Giving a Hoot

“The owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at dusk,”*

We know. But what great power does the bird confer

On Greek Athena (Minerva is her Roman name),

Born with her panoply of arms from God's brain?

It almost seems redundant to explain:

Owls see in the dark. From it Athena learned

To discern the ideal alongside the real—

Thus, we may venture, how to give a hoot.

It won't offend you if I make it plain:

The passengers should not trash the train.

Marx said he'd turned old Hegel upside down.

And so he did, and shook his pockets out,

From whose contents we took our route,

Who now have lost the plan and live in doubt.

*G. W. F. Hegel, Preface to The Philosophy of Right (1821)

Saturday, August 2, 2025