt strips. The painting is done in tempera (pigment mixed with egg yolk), and reflects the nimble craftsmanship of Cimabue in the lush draperies that flow outward from the Virgin’s lap. The colors of the piece are both brilliant and meaningful; red is included to symbolize the future sacrifice of the Christ child, and the Virgin is adorned in blue: her traditional iconographic color (Adams 452). According to Laurie Schneider Adams, in her book Art Across Time, “the four prophets at the foot of the throne embody the Old Dispensation as the foundation of the New” (452). This piece is redolent of a time when the old masters invested their works with holy symbolism and the stuff of their own souls; also, because of the pains taken in the production of this painting, this piece may still be enjoyed and meditated upon by visitor’s to the Uffizi Gallery today. The four Old Testament prophets in the Madonna Enthroned might look with skepticism at many of the “new dispensation” of artists producing works today with neither the significance, nor the reverence, found in the masterpiece of Cimabue.

A final representation of the surpassing qualities of Medieval painting may be found in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Italy, in the form of Giotto’s Last Judgment (Adams 460). This apocalyptic piece was placed on the west wall of the Arena chapel, after a series of other events portrayed by Giotto in chronological order found on the other walls of the church (Adams 461). The magnitude and breathtaking scope of this piece are undeniable: the Last Judgment is 33 feet high by 27 feet wide (Adams 460). The viewer of the Last Judgment is at once drawn to the person of Christ in the center, surrounded by a circle of holy fire and His attending cherubim and seraphim. The righteous of God are displayed on the right hand of Christ, in expectation of their just reward. The damned are arrayed on the left hand of Christ in torturous poses, surrounded by unquenchable fire and lorded over by a beastly Satan, who is devouring one helpless victim after another. In the background and left and right foreground are the choir of elders and the prophets of old, witnessing the scene of triumph and destruction with pious, yet indignant faces. Truly this piece is a monument to a time when divine inspiration played as much a part in the production of art as the desire to hand down to posterity scenes that would both uplift the viewer, and exhort him or her to lead a life in the full assurance of there one day occurring a final reckoning with God. In that capacity, this piece is surely just as effective as it was 800 years ago. Divers works by the hands of modern artists in New York and Paris have been manufactured over the past fifty years with varying degrees of success, but none of these productions may compare, in eminence of scope and ethereal grace, to Giotto’s Last Judgment.

In the past fifty years, many styles of painting have degenerated into formlessness, obscure expressionism, or cold, unfeeling realism. Although vastly popular in his day, Jackson Pollack created paintings that lacked form, substance, and any significant symbolic meaning. One example of this lack of structure may be found in Pollack’s Autumn Rhythm housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York (Preble 444). Duane Preble, in his book Artfoms describes Pollack’s method of painting as, “dripping thin paint onto the canvas rather than brushing it on” (444). Upon first viewing Autumn Rhythm, the viewer is entranced by the haphazard, yet alluring effect conveyed by Pollack’s method; however, after further investigation the viewer is left with a feeling of having been cheated, or drawn into a magnificent ruse facilitated by the brushwork of Mr. Pollack. In many ways groundbreaking, Autumn Rhythm may be compared to a Fourth of July fireworks display on the twentieth of April; the initial effect of the piece is fantastic, but the lasting significance of this piece, in some respects, is lost in its fiery expressionism. Another sample of the degeneration of art in the past fifty years is to be found in the polar opposite of Pollack’s brand of painting: Trompe L’oeil, or “fool the eye” composition. According to Duane Preble’s book, Artforms, “Paintings in this illusionistic style impress us because they look so ‘real’” (27). Once again, the viewer is entranced and allured by the precise details and high color realism found in such paintings as William Harnett’s A Smoke Backstage (Preble 27) Although created much more than fifty years ago, Harnett’s brand of photo realism lives on in the twenty-first century, but still conveys technical ability without feeling, and superimposes precise details for spiritual abstractions of lasting consequence. Photo-realism and chaotic expressionism are not to be found in the works of Giotto, Cimabue and other Medieval painters; their work was infused with the natural beauty of the human figure and the otherworldly aspect of sacred subjects, and unequivocally, the immaterial and natural characteristics of Medieval painting surpass the plastic productions of many artists in the modern era.

In the construction of landmark buildings, the architects and artisans of the Medieval period have no rival. At the behest of Abbot Suger and other benefactors of the Middle Ages, great cathedrals were built to facilitate the worship of the Triune God (Kemp 100). In France, Chartres Cathedral is perhaps the paradigm for elegance, spiritual depth, and magnitude without ostentation in regard to architecture. According to The Oxford History of Western Art,

At the west front of Chartres Cathedral (c. 1145-50), an influential early Gothic monument, sculpture on the three doorways refers to Christ from the beginning to the end of time, culminating in the central tympanum of him at the Second Coming. The lintel, capitals, arches and columns at Chartres are neither plain nor ornamental but are carved with figural groups which amplify the theological content of the whole scene (Kemp 101).

Such devices as an apocalyptic tympanum (a frieze over the entrance) and decorative capitals (the heads of columns) with scenes from the scriptures in stone relief certainly may exhort the visitor to tread a narrow path, but the uplifting power of Chartres’s 180 exquisite stained glass windows, which reflect the light of God’s grace upon the worshippers in Chartres’s spacious nave (central hallway) and lofty choir, both inspire and delight happy pilgrims of the twenty-first century (Kemp 101). An accurate estimation may be made when the immaterial benefits of Chartres Cathedral are chosen over the flash and utility of modern edifices, and the lasting impact of this Gothic treasure appreciated more fully when viewed in the shadow cast by twentieth and twenty-first century constructions of steel and concrete.

A less imposing, but still grand example of Medieval architecture may be found at Salisbury Cathedral, in England (Janson 338). Salisbury Cathedral sprawls over many acres of English countryside, invoking the spirits of nature as well as those of art in the cultivation of prayer. Much like Chartres Cathedral, Salisbury is home to a host of ornate capitals, devotion-warming friezes, and brilliant stained glass (Kemp 102). The plan of Salisbury Cathedral called for walls much lower than most other churches of the period, lending an air of humility to this otherwise uplifting edifice; however, a very tall crossing (central) tower was added at a later date, guiding the eyes of the worshippers at Salisbury towards the heavens and the throne of the Most High God. The worshippers at Salisbury also enjoy a spacious nave with a vaulted ceiling and a brightly lit choir. The architect of Salisbury cathedral is lost to posterity, but his work remains a testament to the immortal spirit of the Middle Ages and a place for the prayerful repose and inspiration of visitors there today. Certainly, architecture of the Medieval period represented in the form of Salisbury Cathedral surpasses that of the past five decades, and makes many men of the twenty-first century cast glances backwards in time to savor the artistry and charm of this English marvel.

