NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
By Dr. Elliot McGucken
“Oak planks of reason, riveted with rhyme,
designed to voyage across all of time.”
Synopsis
NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY is a timeless handbook of wit and wisdom written in the context of the information age. While narrating the story of his success in creating the world’s classical portal, Dr. Elliot provides the reader with treasure maps marking the most valuable spiritual, literary, legal, and technological resources for joining the internet revolution. Classical wisdom and common sense are shown to be one and the same, and firsthand accounts of the simple rewards reaped from the practical application of timeless principles are sure to inspire readers in all walks of life. More than just a spiritual-advice or business-strategy book, or a general treatise on building commercial websites, NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY marries the best of all worlds—the literary and the technological, and the classical and the contemporary—to deliver a unified nonfiction “how-to” book embroidered with poetry and humor. The American Dream is just a click away, and hard work coupled with a principled vision are more valuable than venture capital and hype in creating the intrinsic value which is the hallmark of all enduring brands. This is the lesson that resounds throughout all the classics, and Dr. McGucken has demonstrated that it’s all still true by successfully implementing antiquity’s wisdom at Classicals & jollyroger.com LLC.
The author’s “can-do” spirit is matched by a “has-done” performance, and his own successful application of a classical business philosophy stamps NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY with an engaging credibility. As a Ph.D. physicist, his technical advice is sound; and as a common-sense poet, his words both rhyme and mean things. All this makes this book a must-read for those seeking to gain an advantage upon the ever-changing, sometimes tempestuous seas of modern human endeavor. Just as mariners navigate by the fixed stars of the celestial globe, the book teaches the art of creative navigation by fixed precepts found throughout the classics. And as the classics signify something to everyone, all readers shall find something of profound value in this indispensable sextant for the internet age.
NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
NAVIGATING A INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
Of the Great Books, by the Great Books, and for The Great Books
By Dr. Elliot
I must go down to the seas again,
To the lonely sea and the sky;
And all I ask is a tall ship
And a star to steer her by.
—John Masefield
I got an MBA while windsurfing,
Wealth's secrets the West wind whispered to me,
Out there I saw a renaissance rising,
I knew where to invest my poetry.
In truth and beauty, in God's greater light,
In quotes never seen on the broker's screens,
In principles beyond the pedant's sight,
That higher calling, to set down what it means.
So stay ashore, money's not much out here,
The better business is philosophy,
For art is only bought by blood and tears,
And the return on Words is eternity.
All the pomp and circumstance you can keep,
I'll take the girl, the renaissance, and a jeep.
NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
©1999-2004, Classicals & Jollyroger.com LLC
NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
NAVIGATING A INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: THE SPIRIT OF JOLLYROGER.COM
Chapter 1. THE SHIP: The Art of Assembling Technology for Building an Internet Venture: Linux, Microsoft, Intel, MP3, & Photoshop.
Chapter 2. THE CREW: Building a WWW Community
Chapter 3: THE MASTHEAD AND THE KEEL: Branding in the Online Era
Chapter 4: THE SHIP’S ARTICLES: Thirteen Precepts of a Classical Business Philosophy
Chapter 5: THE CARGO: The Great Books
Chapter 6: THE BOWSPRIT: The Aesthetics of Principled Vision
Chapter 7: THE HELM: On The Responsibility and Rewards of Leadership
Chapter 8: THE WAR CHEST: Financing, Intellectual Property, Domain Names, Incorporation, Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, and Legal Concerns.
Chapter 9: THE TREASURE CHEST: Online Revenue Streams: Advertising, Affiliate Programs, Online Commerce, Credit Cards, and More.
Chapter 10: THE VIEW FROM THE MASTHEAD: The Jolly Roger Workout & The Great Books and the Great Outdoors
Chapter 11: SETTING SAIL: Unity: Poetry and Putting it All Together While Windsurfing off Hatteras.
