#elvispresley — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #elvispresley, aggregated by home.social.
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080 Elvis Presley Art mix 11-2018
Canvas print 20 x 20
©Drakre52 morphingart
Eigen digitaal werk met gebruik makend van Morphing.
#drakre52 #morphing #art #elvispresley
https://www.facebook.com/Drakre52.art/
drakre52-art.jimdosite.com
drakre52.bsky.social -
080 Elvis Presley Art mix 11-2018
Canvas print 20 x 20
©Drakre52 morphingart
Eigen digitaal werk met gebruik makend van Morphing.
#drakre52 #morphing #art #elvispresley
https://www.facebook.com/Drakre52.art/
drakre52-art.jimdosite.com
drakre52.bsky.social -
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #DriveTime
Elvis Presley:
🎵 Summer Kisses Winter Tearshttps://musichouserecords.bandcamp.com/track/summer-kisses-winter-tears-elvis-presley-cover
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🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #DriveTime
Elvis Presley:
🎵 Summer Kisses Winter Tearshttps://musichouserecords.bandcamp.com/track/summer-kisses-winter-tears-elvis-presley-cover
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The 1950s artist who kick-started Billy Gibbons’ career
Credit: Far Out / Alamy Sun 19 July 2026 22:00, UK It’s easy to forget that ZZ Top…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #1950s #1955 #BillyGibbons #ElvisPresley #Entertainment #RockandRoll #UK #UnitedKingdom #ZZTop
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/700759/ -
The Story Behind Phil Collins’ Live Aid Outfit And The Day It Crossed The Atlantic
Phil Collins takes to the Live Aid stage in the now-famous shirt and khakis that would crossed the…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #Concorde #EltonJohn #ElvisPresley #Entertainment #FreddieMercury #JimiHendrix #Kingstrust #LiveAid #philadelphia #rocknroll #RocknRollHallofFame #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/690369/ -
The Story Behind Phil Collins’ Live Aid Outfit And The Day It Crossed The Atlantic
Phil Collins takes to the Live Aid stage in the now-famous shirt and khakis that would crossed the…
#NewsBeep #News #Music #CA #Canada #concorde #EltonJohn #ElvisPresley #Entertainment #FreddieMercury #JimiHendrix #Kingstrust #LiveAid #Philadelphia #rocknroll #RocknRollHallofFame
https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/800281/ -
https://www.europesays.com/es/656357/ Los 5 mejores covers de «Yesterday» de The Beatles #ElvisPresley #Entertainment #Entretenimiento #ES #España #MarvinGaye #Music #Música #RayCharles #Spain #TheBeatles #WillieNelson
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On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel was released. 10 facts about it.
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/07/13-july-dont-be-cruel.html
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On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel was released. 10 facts about it.
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/07/13-july-dont-be-cruel.html
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On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel was released. 10 facts about it.
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/07/13-july-dont-be-cruel.html
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On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel was released. 10 facts about it.
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/07/13-july-dont-be-cruel.html
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On this date in 1956 Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel was released. 10 facts about it.
https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2026/07/13-july-dont-be-cruel.html
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SUNDAY MATINEE MUSIC VIDEO! “Dumb Angel (live)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1adaRT-TVpU A 2002 live take of my surrealistic pop song that I wrote after a dream that included Brian Wilson, Lewis Carroll, and Elvis Presley. In my dream they all made an appearance where I grew up in the backwater Appalachian village of Avis PA.