A look at the world of modern architecture leaves much to be desired, both in form and content. Perhaps the fastest growing and most lavish spot on earth for the display of the twenty-first century builder’s skills is the small country of Dubai, on the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. According to Spud Hilton’s article for the San Francisco Chronicle on June 17, 2007,

It (Dubai) is a freak show on an international scale, with attractions and oddities you can't believe exist, but that you can't seem to look away from, and where outlandish projects that others deem too bizarre, too expensive or too impossible fill the skylines, the coastlines and the headlines.

Apparently hosting a plastic surgeon’s office inside a submerged hotel, Dubai is also home to the world’s tallest skyscraper, a theme park bigger than Disney World, and the largest shopping mall on earth (Fox 1). This tiny emirate empire is certainly ambitious and holds much to be desired by the bodies and minds of visitors to Dubai, but where is the soul of this pseudo-Sodom? According to Catherine Fox’s article for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “Dubai’s unprecedented development…portends a future of environmental and sustainability problems” (Fox 1). Fox’s article also speaks of rioting due to poor wages by the Asian workforce employed in Dubai, and the potential backlash of all this worldliness and levity in the form of terrorist attacks by Islamic extremist groups. When compared with the brilliant, yet tasteful stained glass of Chartres cathedral or the humble and natural, yet elegant outlay of Salisbury, the building craze in Dubai seems like so many pillars of salt: flavorful, yet unable to provide proper nourishment for body or soul. Truly, the current fascination held by some with the building of bigger and better abodes for entertainment and avarice, cannot compare with the abiding devotion held by many for the delicate symmetry of the holy houses built during the Medieval period.

In conclusion, some concessions must be made to the artists and architects of the past fifty years. Many groundbreaking and innovative concepts have come into play in the realms of construction and art with the advent of the technological revolution; computers play a part in not only the design of buildings, but in the production of pieces of fine art as well. To base the assumption that Medieval buildings and pieces of art surpass those of the past fifty years solely on the tools provided to each set of craftsmen would be unfair to those who today hammer out their designs with lasers and keyboards instead of hammers and horse hair paintbrushes. It is not only in this lack of technological crutch-wielding that Medieval art surpasses that of today; it is, in part, the ability of the Medieval artist for long-delayed gratification and patient improvement that sets the productions of their hands ahead of those of craftsmen of the present. Furthermore, much has been said of the spiritual significance of the buildings and art of the Middle Ages, and little or nothing about the ideology behind most present works of art and architecture. Diversity reigns supreme when the fine art and architecture of the past fifty years is considered; buildings for most every purpose and playful notion dot the landscape of Europe and the United States. For at least fifty years, most of the people of the Western World have found entertainment, utility and use in the various structures of North America and Europe. The art of painting also has become highly diverse and has attracted far more dilettantes than masters to pick up brush and palette in the past fifty years, thereby making a cursory knowledge of painting more widespread but diluting the pool of talent possessed by those who attempt to paint. Perhaps it is the singleness of focus, more than any other reason, that drove the artists, artisans and architects of the Middle Ages to create works that surpass those of contemporary craftsmen, and perhaps in that singularity of vision lies the widespread appeal and sense of enjoyment to be found in the art of the Middle Ages by people of the twenty-first century.

Works Cited

Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time: Volume II. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Fox, Catherine. “Dubai: Big Dreams in the Desert.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

25 June 2006: A1. Newspaper Source. Access World News. Broyhill

Learning and Resource Center, Hudson, NC. 11 December 2007.

http://wf2dnvr8.webfeat.org

Hilton, Spud. “Dubai.” San Francisco Chronicle. 17 June 2007: G1. Newspaper

Source. Access World News. Broyhill Learning and Resource Center,

Hudson, NC. 11 December 2007.

http://wf2dnvr8.webfeat.org

Janson, H.W., Anthony Janson. History of Art: Volume I. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,

2004.

Kemp, Martin, ed. The Oxford History of Western Art. Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2000.

Preble, Duane and Sarah Preble. Artforms. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2004.

Fryderyk Chopin

Fryderyk Chopin: A Short Essay

By

Varo Borja

The romantic era was one fueled and fanned by the winds of change, not only in the governments of Europe and America, but in the world of the arts as well. Hearkening back to the Baroque era in some respects, music, painting, sculpture, and literature began to be infused with emotion and the gilt ornamentation of faraway places once again; music became more complex and literature, painting and the other arts reflected the changing ideas and emotions of a generation nostalgic for its roots. The second Great Awakening and the Industrial Revolution laid the groundwork for an era of artists to become sick with the familiar and to reach out to the distant horizons or deep within themselves for an answer to the maddening world around them. The French Revolution and the American Civil war were only two of the bloodlettings that propelled this feeling as well. In the world of music, new innovations and technologies allowed composers to create music that would shake the very foundations of the world in flux in which they lived. Fryderyk Chopin was born into this changing and growing world with a gift; although Chopin’s body was weak, his heart was strong and deep, full of life and bursting with music. Fryderyk Chopin created music that transcended the barriers of nationality and ability, and although technically difficult, his music was imbued with an emotional quality and depth of character cultivated not only from his Classical and Baroque influences, but from his own struggles with ill-health and sexual relationships.

Fryderyk Chopin was born in the Polish village of Zelazowa Wola on March 1, 1810, to an expatriate Frenchman and a poor, but distinguished Polish noblewoman (Samson, 1996). Chopin probably contracted tuberculosis during his childhood, but he was loved and nurtured not only by his mother and father, but by the Polish people he came in contact with. Chopin had three sisters with whom he was very close; he received his first piano lessons from his sister Ludwika (Orga, 1980). His youngest sister, Emilia, died young from tuberculosis: an ominous foreboding of Chopin’s own death. Ill health kept the young Chopin indoors most of the year, where he was tutored in French by his father Nicholas, and where he began to receive his first formal instruction on the piano by the tutor Wojciech Zywny (Samson, 1996). Young Chopin was heralded as a prodigy by the aficionados in Poland; however, his father kept a tight rein on this kind of talk and while Chopin was still under his care, Nicholas didn’t let the boy become lazy in his studies (Orga, 1980). However, Chopin quickly outstripped his tutor Zywny, of whom he was very fond, and was published as a musician by the tender age of seven; he gave concerts for charitable purposes and became a favorite of several aristocratic families throughout Poland, most notably the Radziwill family (Orga, 1980).