Chapter 12: THE DESTINATION: A Renaissance
NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
NAVIGATING A INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
“Oak planks of reason, riveted with rhyme,
designed to voyage across all of time.”
INTRODUCTION: THE SPIRIT OF JOLLYROGER.COM
“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”—Niccolo Machiavelli
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”—Abraham Lincoln
As one of the final chapters of this book concerns itself with the beauty of unity, the best way to begin is with the simple unity of jollyroger.com’s mission. In 1995 Jollyroger.com was launched to transport the spirit of the Great Books and classics about the watery globe. And ever since, all the hardware, software, pictures, poetry, and prose have been united in furthering this endeavor. The marriage of the greatest that has been spoken and written to the greatest publishing medium ever known to the individual struck me as a perfect match back when I first came across the internet as a physics graduate student. I saw both the Great Books and the internet as vast resources and valuable tools for enhancing and enriching life, and by wedding the two, a brand new timeless entity came to be at jollyroger.com. The Great Books are tools which help us find our place relative to virtue’s fixed precepts, just as a sextant allows mariners to navigate by the fixed stars in the celestial globe. And the internet is today’s boundless ocean of information where knowledge and wisdom are free to instantaneously sail about the globe in that immortal vessel, the printed word. In this era of rapid change and abundance of information, never before have the Great Books been such important navigational instruments. For the winds shift far more often than the objectives of our most profound dreams, and thus we must learn to creatively navigate by the fixed ideals, so as to reach our chosen destinations.
All men seek one goal: success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal—a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends—wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.—Aristotle
This book tells the story of using the simple wisdom of the Great Books to captain a gen-x internet company dedicated to bringing the classics to life for all generations. As an entrepreneur, I have benefited greatly from the chronicles of others’ experiences and musings, and in that same spirit, I set these words down. I hope that within this story you find a general handbook for helping you take full advantage of the technological tools for navigating the internet, and the spiritual tools within the Classics which will help you navigate in all walks of life. This book and the accompanying website at jollyroger.com/captaining contain treasure maps leading to all the greatest resources that will help you tap into the wisdom of the classics as well as the internet revolution.
As an ardent fan of the Great Books, I understood that the successful creation of a classical web community would have to be conducted with the same profound respect for eternal ideals that the authors of the Great Books harbored. I knew that the higher ideals would have to be kept above the bottom line every step of the way, so in the early stages, rather than spending time pursuing venture capital, I chose to pen the poetry and prose that have come to define the spirit of jollyroger.com. Rather than seeking wealth, I strove to create it. In the information age, the individual has immediate access to vast tools and resources, and in less time than it takes to pen a business plan, a website can be launched. I have faith that all literature which navigates by the higher ideals will eventually make a safe passage out to the commercial seas. As Homer, Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Austen, and Melville had all written what they wrote without any venture capital, and as they own the most enduring brands in all of history, I decided to model my business after theirs, making truth and eloquence the center and circumference of all operations. The internet, unlike software and hardware, is primarily about people exchanging words, and thus it is about literature. And I foresaw that a site dedicated to the greatest literature ever penned would share in that literature’s immortality.
So like Ishmael, “having little or no money in my pockets,” I set sail to serve the people with the greatest that has ever been spoken and written. As the Captain of jollyroger.com, I took the oath taken by all enduring artists—I swore that I would remain humble before the higher laws of Nature and Nature’s God. I have found this timeless approach to work extremely well in all walks of life, in business dealings as well as in poetry, and I hope this narrative serves as a beacon for all those seeking something permanent and profound to navigate by upon this ever-changing ocean of information.
This book is a tool to be used by parents, teachers, writers, students, coaches, small business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders in all walks of life. Over the past four years of building Classicals & jollyroger.com LLC, I have witnessed firsthand all the trials and tribulations of bringing something new into this world from the decks of a www startup. I feel a lot of my experiences could be of use to others, just as others’ experiences recounted in the classics have been and continue to be of great use to me.
