John Brown and the Abyss
MYTH: if you think hard, bad things will happen to you. FACT: your soul goes marching on.
The meme in
’s piece says it all: it’s congregationalism all the way down.John Brown looked into the moral abyss around him.
The abyss looked back.
It made him a little crazy.
Rampant, pervasive dehumanization of adults and children is fundamentally life-altering.
Pretending it isn’t is asking to provoke narrative conflicts.
“Slavery in this land was not merely an unfortunate thing that happened to Black people.
It was an American innovation, an American institution created by and for the benefit of the elites of the dominant caste and enforced by poorer members of the dominant caste who tied their lot to the caste system rather than to their consciences.
Slavery built the man-made chasm between Blacks and [poor] whites that forces the middle castes of Asians, Latinos, indigenous peoples, and new immigrants of African descent to navigate within what began as a bipolar hierarchy."
- Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents
Sometimes - for some people - it’s easier to not think that hard about it.
As we brainstormed content for a PowerPoint deck, a boss once told me: “Thinking is hard.”
And risky.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
- Socrates
If you even think about examining Nietzsche's abyss, you might turn into John Brown.
Symbolic Determination
The portrait, taken in Washington’s Hartford, Connecticut, studio in 1846 or 1847, exudes an intensity consistent with the subject’s fanaticism.
He appears very much as one might expect—angry and determined.
In the image, Brown raises his right hand, as if taking an oath; on the other hand, he holds a banner thought to be the flag of the Subterranean Pass-Way, his militant alternative to the Underground Railroad.
Happy Birthday, John Brown!
the tune that eventually became associated with "John Brown's Body" and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", was formed in the American camp meeting circuit of the late 18th century and 1800s.
These meetings were usually held in frontier areas, where people who lacked regular access to church services would gather together to worship before traveling preachers.
These meetings were important social events but developed a reputation…[due]…to the wild religious fervor experienced by attendees.
In that atmosphere, where hymns were taught and learned by rote and a spontaneous and improvisational element was prized, both tunes and words changed and adapted in true folk music fashion:
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave
But his soul goes marching on
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down
On the grave of old John Brown
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
His soul goes marching on