When he was 16, Chopin went on to attend the University of Warsaw under the tutelage of Jozef Elsner; he was so precocious that he was allowed to skip much of the core curriculum and enter the university at a level of advancement beyond his age (Orga, 1980). Young Chopin was finally away from home and able to fully invest himself in his chosen art: music. Chopin made several friends while in attendance at the University, some of who were noted musicians with anti-government leanings such as the young student, Titus Woyciechowski, whom he would keep in correspondence with throughout his short life (Samson, 1996). According to the book, “Chopin” by Jim Samson, “Cafes were forbidden to the University pupils, but (Chopin) and his friends frequented the theatre, and there was a constant run of name day parties, balls and informal dances” (1996, p. 18). The young Chopin was influenced very heavily by the music he heard at these events in Warsaw, and he even took trips to the countryside (probably for his health) where he was familiarized with Polish peasant music (Samson, 1996). Chopin was plagued by fits of coughing, especially in winter, and suffered much from the cold weather of the region. However, he was accorded a high compliment by his professor, Elsner, on finishing his first year at the University; Elsner commented that Chopin possessed a remarkable talent. Traveling to Vienna while in attendance at the University, Chopin gave a concert there of one of his own compositions and was accorded much acclaim; however, he was also criticized for his smallness of tone. This negative review made the young Chopin question his ability to perform in public, and he developed an aversion for public performances, stating later in life that performing in public was “quite disturbing” for him; he much preferred small audiences and composing to large public displays of his work, at least by his own hand (Samson, 1996). Upon completing his last year at Warsaw University, Chopin was honored with the title of "musical genius" by his professor, Jozef Elsner (Samson, 1996).

Not long after graduation from the University, Chopin went to Vienna again with his friend Titus, but Titus returned early to take part in the Polish revolution in which the Congress government was overthrown (Samson, 1996). Russian troops occupied Poland soon thereafter, and Chopin settled in Paris, never to return to his homeland (Samson, 1996). While in Paris, Chopin continued to compose and met the acquaintance of such formidable musicians as Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann; Schumann remarked at Chopin’s first performance in Paris, “Hats off gentlemen! A genius!” (Mullen, 2004, p. 1). Chopin wrote his most famous pieces in Paris, including his “Minute Waltz” and “Funeral March Sonata” (Samson, 1996). Chopin also made the acquaintance of George Sand, a famous female novelist with whom he began a ten-year love affair. Sand and Chopin’s relationship was very turbulent, but Chopin composed prolifically while they were together, with emphasis on Polish themes such as the Polonaise and the mazurka, and short pieces named only for their catalogue numbers such as his Preludes and Etudes (Samson, 1996). The relationship ended over a dispute with Sand’s family, and Chopin died not long thereafter, on October 17, 1849. He was nursed on his deathbed by his sister, Ludwika, and at his behest his heart was sent back to Poland where it resides in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw (Orga, 1980). Ludwika died six months later (Orga, 1980).

In conclusion, Chopin’s life was one of precocious talent, prodigious composition, stormy health and relationships, and early death. Many people have been greatly affected by Chopin’s music, but there have been some detractors and his music has fallen out of fashion at times. J.W. Davison, a music critic for the London Times, thoroughly denounced Chopin’s music when he said, “Compared with Berlioz, Chopin was a morbidly sentimental flea by the side of a roaring lion” (Yudkin, 2008). My reaction was somewhat different on hearing Chopin for the first time. I wrote this statement for my blog, “Tanzanian Peaberry” on December 8, 2006 when I was first introduced to Chopin’s preludes,

Up, down, down to the depths of the sea and all inside a gilded box. Tighter and tighter and back again, soaring and plummeting the sweat and the tears flowing but so reserved, the gentleman and his fiery steed, the fox and the bear and the unending struggle for air, just a breath of air and the sea, the sea. Bent upon the keyboard grand spectacle and faster, faster flows the fire unquenchable. Phillistines bowing before the God of heaven and the ark of the covenant and the Crimea snow covered and deathlike. FASTER, FASTER, spin the planets and suck the big bang into a ball, singularity becoming tinier and tinier and then silence. Cheers of the multitude. Death on a Sunday. The Queen bows and places the crown at the feet of a beggar, and silence. Silence.


At the time I had no idea that Chopin was afflicted with tuberculosis during his life and died young, or that he had ever been accused of being too “reserved”, which he was by a great many detractors. I also had no idea that Chopin had been presented to Queen Victoria or heard any of the rumors that she had become his pupil (Orga, 1980). Chopin’s music said it all. It was in his ability for expression and the depth of his sonorous meanderings on the piano that Chopin deserved the acclaim he received in his day, but it is in his ability to speak to the listener of today and his still far-reaching appeal that Chopin has earned a place among the greatest musicians of all time.

References

Mullen, A. (January, 2004). In search of Chopin. Hudson Review, 56,
695.
Orga, A. (1980). Chopin: His Life and Times. Neptune City, NJ: Paganiniana
Publications.
Samson, J. (1996). Chopin. New York: Schirmer Books.
Yudkin, J. (2008). Understanding Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Egyptian Art

The Amarna Style
By
Varo Borja

The reign of Amenhotep IV was a phenomenon. His revolutionary crusade to unite Egypt under one god, Aten, changed the course of Egyptian civilization and drastically altered the artistic style of the period. In this short essay I will attempt to define the Amarna style and contrast it with the older order of the Egyptian pharaohs. I will also give background information on Amenhotep's revolutionary life and how it affected Ancient Egypt.

Amenhotep IV was the son of Amenhotep III, and he came to rule Egypt in 1348 B.C. His father, Amenhotep III had venerated the sun disk, Aten, and had promoted its worship against the wishes of the predominant cult of Amun. The priests of Amun had grown over the years to have extreme weatlh and power, and the pharaohs had resented this. Therefore, when Amenhotep IV received the scepter, he destroyed the temples of the god Amun and even went so far as to erase the name of Amun from the public records. Amnehotep IV then moved his kingdom to the city Tel el' Amarna and changed his name to Akhenaten, which means, "effective for the Aten." Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti, ruled there until 1336 B.C., at which time Akhenaten died and, according to some sources, Nefertiti took up the throne.

The style set forth by the Amarna artists is very different from the art of the dynasties before them. The Amarna style is very fluid, as exemplified by the limestone relief, Akhenaten and His Family, found at the top of the page. The Amarna style, headed by Thutmose, the King's head master, was much more perosnal and lighthearted than the style of the Old Kingdom. In the Old Kingdom, busts were done in a very rigid fashion, displaying the Pharaohs as being very muscular and stoic, as in the statue of Khafre from Giza, c. 2500 B.C. The reliefs and statues from the Amarna period display Akhenaten and Nefertiti as having long, spindly arms and free-flowing facial features. The Amarna style is certainly less stuffy and more compassionate, whereas the Old Kingdom style is more conservative and reserved. Thutmose, Akhenaten's "favorite master of works" was the first Egyptian sculptor that modern scholars have been able to identify as having a particular style. His limestone sculpture of Nefertiti is one of the most elegant pieces from antiquity, but it remained unfinished and was left behind in his workshop when he moved to Memphis after the death of Akhenaten in 1336 B.C.