Jollyroger.com is a testament to the classic American Dream—that a living may be gained by hard work and humble service, that rewards await those who take full advantage of their God-given freedoms, and that a small-town Midwesterner with a dream may come to build the world's classical portal. You don’t need venture capital, nor an IPO, nor a publicity nor legal nor operations department to realize your dreams, as innovation and entrepreneurship are as free as the wind. Within these pages I’ll tell you how you can incorporate, obtain trademarks, get copyrights, and gain publicity all on your own—I’ll share with you all the things which worked for me in building and NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY. In the information age, ideas and content are king, and while hype might win the day, profundity shall always win tomorrow.
There’s a lot of cynicism out there in the postmodern fog—that hype rules the literary world, that the popular culture has become degraded and intellectually vapid, that the media is superficial, that people today are ruled by emotion and no longer by deep reflection nor rational thought, that politics supplants truth at all levels, and that my generation, generation-x, is composed primarily of slackers who work for but money when they work at all. Time and again I have heard it said or seen it written that we’re in a period of decline, and while I agree with certain aspects of this popular prophecy, I yet maintain that we’re free to aspire, build, hope, and dream. For the simple truth is that the classics are never in decline, and those who take them to heart are forever buoyed by their immutable spirit. Out here aboard jollyroger.com, all cynicism soon gives way to a peaceful faith in something greater than oneself.
I agree that many aspects of contemporary culture have lost their way in the postmodern fog, and I also agree that more than a few www “media” companies are based on little more than hype. A lot of the companies sought to build their brands after their IPOs, thereby sailing into unknown waters with millions of their investors’ dollars. They were all rushing to be “first movers,” which makes sense for a couple of companies with definitive, unique functions, like amazon.com and yahoo.com. But for content-oriented community sites, it is better to patiently build the spirit over time, rather than build it by hype. For if we can learn anything from the Great Books, it is better to be an eternal mover, rather than the first mover. And no classical poetry nor piece of enduring art was ever granted its eternity by a committee, nor a board of directors, nor investors, but only by a rugged individual’s vision and labor. It so often seems that all the same people who buy into the cynicism of lost meaning buy into the hyped stocks, driving stock prices up along with the cynicism of the true nature of value and worth. But only truth endures the test of time, and thus hype may be defined as that which time demonstrates to be worth nothing. If this book serves to remind a few more people of those eternal elements which are worth far more than any material possessions, then I say it shall have added ample wealth to this world.
Try not to become a man of success, but rather a man of value. —Albert Einstein
Like the classics themselves, neither time nor moth may tarnish nor corrupt jollyroger.com. Regardless of the winds of popular opinion, she shall navigate by the eternal forms of virtue, whether this necessitates tacking against or running with the wind. The fixed forms of honor, justice, truth, reverence, character, faith, and humor are forever enshrined within the Great Books, and just as mariners navigate by the fixed stars of the celestial globe, history has shown that the most successful and valuable leaders have navigated by virtue’s fixed forms. The art of navigating by something greater than oneself is the source of all character, both in literature and in real life. Sometimes the virtuous proclivity for this art is found in the poet, sometimes within the scientist, sometimes in the statesman, and more often than not within the common men and women who make this country work.
Before attending Princeton, I grew up in a small, mid-western town, and I attended a public high school where Shakespeare was treated with greater respect than he was at Princeton. I first learned to believe in the power of words amongst the guys on the swim team at Firestone High School, when we got suspended for an underground satirical newspaper. But I really fell in love with literature when I wrote my first short story about my first serious girlfriend. I remember it was entitled The Wrong Reference Frame, and it was filled with literary references to my freshly-found heroes including Holden Caufield, Einstein, Howard Roark, Yossarian, and Hamlet. I was sixteen at the time, and my girlfriend ended up cheating on me and “clefting my heart in twain”, but the story, which totally forgave her for following the baser aspects of her nature while expounding upon the rewards of honor, was loved by all who read it. I remember she cried when she read it a couple months later, as she worked on the literary magazine that Mr. Smith, my English teacher, had submitted the story to, but by then I was going out with someone else who’d also appreciated the story. So it was that I learned that by following the higher ideals I’d encountered in the classics we’d read for English class, meaningful, moral art is created, and heartbreak and betrayal can be used as a backdrop for character and conviction. I found that poetry is nothing more than common sense rendered with eloquence. I found that even though a higher vision might be unappreciated by somebody in the immediacy of real life, when set down upon paper, the higher ideals take on an eternal life of their own—they become literature. The far reaches of my soul had been touched by the words of the Greats in Mr. Smith’s English class, and when I found the ability of my words to exalt the spirits of others, I knew that literature was my calling. And when the WWW happened, I saw the opportunity to sail free of the postmodern fog.