#dumbangel #angel #surrealism #brianwilson #lewiscarroll #elvispresley #chapel #johnnyjblair #singersongwriter #avis #pennsylvania #appalachian
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"Stuck on You" was #ElvisPresley's first hit single after his two-year stint in the #USArmy, reaching number one in 1960 in the US. He recorded the song during March 1960, and the single was released within weeks and went to number one on the #Billboard #Hot100 chart in late-April 1960, becoming his first number-one single of the 1960s and thirteenth overall. "Stuck on You" also peaked at number six on the R&B chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viV24hMLcjY -
"Stuck on You" was #ElvisPresley's first hit single after his two-year stint in the #USArmy, reaching number one in 1960 in the US. He recorded the song during March 1960, and the single was released within weeks and went to number one on the #Billboard #Hot100 chart in late-April 1960, becoming his first number-one single of the 1960s and thirteenth overall. "Stuck on You" also peaked at number six on the R&B chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viV24hMLcjY -
#TopArtists #UnitedStatesMarineBand #EltonJohn #LionelRichie #TheBeatles #CaroleKing #FleetwoodMac #Eagles #Chicago #ElvisPresley #HueyLewisAndTheNews #RodStewart #BillyJoel #Carpenters #SarahMcLachlan #StevieWonder #TheBeachBoys #BeeGees #BobSegerAndTheSilverBulletBand #EarthWindAndFire #FrederickFennell ♫𝄞𝄢🎧ྀི♪.✮
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#TopArtists #UnitedStatesMarineBand #EltonJohn #LionelRichie #TheBeatles #CaroleKing #FleetwoodMac #Eagles #Chicago #ElvisPresley #HueyLewisAndTheNews #RodStewart #BillyJoel #Carpenters #SarahMcLachlan #StevieWonder #TheBeachBoys #BeeGees #BobSegerAndTheSilverBulletBand #EarthWindAndFire #FrederickFennell ♫𝄞𝄢🎧ྀི♪.✮
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#TopArtists #UnitedStatesMarineBand #EltonJohn #LionelRichie #TheBeatles #CaroleKing #FleetwoodMac #Eagles #Chicago #ElvisPresley #HueyLewisAndTheNews #RodStewart #BillyJoel #Carpenters #SarahMcLachlan #StevieWonder #TheBeachBoys #BeeGees #BobSegerAndTheSilverBulletBand #EarthWindAndFire #FrederickFennell ♫𝄞𝄢🎧ྀི♪.✮
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#TopArtists #UnitedStatesMarineBand #EltonJohn #LionelRichie #TheBeatles #CaroleKing #FleetwoodMac #Eagles #Chicago #ElvisPresley #HueyLewisAndTheNews #RodStewart #BillyJoel #Carpenters #SarahMcLachlan #StevieWonder #TheBeachBoys #BeeGees #BobSegerAndTheSilverBulletBand #EarthWindAndFire #FrederickFennell ♫𝄞𝄢🎧ྀི♪.✮
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#TopArtists #UnitedStatesMarineBand #EltonJohn #LionelRichie #TheBeatles #CaroleKing #FleetwoodMac #Eagles #Chicago #ElvisPresley #HueyLewisAndTheNews #RodStewart #BillyJoel #Carpenters #SarahMcLachlan #StevieWonder #TheBeachBoys #BeeGees #BobSegerAndTheSilverBulletBand #EarthWindAndFire #FrederickFennell ♫𝄞𝄢🎧ྀི♪.✮
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My interview with Elvis Tribute Artist, Jesse Garron
At a Jesse Garron show several years back
Last week I had the pleasure to interview Elvis Tribute Artist, Jesse Garron.
Read the article here: https://unionnewsdaily.com/news/jesse-garrons-tribute-to-elvis-is-coming-to-linden
And here’s some footage from his YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEyykmRIkA4
#elvisPresley #elvisTributeArtist #entertainment #jesseGarron #journalism #maryanneChristianoMistretta #music -
My interview with Elvis Tribute Artist, Jesse Garron
At a Jesse Garron show several years back
Last week I had the pleasure to interview Elvis Tribute Artist, Jesse Garron.
Read the article here: https://unionnewsdaily.com/news/jesse-garrons-tribute-to-elvis-is-coming-to-linden
And here’s some footage from his YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEyykmRIkA4
#elvisPresley #elvisTributeArtist #entertainment #jesseGarron #journalism #maryanneChristianoMistretta #music -
So many possibilities for FotoVorschlag / PhotoSuggestion 'USA', but I chose this detail of Triple Elvis by Andy Warhol (1963) at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, cropped above the waist.
Triple Elvis is huge, almost 2 metres tall.
This is a photo of a painting of a publicity photo of Elvis Presley dressed for a movie. More info at https://www.vmfa.museum/artworks/triple-elvis-60436
Presley and Warhol are two key figures of 20th century USA:
'Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American' -- Greil Marcus, 'Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music', 1982
'I am a deeply superficial person.' -- Andy Warhol
#FotoVorschlag #PhotoSuggestion #photography #art #Warhol #Elvis #ElvisPresley #quotes
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So many possibilities for FotoVorschlag / PhotoSuggestion 'USA', but I chose this detail of Triple Elvis by Andy Warhol (1963) at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, cropped above the waist.
Triple Elvis is huge, almost 2 metres tall.