In conclusion, the art of the Amarna period is something of an anomaly. Akhenaten's spiritual revolution changed Egyptian culture and art for years thereafter, and it remains, in my humble opinion, some of the best art from antiquity. Akhenaten was succeeded by Tutankhamen, who reinstated the worship of the god Amun, as is evidenced by his name. However, Tutankhamen did not abolish the creative genius that was evident during the Amarna period, as displayed by works he commissioned such as Workmen Carrying a Beam. The same organic and lifelike figures inhabit this relief, as they did in the Amarna period. Although lacking some of the playfulness and compassion of the Amarna pieces, this relief is a testimony to the far-reaching effects of Amenhotep IV's spiritual and creative revolution.

Pioneers and Pedantry

Pioneers and Pedantry: The Turner Thesis and Its Relevance in 21^st Century America
By
Varo Borja

In former songs Pride have I sung, and Love, and passionate, joyful Life,

But here I twine the strands of Patriotism

And Death. – Walt Whitman

The frontier in American history has been a source of inspiration, debate, and propaganda throughout the past two centuries since it has become a relevant topic. The Turner Thesis is but one document stating the importance of the Western frontier in America; we are to find this construct throughout our culture here in the United States. From the cowboy substrata still present in much of the South and found on CMT, to the fascination our current president has with playing Us vs. Them with the rest of the world in a circled-wagons, fight till the death, prolifically ignorant struggle to hog-tie the United and rogue Nations of the Earth into submission. The Turner Thesis stated, in grandiloquent terms, the overriding importance the Western frontier played in the early and adolescent development of the United States of America. In this essay I will attempt to relate some of the points stated by the Turner Thesis, and provide counterpoint to these assumptions from my own views and from two scholars who criticized, not only the relevance of Turner’s argument, but the very foundations upon which it was based.

Turner began his thesis by stating that, “Behind institutions, behind constitutional forms and modifications, lie the vital forces that call these organs into life and shape them to meet changing conditions. The peculiarity of American institutions is, the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people--to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of city life. Said Calhoun in 1817, "We are great, and rapidly--I was about to say fearfully--growing!" (Turner, 1) This is quite a grand assumption, and not without merit. The westward expansion of the people of the United States of America certainly was filled with new and wonderful experiences for those who were brave enough to undertake the journey. Many of the people who pushed westward were of either Scotch-Irish or German heritage, and felt no love for the machinations of the English-style republic growing to fruition with the backing of the southern Tidewater elite and the Yankee traders of dubious Puritan heritage. Turner also states that, “The frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist. It finds him a European in dress, industries, tools, modes of travel, and thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him in the birch canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin. It puts him in the log cabin of the Cherokee and Iroquois and runs an Indian palisade around him. Before long he has gone to planting Indian corn and plowing with a sharp stick, he shouts the war cry and takes the scalp in orthodox Indian fashion. In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man. He must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome is not the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that is American.” So, according to Turner, the man who emerged from the wilds, wielding both tomahawk and pointed plow was a new creation: a self-reliant, and self-governing American. However, what shaped these primeval urges for rebellion, autonomy, and adventure? Was it not, at least in the case of the Scots-Irish pioneers, the love of free land and the age-old desire for self-government found in the lowland Scots as early as the twelfth century? The Scots had always fought off the mantle of English government and were bred with an intense dislike of Whitehall and its machinations. There were, of course, many Scots who had relinquished freedom to the English for land and title, but they were not to be found on the American frontier. No, the Scots-Irish of the American West were the poor souls who had come to this country with nothing more than a dram and a dream; they had an innate desire for land upon which they could farm and raise prodigious families, and they were heady with the fresh air of freedom from indentured servitude and English hegemony. However, the political philosophies adopted by those same pioneers were nothing new. According to Benjamin F. Wright, Jr. the system of government adopted by the westerners was, “Imitative, not creative. They were not interested in making experiments. Their constitutional, like their domestic, architecture, was patterned after that of the communities from which they had moved westward. However different their life during the period of frontier existence may have been from that of the older communities, they showed no substantial desire to retain its primitive characteristics when they established laws and constitutions of their own choice.” (The Turner Thesis, 64). So, in effect, Mr. Wright says that the torrid frontier conditions shaped nothing new in terms of government; the pioneers brought with them the same political constructs and ideologies that had been shaped and set into place on the Atlantic seaboard, if not in Old Europe.

Turner went on to state in his thesis that the movement of ideologies and culture flowed backwards from the frontier to the Atlantic seaboard. He named such statesmen as Andrew Jackson and others who had a great impact on this country during its early adolescent period, and even later personages such as Abraham Lincoln who, fresh from splitting rails, attempted to stay the schism of the Union. Turner did give place in his thesis for the overwhelming impact of the middle states and the Scots-Irish and German peoples who issued from there into the gulf of the West to take up residence in a leap-frog fashion; the pioneer would clear the land and cultivate it for a period of time, and then move on westward once the men of capital came close to develop the area further. (The Turner Thesis, 15) In a rebuttal to the thesis published in 1940, George Wilson Pierson, a Yale scholar long familiar with the Turner Thesis stated, “For how shall we account for the Industrial Revolution? By the Frontier? Do American Music and Architecture come from the woods? Did American Cattle? Were our religions born of the contemplation of untamed nature? Has science, poetry, or even democracy, its cradle in the wilderness?” (The Turner Thesis, 70) This is a very good question, considering all these disciplines and goods came from Old Europe primarily, and not from the Western wilderness. Another apropos statement was made by a more modern critic of the Turner Thesis in 1946 by Carlton J.H. Hayes, a devoted scholar in his own right and one time U.S. ambassador to Spain. He stated, “If we belonged to a Moslem or Confucian culture, or to a purely indigenous one, we would not have the mores which we have. We would not, for instance, be free on Sundays for church or for golf or for surreptitious privacy in library and laboratory. Probably we would not use knives or forks, and we would wear different clothes.” (The Turner Thesis, 109) Mr. Hayes also reminds us that we as Americans, just because a frontier existed once in this country where there were “savages” of a sort, and the people of this country were influenced by conversation and close proximity with them, that that very conversation and close relations did not make us “into” them any more than we are made into a country of Asiatic origins because of international trade with Japan. (The Turner Thesis, 110) Mr. Hayes goes on to warn that the idea of cultural and physical isolationism propounded by Mr. Turner through his thesis was and is dangerous to this country because we are surrounded by a world from which we came, and which we must still reach out to if we are to exist as a nation ad infinitum. However, Mr. Hayes is not a universalist; he makes that quite clear in his statements against a willy-nilly, heady idealism found in part four of his essay. (The Turner Thesis, 111)