I harbor a great respect for the common man, because I am one. If I could make use of the classics as a sixteen-year-old in high school, I figure just about anyone can. To me the classics are those books which are of profound, practical use. So often people like Socrates, Hamlet, and Thoreau have stood beside me at the helm of jollyroger.com and guided me through the thicker postmodern fogs when professors, administrators, and supposed leaders had all jumped ship. It is one of life’s greater ironies that the simple and true is so often looked down upon as naïve and unsophisticated, even though the simple truisms found in the classics have endured for thousands of years. And one of the wonderful things about the classics is that they all seem to agree with one another about the fundamentals, which makes sense. For if there really are timeless ideals of honor, fidelity, and character, then all who write about them with precision and honesty will surely find common aspects resounding throughout their words. For instance,
To be simple is to be great. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. –Albert Einstein
Brevity is the soul of wit. —William Shakespeare
Thus it must be true that simplicity is the hallmark of a classic, and as the Constitution, the Gospels, Hamlet, and Declaration of Independence can all be read in a single afternoon, it must be that any useful book must be short one. And so I decided to write this in twelve days while windsurfing off Hatteras in North Carolina.
As internet technology is changing as fast as I type these words, throughout this book I shall strive to characterize the more general and permanent themes of building an internet business, while the website supporting the technical aspects, at http://jollyroger.com/technology, shall be continually updated. But as the classics are timeless, the literary aspects of the book shall remain fixed. Hundreds of years from now, the very same books and precepts shall be found throughout jollyroger.com. Honor shall still be honor, character shall still be character, virtue shall still be virtue, and the news of the day shall still be that the world’s grown honest, and that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
I believe in the power of words to awaken the richest, most profound aspects of our spirits, and I believe that all true wealth derives from the Word. Indeed amazon.com is worth billions of dollars, but were it not for the Homers, Socrates, Shakespeares, Melvilles, Fitzgeralds, and the Bible, how would we have ever learned the love of language that compels us to buy books? Were it not for the Keplers, the Galileos, the Faradays, the Einsteins, the Bohrs, and the Plancks, from where would the technology have arisen? And were it not for the Platos, Aristotles, Ciceros, Prophets, Jeffersons, Madisons, and Hamiltons, from what source would the laws which guarantee the innovator’s and entrenpreneur’s freedom to create have sprung?
The bold dreams and visions of all the people named above, along with thousands of more thinkers and writers, both known and unknown, are the guardian angels of our prosperity and freedom. All of the people mentioned above held abstract ideals in higher regard than the material, and often in higher regard than life itself. The men listed above include traitors, blasphemers, and rebels; and so they seemed, because none of them ever turned their backs on the higher ideals, nor rebelled against their faith in God. Some of them were hunted, some were persecuted, some were tried, and some of them were put to death. But all of them, though long gone, set the forms of their immortal souls down upon paper, thus granting all of us a vast inheritance.
Written on every dollar of Amazon’s billion dollar valuation are the words “In God We Trust.” So it is that the true worth of a company is only proportional to how well that company lives up to higher ideals. For the paper is worth nothing without the poetry.
