Herder Said Much of What I Believe

First — Nations are the product of a Volk-Geist (a Spirit of the People).

Second — Said Spirit is created and by poems, and songs

For me — The National Anthem written by a fellow alumnus of what is now called St. John’s College (then called King William’s School).

Also The Ballad of the Green Berets, and several songs sung by Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger.

Also poems by Robert Frost, and various patriotic poets.

So, yes I think language creates nations, as did Goethe, Heidegger, and Francis Scott Key.

The Geist of the Volk is shaped as it is expressed by poets and singers.

Herder was able to see this long before I was born.

It will remain true after all of us here are gone.

Nations are the product of History and Language.

Action and Imagination.

The Concrete and the Ideal.

Plato knew it well and made a big deal about the effect of poets in his time. He disparaged them, and was worried about them, that they would take nations off in random and non-rational directions. Plato, like Aristotle, and Ayn Rand, was a big fan of reason.

This is the last of my posts you will ever see if you say an unkind thing about or to me.