In conclusion, I feel it is important to state the views of one of the many defenders of the Turner Thesis. Avery Craven, a one-time student of Dr. Turner’s and a professor of American History at Chicago University quoted Thomas Jefferson in his attempted refutation of the claims that Dr. Turner’s essay was “worthless”, or at least no longer relevant. The quote reads as follows, “Let a philosophic observer commence a journey from the savages of the Rocky Mountains, eastwardly toward our seacoast. These (the Indians) he would observe in the earliest stage of association living under no law but that of nature, subsisting and covering themselves with the flesh and skins of wild beasts. He would next find these on our frontiers in the pastoral state, raising domestic animals to supply the defects of hunting. Then succeed to our own semibarbarous citizens, the pioneers of the advance civilization, and so in his progress he would meet the gradual improved state in our seaport towns. This, in fact, is equivalent to a survey, in time, of the progress of man from the infancy of creation, to the present day.” (The Turner Thesis, 128) Dr. Craven went on to state that although misunderstood, and certainly misrepresented at times by his critics, Dr. Turner was a deliberate and thorough researcher who was not only hampered by the times in which he lived, but was open to criticism, as long as that criticism contained the seeds of truth and helped to further the knowledge of mankind. Frederick Jackson Turner’s magnum opus, although certainly narrow in scope in regards to today’s research, was very influential and helped to build the sense of self that the United States as a body politic lacked after the Civil War and the years of the Reconstruction South. Those times were riddled with internal strife, sectional hatred and outright embarrassment on the part of many Americans. If nothing else, Dr. Turner’s thesis could be seen as a type of salve for the wounds of a healing nation. However, Mr. Carlton Hayes’s statements prove the more prophetic in that we as a nation still insist on isolating ourselves from other cultures and creeds, and we rely too heavily on the myth constructed at places like Little Big Horn, The Alamo, and Wake Island (Fatal Environment, 10). Too many of us see the rest of the world as enemies with different colored skin or different gods, or divergent dress and foreign customs. A closer look reveals these very same attributes applied to us by other nations with, at different times, more accuracy. Other frontiers have existed for the peoples of the Earth that have engendered in them nationalistic tendencies and bold, self-aggrandizement: The interiors of the South American and African continents for example. Also, in a metaphorical sense, a religious frontier existed for the Islamic peoples of the Middle East in the coming of Islam nearly 1500 years ago and the development of a strained, but viable brotherhood under the prophet Muhammad. Where we, as United States citizens go awry is not in the esteem with which we hold our own sense of self and the importance of our own conquered frontier. Where we overstep our bounds is when we try to enforce our sense of supremacy and our self-centered egoism on the rest of the world through subversion and outright force. The people of the United States forget all too well that this type of force was attempted on us not too long ago by a “superior” nation who thought it had our best interests at heart, and with dire consequences. So, the relevance of Dr. Turner’s thesis lies in its ability to bolster the self-esteem and legitimate pride of a nation made up of people from all hemispheres, but not as an ideological weapon to be used to alienate and isolate us from countries and cultures just as proud and certainly as viable as our own.

Works Cited:

The Turner Thesis: Concerning the Role of the Frontier in American History, Third Edition. Edited and with an introduction by George Rogers Taylor, Amherst College: D.C. Heath and Company. Lexington, Massachusetts. 1972.

The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner. Found at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/TURNER/

Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization 1800-1890. Richard Slotkin: Harper-Perennial, New York, New York. 1985.

Bread, Circuses and BET

Bread, Circuses and BET

by

Varo Borja

We bring the bald lecher – the legions of Julius Caesar

The Roman Empire was a far-reaching, famously feared and complex organism. Before the Empire, in the days of the Republic, men of honor and ability graced the halls of the Roman senate with splendid oratories and diatribes, calling all citizens of the Republic who possessed intelligence and courage to great deeds. These illustrious senators also fought at the head of the Roman legions, conquering vast expanses of territory and furthering the interests of their fellow countrymen. Then, after the ascension of Augustus, a great empire was born, encompassing most of the known world; stretching from Spain to the Tigris-Euphrates river the Roman Eagle cast its shadow upon a world of toiling slaves, sturdy yeomen, and a luxuriant caste of persons who knew neither toil nor want. In the modern age, another eagle casts its shadow upon the Earth: the bald eagle of the United States of America. Born a republic and reluctantly, after a long period of isolationism, thrust into the forefront of global politics, this final superpower conceived under the auspices of liberty and justice seeks hegemony over the race of man. Through suggestion, sanctions, and outright subversion, the United States of America maintains its place at the head of the global machine. In the near or distant future, will the United States of America collapse, as Arnold J. Toynbee said, “by suicide, and not by murder”? (Dreher, 1) This remains to be seen, if not by our generation, then maybe by some future race of Americans. The Roman Empire fell amidst the fires lit by their neighbors the Goths, but the same flames were fueled by 400 years of licentious decline and outright cowardice. The moral armor of the Roman Empire was pierced with the arrows of pride, greed, gluttony and sloth. The once illustrious senators and noble patricians of the Republic were gone. They were replaced by a clan of self-interested, self-indulgent princes who cared neither for the austerity of toil for the good of their fellow citizens, or even for the defense of a bloated, but shrinking dominion from which they drew their incomes and pleasures. The United States of America has not wasted away to the extent of the late Roman Empire. However, the United States of America and the late Roman Empire have three broad characteristics in common that could, as in the case of the latter, lead to the eventual collapse of the United States and end life in America as we know it today.