This is a photo of a painting of a publicity photo of Elvis Presley dressed for a movie. More info at https://www.vmfa.museum/artworks/triple-elvis-60436
Presley and Warhol are two key figures of 20th century USA:
'Elvis Presley is a supreme figure in American life, one whose presence, no matter how banal or predictable, brooks no real comparisons ... Elvis has emerged as a great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heart throb, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American' -- Greil Marcus, 'Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music', 1982
'I am a deeply superficial person.' -- Andy Warhol
#FotoVorschlag #PhotoSuggestion #photography #art #Warhol #Elvis #ElvisPresley #quotes
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Joby Baker, Star of ‘Good Morning World,’ Dies at 92
#TV #TVNews #ElvisPresley #GoldieHawn #JackLemmon #JerryLewis #MarloThomas #Obituaries -
Joby Baker, Star of ‘Good Morning World,’ Dies at 92
#TV #TVNews #ElvisPresley #GoldieHawn #JackLemmon #JerryLewis #MarloThomas #Obituaries -
Joby Baker, Star of ‘Good Morning World,’ Dies at 92
#TV #TVNews #ElvisPresley #GoldieHawn #JackLemmon #JerryLewis #MarloThomas #Obituaries -
Joby Baker, Star of ‘Good Morning World,’ Dies at 92
#TV #TVNews #ElvisPresley #GoldieHawn #JackLemmon #JerryLewis #MarloThomas #Obituaries -
Joby Baker, Star of ‘Good Morning World,’ Dies at 92
#TV #TVNews #ElvisPresley #GoldieHawn #JackLemmon #JerryLewis #MarloThomas #Obituaries -
Zoos are Concentration Camps for Animals. Let's phase them out. Hershey Park Happy. Hershey Park Sad. August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. #hersheypark #hersheyparkhappy #hershey #hersheypa #elvis #elvispresley #theking #thekingofrockandroll #tragedy #tragedies #nationaltragedy #nationaltragedies #death #deathofaking #popstar #rockstar #musicalstar #musicalperformer #elvisthepelvis #1970s #twentiethcentury #twentiethcenturyfigures #figuresofthetwentiethcentury #greatness #famous
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Zoos are Concentration Camps for Animals. Let's phase them out. Hershey Park Happy. Hershey Park Sad. August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. #hersheypark #hersheyparkhappy #hershey #hersheypa #elvis #elvispresley #theking #thekingofrockandroll #tragedy #tragedies #nationaltragedy #nationaltragedies #death #deathofaking #popstar #rockstar #musicalstar #musicalperformer #elvisthepelvis #1970s #twentiethcentury #twentiethcenturyfigures #figuresofthetwentiethcentury #greatness #famous
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Zoos are Concentration Camps for Animals. Let's phase them out. Hershey Park Happy. Hershey Park Sad. August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. #hersheypark #hersheyparkhappy #hershey #hersheypa #elvis #elvispresley #theking #thekingofrockandroll #tragedy #tragedies #nationaltragedy #nationaltragedies #death #deathofaking #popstar #rockstar #musicalstar #musicalperformer #elvisthepelvis #1970s #twentiethcentury #twentiethcenturyfigures #figuresofthetwentiethcentury #greatness #famous
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Zoos are Concentration Camps for Animals. Let's phase them out. Hershey Park Happy. Hershey Park Sad. August 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died. #hersheypark #hersheyparkhappy #hershey #hersheypa #elvis #elvispresley #theking #thekingofrockandroll #tragedy #tragedies #nationaltragedy #nationaltragedies #death #deathofaking #popstar #rockstar #musicalstar #musicalperformer #elvisthepelvis #1970s #twentiethcentury #twentiethcenturyfigures #figuresofthetwentiethcentury #greatness #famous
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“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
###
As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
###
As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
###
As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
###
As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”*…
Stoicism is having a moment. The estimable Timothy Snyder considers the events of the day in the light of Marcus Aurelius‘ thoughts– and actions…
As Donald Trump announced his whimsy war in Iran, I was reading about another imperial campaign, long ago, against an Iranian people.
In the late second century AD, the Roman Empire confronted armies that had crossed the border at the Danube River and even broached the Alps in northern Italy. Among them were the Iazyges, speakers of an Iranian language, who hailed from the Ukrainian steppe.
In Ukraine this February, I was learning about an archaeological find which reveals the interactions of the Romans and the Iazyges, which included alliance as well as enmity. The Roman war against the Iazyges allies was commanded personally by Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who spent the years between 171 and 180 AD at the front. During that time he kept a philosophical diary, probably written at night in his tent. Discovered after his death, that text, known as the Meditations, is a great work of Stoic philosophy.
I turned to the Meditations to see if I could learn anything that would help me to understand the work of Ukrainian archaeologists about the interactions between Romans and Iazyges. I found something else: perspective on the wars of today, and a sense of why, beyond his obvious incompetence in military matters, Trump had to lose his.
It was shaming to read the bombast of Trump: (”no president was willing to do what I have done tonight”) alongside the reflections of Marcus (“when things have such a plausible appearance, show them naked, see their shoddiness, strip away their own boastful account of themselves.”) Trump broadcast his arrogance to millions of people; Marcus wrote for himself.