Some people shall always have something to gain by knocking the Greats down. Those who have aspirations which overshadow their talents often band together, deconstruct and obscure the higher ideals, and present one-another with superficial honors and awards based on pure politics. The sophists did it in Socrates’ day, and the Bible is filled with stories of the righteous being persecuted by the pompous mob or oligarchy. Even Odysseus was harassed and belittled within his own home, while the guests pursued his unyielding, faithful wife. But you will notice that it is the wisdom embodied in the literary characters of Socrates, Jesus, and Odysseus which prevails. In the Princeton Chapel, Socrates, Jesus, and Homer are enshrined in the stained glass for a reason—there are no deconstructionsts nor postmodernists there, and there never shall be. Odysseus’s houseguests shall remain forever unknown in eternity’s books.
There is nothing all that much new in this book, but only some contemporary words which are intended to bolster those things that you always knew to be true. Jollyroger.com’s hope is that perhaps these words, or words penned by one of the many authors cited within this book, shall inspire you to embark upon the journey that pays all sojourners in infinite sublimity and the most enduring currency—the truth. For it’s the truth which sets us free, and it’s freedom which allows us to keep following the truth. And what better way to return to port, upon that distant day, than with these two fundamental ideals, truth and freedom, secure in the holds of one’s heart?
It is not the going out of port, but the coming in, that determines the success of the voyage. —Henry Ward Beecher
For whatever is done for the exploration of the truth is done for the enlargement of freedom, We must not only be free to know the truth, but the truth also makes us free.—Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 1. THE SHIP:
The Art of Assembling Technology for Building an Internet Venture:
Linux, Microsoft, Intel, MP3, & Photoshop.
To industry, nothing is impossible —Latin Proverb.
Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need for skill. —W.H. Auden
If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on a fence and watch the birds; but if you really wish to learn to fly, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with its tricks by actual trial. –Wilbur Wright
At jollyroger.com, the hardware is the ship, the software is how I have chosen to equip the Pentium servers to perform the company’s tasks, and my programming skills are my ability to captain the vessel. If you’re ready to leave port upon an internet venture of your own, then this chapter is for you, as I’ll be recommending what I feel to be the better technological resources for a web startup. Although internet-related technology is rapidly changing, there seem to be a few long-term trends and resources that will be around for years to come, and those more general and permanent entities I shall share with you herein. And as the specifics of jollyroger.com technology are upgraded, the changes shall be tracked at jollyroger.com/technology.
The more permanent features of an internet business, which I do not foresee changing, are the three C’s: Content, Community, and Commerce. Below I present the hardware and software used at jollyroger.com to implement and support them for over 150,000 unique visitors each month.
1. Content: Articles, poetry, prose, and graphics setting the tenor of the site.
Hardware: Server: 450 mHz PIII, 18 G SCSI HD, 256 mb RAM. Home Computer: 400 mHz PII, 8 G HD, 128 mb RAM.
Web Hosting: Clever.net, Digiweb.com
Operating System: Server: Free Linux with the Apache server from redhat.com. Home Computer: Microsoft Windows.
HTML Editors: Microsoft Frontpage, MS Word, and Adobe Pagemill.
Graphics Editors: Microsoft Frontpage and Adobe Photoshop.
Books: Redhat Linux Unleashed, The Linux Web Server Toolkit, Teach Yourself HTML in 21 Days.
Websites: developer.netscape.com, www.digiweb.com/support/utilities, www.cgi-resources.com
2. Community: Forums, chats, and user-contributed content bolstering the value of the site.
Software Language: PERL
Software: WWWBOARD from Matt’s Script Archive at www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/, WebCrossing from webcrossing.com, and live web chats from www.cgi-resources.com
Books: Learning Perl, The Perl Cookbook, Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days.
3. Commerce: Advertising, affiliates, partnerships, and sales of goods and services which complement the site.
Advertising Agencies: Flycast.com, 247media.com. Agencies provide all software for serving ads.
Credit Card Merchant Account: CardService International at cardservice.com and authorize.net provide all software for secure credit cardtransactions.