The first characteristic that both empires have in common is the quality of the characters of their respective citizens. Citizens of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. were copious gluttons, and they were both slothful and avaricious. Furthermore, they were loath to participate in government, and left its machinations to the “weak and distracted” (Gibbon, 663). Roman citizens also betrayed their fellow countrymen and “exploited public goods” (Dreher, 3) for their own purposes. From the time of the Julio-Claudian emperors, such disgusting public spectacles as the use of vomitoriums (public binging and purging houses) and the dispersal of massive quantities of bread to the mob at large gatherings were commonplace. Citizens of the United States of America in the 21^st century are also greedy, lazy and gluttonous. Voter turnout in the twenty-first century is negligible compared to that of the early 20^th century. Civil litigation is just as prevalent or more commonplace in the United States today than it was in the Roman Empire. According to insideprison.com, “The term ‘lawsuit abuse’ was first defined in the early 1990’s”. Many residents of the United States of America would rather sue their neighbors than carve out an existence by their own labors. Also, according to insideprison.com, “in 2002, civil lawsuits cost the U.S. economy a reeling 233 billion dollars.” This statistic is staggering considering the U.S. gross domestic product for the year 2002 was 9.5 trillion dollars (USA.gov); this means that two percent of the entire GDP for the United States of America was eaten up with civil disputes in the year 2002. Although some, if not most of these suits were legitimate, this disturbing statistic still reflects badly upon the land where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness supposedly underpin a society of industrious and benevolent, freedom seeking citizens. Another truly upsetting fact reveals itself when examining the GDP statistics for the year 2002: more income was generated through civil litigation than through the industry of agriculture. According to statistics found on USA.gov, a paltry 164 billion dollars was produced by the agricultural sector in this country in 2002: a little less than half what the deluge of civil lawsuits that year cost the federal economy. This is a startling fact, considering the decline of agriculture within the Roman Empire coincided with the decline of civilization. To quote Edward Gibbon once again, “Agriculture is the foundation of manufactures; since the productions of nature are the materials of art” (Gibbon, 48). It is also common knowledge that obesity runs rampant in the United States, and eating disorders abound, while much of the rest of the planet struggles to maintain even the most minimal diet. Citizens of the United States gorge themselves at Golden Corral and Taco Bell and then some of the diners immediately retire to restrooms to vomit up their extravagant meals, while the residents of East Africa and parts of Asia die by the millions for lack of proper nutrition.

Another disparaging aspect of the characters of both civilizations is the lack of zeal present for the defense of their respective, over-extended dominions. Roman citizens of rank in the fifth century A.D. spurned military service in favor of empty official titles and the pleasures of the symposium. The Roman army was overstretched and under-staffed, and therefore unable to defend its prodigious borders. Potential military talent was wasted as the old families of Rome cowered in their estates and left the protection of the empire to mercenaries and foreigners. 21^st century Americans support their military from the sidelines with yellow ribbons and Toby Keith inspired flag-waving, but few citizens in this country sign up for military service. Charles Moskos, a former professor at Northwestern University, noted in Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel’s article for the Los Angeles Times in December of 2006, that “of his 1956 Princeton University class of 750 men, 450 served (in the military). In the Princeton University class of 2006 there were 1,108 men and women, but only nine so far have joined the military” (Barnes and Spiegel, 3). Apparently, the Ivy League patricians of the U.S. aren’t as willing to defend this country as their forefathers were. The United States Army struggled to meet its goals for enlistment in the years 2004 and 2005, and according to the Barnes and Spiegel article, the army was willing to give exorbitant incentives for anyone under the age of 40 who would sign up for active service (Barnes and Spiegel, 3). Isn’t this a form of hiring a class of warriors to defend that which most of us are either too lazy, or too cowardly to defend? With such negative statistics as these confronting Americans today while we are in the midst of two overseas conflicts, an easy comparison may be made to the days of Rome when the outposts on the Rhine and the Danube went unmanned, and the Gothic barbarians trumpeted their entry into the age-old capital of a once proud empire. A more embarrassing fact may be noted when the military service records of the last two presidents of the United States are examined; the former president of the United States evaded the draft imposed by Congress during the Vietnam War, and the current Commander in Chief of the armed forces of the United States used family connections within the Federal government to evade active duty during the Vietnam conflict in favor a rear-echelon post in the States.

The second characteristic present in both empires that could lead to the eventual destruction of the United States is the content of their warped and highly self-indulgent cultures. The late Roman Empire featured a policy of Bread and Circuses, or an attempt to distract and sate the lust of the populace with material goods and horribly violent spectacles. Gladiatorial combats featured two or more opponents who fought to the death for the amusement of the mob. Horse races and exotic animals from obscure locales re-directed the attention of the denizens of Rome away from the ever-present threats of invasion from the Danube and Rhine sectors, and the potential assassination of whomever wore the purple of imperator at the moment. To quote Gibbon once again, “A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom, if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness” (Gibbon Vol. II, 85). Twenty-first century America has adopted economic policies that favor goods for the present, and a sedentary, television centered lifestyle. According to the California State University, Northridge website, “the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube” (www.csun.edu). This is a very disturbing statistic, considering American families lose 9 years worth of bonding and development; civic duties and religious affiliations fall by the wayside 2 months out of the year. Reality television composes much of what is broadcast in the United States today, and engenders feelings of self-hatred, exorbitant spending on the part of the viewers to become like those viewed, and a cynical, self-centered view of life in the modern age. Also, we Americans have our own brands of gladiatorial combat: WWE wrestling and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Self-indulgence may also be found in the homes of many Americans who sit for hours in front of computer screens or Xbox monitors. According to the Canada Review of American Studies, “The video- and computer-game industry generated a profit of US$6.35 billion in 2001, earnings greater than those of either Hollywood films or pornography and, in the entertainment field, second only to those of the music industry. It is estimated that 60 per cent of all Americans regularly play computer or video games;¹ 42 per cent of them are women; the median age of gamers is twenty-eight.² The production budgets for computer games now regularly run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the creation of a single game may involve a team of designers, actors, programmers, and musicians that rivals in size some film production crews” (muse.jhu.edu). With all this technological deterioration in the homes of American families, it is quite easy to relate this type of societal decay to the Bread and Circuses policies of the late Roman Empire.

Furthermore, religion in the late Roman Empire was a state-mandated form of Christianity that lacked the vigor, self-sacrifice and courage displayed by the early followers of Christ. Petty squabbles over doctrine and the clambering for crumbs of power from the table of Constantine wreaked havoc on the religious lives of Roman citizens. To quote Gibbon once again, “Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty, was successfully practised; honours, gifts, and immunities were offered and accepted as the price of an episcopal vote; and the condemnation of the Alexandrian primate was artfully represented as the only measure which could restore the peace and union of the catholic church” (Gibbon, 706). Many faiths abound within the borders of the United States, but an increasingly secular worldview, lackluster religious observance, and recent scandals associated with religious leaders have dampened what was once a vital element of the culture of the U.S. In the past twenty years, at least three major Protestant leaders have been indicted for crimes including solicitation of a prostitute and fraudulent money handling in regard to their congregations.