Despite the fact he was commanding an army at the front, Marcus never mentioned the war in his Meditations. War was simply something he had to do; he had no difficulty seeing the other side as people, or understanding their motivations. He mentions the Iazyges only once in the text: to make a broader point about hubris, to suggest that it was wrong for Romans to take pride in taking a prisoner of war.
Although Marcus did not broach the subject of my interest, I could not stop reading his Meditations. The contrast with Trump’s utterances was astounding, and vertiginous. The one could spend nine years in command and write a philosophical diary in which he did not even mention the war; the other immediately leapt to praise himself for a war he would lose in weeks…
[With an focus on the “adventure in Iran,” Snyder elaborates the (painfully unflattering) comparison…]
… The American leaders had no idea of who they were or what they wanted, aside from the satisfaction of their emotional needs by the killing of others. They were unable to imagine that people on the other side might have ideas about their own interests and plans for their own behavior. The could not see the world, even in its plainest representation as geography; whereas Marcus exploited a bend in the Danube River to tactical advantage to win a battle; Trump chose to ignore the physical limit the Straits of Hormuz can place on world trade. As soon as the war began, the Iranians did the obvious: they responded to American long-range attacks with the same; and they blocked the Straits.
Because the Americans were operating without a sense of themselves, of the world, or other people, this came as a surprise. Marcus Aurelius offers this mild comment: “How absurd — and a complete stranger to the world– is the man surprised at any aspect of his experience in life!”
The Americans, strangers to the world, reacted to their feelings of surprise with fantasies of destruction. The pleasure they took in killing became a vision of annihilation. Rather than confront the errors they made about war, the Americans leapt to visions of violence in which no one would ever have to think again. Trump lost control on Easter Sunday when he tweeted: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He then promised that he would bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” and said that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” In our modern legal and ethical language, this is of course genocidal language. The American bombast was followed by American surrender.
Marcus Aurelius won his war against the Iazyges. He combined victory and prudence, and for this he was and will be remembered. The defeated Iazyges returned to their previous role as Roman clients, offered thousands of cavalrymen as soldiers of Rome, and opened trade routes to the east. Marcus’s philosophical diary has been read for the better part of two millenia; so long as we are present as a literate civilization, it will be read. Despite Marcus’s certainty that we will all be forgotten, others built a victory column in his honor after his death; it still stands in Rome, more than one thousand eight hundred years later.
Another legacy of Marcus’s victory also touches the center of what we think of as Western culture. As part of the peace accord, he dispatched 5,500 Iazyges cavalrymen, taken into his service, to the north of what is now northern England, to defend the Roman border at Hadrian’s Wall. Their first commander was a man named Arthur, and it is possible that the Iazyges and some of their Iranian-speaking kin incorporated his name into stories of their own — of a lady in the lake, of a sword in a stone, of a quest for a golden cup — which, with time, became the legend of Christian chivalry. That is another story, and one worth telling.
But it is also part of the story of Marcus Aurelius, which, despite the fact that he chose not to tell it himself, or rather precisely for that reason, is instructive about our predicament today. Stoicism is a way not to be a stranger to the world; it can protect the powerful from vanity and folly. To fall into a stupor of self-absorption, as Trump has done, is to flee from reality. Few wars are worth fighting; those that are fought can only be won in the world, and not within the tortured confines of estranged minds. Trump hastens now towards our shared horizon of death, seeking honors that only posterity can accord and will not…
On what Trump could– and should– learn from Marcus Aurelius: “Of Stoicism and Stupor,” from @timothysnyder.bsky.social.
“We are the other of the other”
“Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?”
“Kindness is invincible.”
– Marcus Aurelius
(TotH to MKM)
* Marcus Aurelius
###
As we barrel back to basics, we might recall that it was on this date in 1956 that Elvis Presley, working for the first time with backing vocal group the Jordanaires, recorded “Don’t Be Cruel,” which had been written by Otis Blackwell.
The single was released on July 13, 1956, backed with “Hound Dog.” Within a few weeks “Hound Dog” had risen to No. 2 on the Pop charts with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by “Don’t Be Cruel,” which took No. 1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at No. 1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. “Don’t Be Cruel” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was ranked No. 197 in Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
#culture #DonTBeCruel #ElvisPresley #history #HoundDog #Iran #Jordanaires #MarcusAurelius #moralPhilosophy #OtisBlackwell #philosophy #politics #stoicism #TimothySnyder #Trump -
70 years ago today, #ElvisPresley, wearing a tuxedo, sings to a basset hound on The #SteveAllen Show.