Milton

Thursday 4th February, 2021

I am probably addicted to looking to the BBC news website of a morning, after my own emails. This morning I picked up the German medics sent to Portugal to help with that overwhelmed Country re the pandemic. Then the horrendous allegations of the Uighurs in China being rape and abused. A piece on the continuing defiance of the Myanmars against the military coup. A fascinating article on the biggest telescope being built: " the square kilometre Array Observatory" which will delve in to many mysteries of space. And also the comment of a Government Minister that "the UK is getting safer every day". That was my morning intake.

I then had breakfast after my landlady had been to Dublin by virtualtours. She went to Luxor this afternoon and showed me photographs. My parents lived in Egypt and the pictures brought back memories of a sort. A stunning country and a lovely people as I remember them but now under strange political times, as we all seem to be.

The weather was not promising and forecasts of rain all day depressed me as I need a walk if possible. In fact I noticed a lull in the rain at 12.15 so put on my boots, grabbed my litter grabber and headed out. I walked for about 45 minutes and got a little damp toward the end. It was good and the litter bag filled. On my return I went for a drive to keep my car battery alive as it has died yesterday and my friendly garage man had been stern as to use of the car. Of course I noticed the horrific amount of litter on the roads. I almost wanted to stop and get out and clear it but it would take an army of volunteers.

Back home I took my landlady lunch in bed. She is suffering much from back pain after a fall and from tooth ache and a sore throat after breaking a tooth. Tomorrow she goes to have her jab and will then be able to take pain killers again.

I had a reply to my email to my MSP re the slow roll out of the vaccinations. He was on side and said he had raised it twice this week alone in Parliament and had not received a satisfactory answer so would continue to chivvy.

I decided to listen to Spencer Klavan's podcast again , Young heretics, episode 12. It was on John Milton, the man who wrote Paradise Lost and whose only quotation I know is: 'They also serve who stand and wait '. I had always found his poetry heavy and unattractive so was a little surprised that the podcast episode was on Freedom of Speech. Klavan attacked the CancelCulture of today. He made the very powerful comment that the 'word', spoken or written is very powerful. As new methods of spreading the word develop so debate becomes powerful. Thus in Milton's time the printing press was revolutionising the world and today it is the Internet. He went on to explain Milton's times which were of the English Civil War, the most turbulent of eras. He concentrated on Milton's 'Areopragitica', a pamphlet. At the time pamphleteers were the power house of debate, the power base of the word.

He emphasised how Milton ' put his money where his mouth was ' as it were for he wrote and stood by his word to the point of nearly losing his life at the restoration of the monarchy. Areopragitica is on Freedom of speech and Milton founds it in the history of the west, in Athens and at the height of Rome's powers. It really is worth listening to as Milton was both a pro Parliamentarian and yet prepared to condemn it over the Licensing Acts. He approved of the regicide of King Charles yet shocked by advocating divorce. He was a Protestant and yet accused Parliament of becoming like the Roman Inquisition. It is heady stuff. Certainly Freedom of Speech should be considered sacred and seriously. We note the horror when free speech is clamped down upon and we see examples across our world. All dictatorships are nervous of the power of the word, thus internet is stymied and controlled, censorship is common and intellectuals are monitored and threatened. The burning of the books is a favourite of such regimes as the Nazis.

The rain has fallen all afternoon. I have read of a forger of Emily Dickinson's poetry who was also a murderer and I have read of the shenanigans surrounding one forged poem. Oh the tangled webs we weave, Oh the power of money, Oh the lies and prevarications of so many...it was ever thus and is ever thus yet I will not give up on truth and hope but most of all the power of love. And I remind myself how St John called Jesus the 'Word' of God.