The third characteristic that both empires have in common is the nature of their respective capital cities. Rome, the capital of the Western Empire, was a city fraught with corruption and a professional governing class. The administrators of Rome were spurious at best; according to Mr. Dreher’s article the leading lights of Rome “ruled as if the common good coincided with their private interests” (Dreher, 2). Assassination was a constant threat in the Roman capital as well. Gibbon states on page 150 of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that, “The dark and sanguinary soul of the tyrant was open to every suspicion against those among his subjects who were most distinguished by their birth or merit. Whenever he was alarmed with the sound of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelenting.” So, within the capital of Rome, whenever a tyrant was in power (which was most of the time) the constant threats of a leaderless empire or a general proscription laid upon those of the highest ability or rank laid waste to the societal peace of mind. Does not this same type of fear of assassination exist in Washington D.C.? Not always the act of physical assassination, but the even more cowardly process of character and political assassination enacted during the tenures of various Senators and Representatives, or Presidents and Vice-Presidents. Also, Washington D.C., the capital of the United States of America, is a city rife with the backhanded manipulations of lobbyists and self-interest groups. Furthermore, Washington houses a double-headed hierarchy of elected officials who both profit from and cling to their respective positions with all the fervor of babies clinging to their mother’s breasts. Is this image not akin to the sculpture of young Romulus and Remus, the mythological brother-founders of Rome, between whom fratricide was committed, suckling at the tit of the she-wolf who raised them with the same savagery and blood lust endemic to the other children of her breed?

In conclusion, I feel it is important to state two of the major differences between the late Roman Empire and the present United States of America: the resistance exhibited by Americans to be classified as an empire versus the Romans’ glory in that title, and the perfection taken for granted by Romans in their system of government, and a good portion of Americans’ desire for progressive fiscal and social policies over the outdated and archaic views held by some in power at the present time (Dreher, 3). Also, the Roman Empire had over a millennium to become stagnant and infertile. The United States, although certainly corrupt, lazy, and in some cases apathetic towards the rest of the world, is much younger and therefore stands a better chance of revival. Rome experienced periods of grandeur and political stability under such emperors as Hadrian, Trajan, the Antonines and Aurelian. The United States has also had moments of glory and unimpeded progress under various leaders, and has given birth to some of the best minds to ever grace the intellectual arena. However, the United States of America also designed, manufactured and dropped the first atomic bomb: a fact that haunts this country today in its dealings with rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran. Also, much like the Romans, we have a hoard of manufacturing and capital craving “barbarians” seeking economic mastery just outside the gates of our empire: the Chinese. Still, we as a nation insist on forcing our brand of democracy, our love of the material, and our self-centered egoism on the rest of mankind. The future generations of this country will have some very difficult choices to make concerning character and culture, but hopefully reform in our capital will herald a new and brighter age for the free and brave citizens of the United States of America.

Informal Works Cited:

1. Are We Rome? How the U.S. can avoid its own version of the fall of the Roman empire by Rod Dreher. Dallas Morning News: July 29, 2007

2. Expanding the military, without a draft; proposals to sign up more troops are raising concern about lower recruiting standards by Julian E. Barnes and Peter Spiegel. Los Angeles Times. December 24, 2006.

3. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged Version). Edward Gibbon. The Modern Library, New York: 2005.

4. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Unabridged). Edward Gibbon. The Modern Library, New York: 1965.

5. Insideprison.com. Found at: http://www.insideprison.com/

6. USA.gov. Found at: http://www.usa.gov/

7. The Canada Review of American Studies. Found at: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/canadian_review_of_american_studies/v034/34.1budra.html

8. Television and Health. Found at: http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

Faithful To A Lie

Faithful to a Lie: An Anonymous Account of Alcoholism and Its Effects

By

Varo Borja

As sure as night is dark and day is light, I keep you on my mind both day and night, and happiness I know proves that it’s right. Because you’re mine, I walk the line. – Johnny Cash

Alcoholism is an often misunderstood and mistreated illness, involving the suffering of not only the afflicted person, but the destruction of ties both familial and professional. Everyone around the alcoholic suffers to some extent, and is affected and sickened by a terminal disease without a cure. If someone is sick with virtually any other terminal disease, there is much suffering, but there is also much goodwill expressed towards the sufferer and the family of the afflicted. With alcoholism this is almost never the case. The alcoholic tears himself and his family down, running through the lives of people like a train gone haywire. There is financial ruin as well as emotional and spiritual devastation, and alcoholism doesn’t stop there. Alcoholism is a family disease and can be passed down to the sufferer’s children and grandchildren. One may ask, is there any solution to this type of devastation? From my own experience the answer is yes. My recovery from alcoholism has entailed much sacrifice and hardship, but contrary to common knowledge it has not been a matter of willpower; rather it has been an exercise in surrender that has included much joy and the development of friendships that have been life-saving and unconditional.

My exposure to alcohol as a child was somewhat limited. My father drank, and drank heavily, but almost never around my brother and me. He gave me my first sip of beer when I was eight years old. I still remember what the can looked like, the setting (a crisp autumn day, much like this one), and the taste. I didn’t care for it at the time, but I remember feeling grown up and a part of what was happening around me: two grown men being cool and getting drunk. My first real drunk was at age 16. My buddy Scratch and I lifted a half of a fifth of Everclear from a high school party and rushed back to his house, nervous and expectant with the teenage giddiness accompanied with breaking the rules. We mixed the stuff with several different types of Kool-Aid and drank it down for one single purpose: to get drunk. Scratch ended up getting sick and passing out after one cupful. I drank mine, the rest of his, and the rest of the bottle. I remember feeling much like a newborn baby must feel: carefree, alive, and nurtured by the nectar of the gods. My drinking took on much greater proportions from that point. I graduated from High School with barely a B average, but I earned an A in the ability to drink more than any of my friends or acquaintances.

After graduation, all my friends and I packed in our cars and drove to Myrtle Beach for a week of drunken orgies and no parental guidance. I bottomed out in my girlfriend’s hotel room; I was drunk on cheap liquor, naked except for a pair of boxer briefs and passed out in her bed with a five-day growth of beard in the midst of her polite society friends. She broke up with me not long after that, and I went on another vacation: to the nut ward. I had my first case of delirium tremens there, I tried to climb the fence a day later, and I was diagnosed not only with alcoholism, but with bipolar disorder. I was very belligerent and the staff doctor put me on high doses of Thorazine and Benzotropine, a drug that counteracts the horrendous side effects of the chemical straightjacket, Thorazine. When I would misbehave, the staff would take away my Benzotropine and my joints would lock up, making me unable to sit or stand up straight and consigning me to a constricted type of movement known as the “Thorazine shuffle”. I was introduced to another type of treatment in this facility that didn’t involve the use of chemicals and that would aid me, up until this day, in my continued progress towards a better life: Alcoholics Anonymous. I went to my first AA meeting so doped up on Thorazine that I couldn’t sit up straight, so I just looked at the floor and took in the smells and sounds of the place: Skin Bracer aftershave, rot-gut coffee, prayer, and laughter. The meeting made an impression on me, but not enough to alter the course of my life at that early juncture.

Four months after leaving my first treatment center I enrolled in classes at ASU. I did my best to go to class for the first month and to control, with daily exertions of willpower, my drinking, but soon I succumbed to the pleasures of the dorm and started making daily trips to the local package store instead of to my classes. I landed on the rocks two months later and had to take a medical withdrawal from school and go back to the same treatment center I had been in the year before. Another bout with delirium tremens was in store for me, along with several nights in the hole (the isolation room) and more mood stabilizing drugs. I was reintroduced to Alcoholics Anonymous in the facility and this time it took, at least for a little while. Over the next few years I was to put together some significant periods of sobriety, but the relapses in between did much damage to myself, to my family, and to the ones I loved.

The effects of my drinking were both numerous and horrid. My drinking aggravated my bi-polar illness, making work difficult and school impossible. I accumulated a list of more than fifty employers in the span of ten years, with experiences ranging all the way from installing foam insulation in newly-built Wal-Mart stores, to driving an express route delivering packages, to hanging sheet rock and various other construction trades. Drinking at first had been a type of social lubricant, but my relationships with women suffered greatly and I became a selfish abuser. I had sworn as a child to never strike a woman in anger, but by the time I was 19 I had broken a girl’s nose and caused her to fall down a flight of stairs; the fall made her break her leg as well. I had more one night sexual encounters than I cared to remember or could remember, due to my blackout type of drinking; the relationships that did last were fraught with emotional, verbal, and sometimes physical abuse. Relations with my family suffered greatly as well, and my mother kicked me out of her house more than once, telling me bluntly to never return. One of the worst feelings that I’ve ever experienced is seeing not only my mother, but my father crying, desperately pleading with me to change my behavior and stop hurting my family, as well as myself. My friendships were strained because the boys who I had grown up drinking with settled down, and started careers and families. My high school friends like Scratch went off to college at universities like UNC and NC State. They earned degrees and became offended when I would call them at 3 in the morning, drunk and belligerent with Hank Jr. blasting in the background, waking their wives and children, and trying to relive our days of glory when they had to be at work four hours later. I even tried to go back to college, but I went on a prodigious bender and the doors of opportunity closed on me once again with a clang. The referee of life had counted to two several times in my drinking career, but I always managed to rebound off the canvas with my intelligence and willpower, only to be pummeled again on the ropes by the 400 lb. juggernauts Jim Beam and George Dickel.

Through the years I managed to put together three significant periods of sobriety, which were very rewarding while they lasted, but all three ended in dismal failure. My first significant period of sobriety was from early 1994 to late 1996. During this time I became quite respected in the AA community and developed a relationship with an AA sponsor that was both rewarding and based on unconditional love. His name was Jerry, and he was a young man like me. We spent many hours together sharing and encouraging each other, but in the end we both left Alcoholics Anonymous to join religious congregations. I ended up relapsing due to my inability to be honest with my fellow parishioners and the lack of identification, or camaraderie that I felt there. Jerry is still sober to this day, but when I see him our conversations are brief and full of platitudes and empty pleasantries. My second substantial period of sobriety was from early 1998 to the first month of the year 2000. During this time I developed another friendship with an AA sponsor named Dick, and was surrounded by a group of young men and women who made me feel both whole and loved. We had many days of joy and shared pain together, and I grew by leaps and bounds in both an emotional and social sense, but I failed to expand upon my spiritual life and ended up relapsing after I’d met a drug-using girl and gone home with her. My last unsuccessful period of sobriety was from late 2000 to mid 2003. During this period I rekindled the relationships with my former AA friends, and began using Dick as my AA sponsor again. I worked through the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous this time, but I failed in the end to fully grasp the first step of the twelve: we admitted we were powerless over alcohol. This fatal flaw in the foundation that I had built brought the whole structure crashing down on my head in June of 2003. For the next two months I knew nothing but a living hell; I experienced a quality of pain through my drinking and the drug crystal methamphetamine that I had never known to belong to mortal man, and after losing absolutely everything worthwhile in my short life, including my sanity, I surrendered.

My last, and hopefully terminal period of sobriety started on August 12, 2003 in the midst of personal chaos and financial ruin. I sobered up, first in jail, and then in a local hospital and renewed my commitment to recovery with a willingness I had never before been able to muster. The quality of my surrender was golden this time; I had absolutely no reservations about my ability to control my use and abuse of alcohol through my own willpower. I struggled for a year to maintain employment, but I didn't struggle with the fact that I needed to take direction both from a Higher Power and from a recovery sponsor. The next two years were full of trials and hardships, but I managed to go back to school, renew and rebuild lost relationships, and most importantly maintain an attitude of compliant willingness. The last year has been very rewarding, and I have attained some measure of success; school, friendships, a relationship with a woman, and family ties are all growing stronger and more fulfilling every day. I have more friendships today than I can keep up with, and most of them are based on a mutually affirming and sincere desire to grow spiritually.

In conclusion, it has occurred to me recently that I was always very tough on myself for my lack of faithfulness to God, to the women I was involved with, to my family, and to my many employers. I had always considered myself to be a person lacking in fidelity to anyone or anything, but this is only a half-truth. I was abjectly faithful to the bottle that beat me mercilessly and also to the fight to overcome the allure that whiskey and the lifestyle associated with it held for me. I bloodied myself against the brick wall imposed upon me by my disease and by my own stubborn willfulness, instead of surrendering the fight and taking the directions given to me, which were to step around the wall. I have always been a very willful person; I managed to stay alive for over ten years in a world that gave me odds on living no more than three. Several doctors and psychiatrists gave up on me over the years, consigning me to the heap of negative statistics associated with alcoholics and drug addicts. However, there were some who remained faithful to me through all the disasters and drug treatments: namely God, my closest AA friends, and my AA sponsors. God didn’t give up on me because it isn’t in his nature to throw away His children; he can’t dispose of those he has bought with His own blood, sweat, and suffering. AA members and sponsors are much like God in that they invest years of patient assistance to those who suffer from the disease of alcoholism. However, unlike God, AA members are mortal and have limitations on their ability to persevere with the worst of the cases presented to them. There were a handful of loyal persons who didn’t give up on me though, and it is for them as well as a loving God that I will be eternally grateful and do my best to express that gratitude through a life lived not only in compliant humility, but active service to those who want a way out of lives lived in faithfulness to a lie.