Affiliates: amazon.com, linkshare.com, xoom.com, and befree.com provide html code for linking to hundreds of merchants ranging from J-crew to Dell.
Shopping Cart & Transaction Software: Free versions of such software may be found at www.cgi-resources.com
The three “C’s” are listed above in chronological order of an internet company’s development, although once the site is up and running, there is a continual interplay between the three entities, as the products sold at jollyroger.com certainly add to the content, as does the user-generated information on the bulletin boards. But it is the initial content, including the themes, logos, and site design, which establishes the general direction of the company, and only if people find a reason to return to the primary content, shall the community and commerce blossom.
Anyone who has ever engaged in any scientific or technological pursuit understands that it is a classical art. By this I mean that scientific and technological creativity is only meaningful if the innovator honors and respects the wisdom of all who thought and labored before them. One must work within the bounds of a rigorous set of standards. As Richard Feynman said about theoretical physics, “It’s like creating in a straight-jacket.” As challenging as this sounds, the thousands of marvels of engineering and technological innovation have demonstrated the great rewards of respecting mathematical and physical laws. If one adheres to the rules and “learn the ropes,” then a vast ocean of creative opportunity lies within reach.
Issac Newton, in reflecting upon his monumental contributions to classical physics and calculus, stated that the reason he had seen so far was that he had stood upon the shoulders of giants. Because scientists and engineers learn early on in their careers to respect yesterday’s achievements, they are forever making use of the collective genius inherent in all prior innovations. And so it is that the fundamental secret of the WWW is that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Most of software to perform the basic functions of a typical website, such as bulletin boards, live chats, commerce, greeting cards, web page creation, surveys, logs, and free email, can be found out there for free, or purchased for relatively little. In addition to the websites mentioned above, jollyroger.com/technology has additional links to valuable resources which are continually updated. Indeed, even linux, the chief operating system of jollyroger.com, was downloaded for free from redhat.com.
The webmaster’s job becomes the delegation of tasks to the software, which serves the website’s community twenty-four hours a day. The webmaster becomes a CEO/artist, whereby assembling pieces of code, poetry, graphics, and prose, an aesthetically pleasing and useful site is created, with all the software programs relentlessly performing their functions. Think of all the people working for you! There’s Newton’s calculus, Einstein’s, Bohr’s, and Planck’s quantum mechanics in all the computer chips, the engineers who created Microsoft’s browser, Alexander Graham Bell’s phone lines, and the millions of scientists and engineers who collaborated on refining every aspect of the internet. Science and technology have made CEOs of us all, with legions of geniuses as employees, affording us the time and opportunity to be creative, while our diligent employees transport our work about the watery globe.
Having once found the intensity of art, nothing else that can happen in life ever again seems as important as the creative process.—F. Scott Fitzgerald
Like all creative endeavors, webmastering can become extremely enjoyable and rewarding for the creator. Jollyroger.com was able to keep its overhead low because it came to life as a creative pursuit, and thus I never had any need to hire anyone, as poetry is not something one farms out to consultants. All the searching, writing, and implementing of all the software, hardware, poetry, prose, and pictures became fun for me. Inspiration works for free, so whenever you find her, don’t keep her waiting, but pick up a pen.
The best way to learn is by doing, and although it may be safer to sit on the fence and watch the birds fly, as Wilbur Wright suggested, the only way to venture forth is by taking risks. However, this does not mean taking frivolous or foolish risks, but only taking risks where the benefits might far outweigh the results of failure. For as Wilbur wrote to his father,
I do not intend to take dangerous chances, both because I have no wish to get hurt and because a fall would stop my experimenting, which I would not like at all. The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks. Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks. –Wilbur Wright
So it was that I never went into debt while creating jollyroger.com, nor did I ever risk anyone else’s money in the form of venture capital. I knew I was setting out aboard jollyroger.com as a lifelong pursuit, and thus I could not risk the chance of losing ownership or being burdened by debt, should the Good Ship fall short of the potential I foresaw for the world’s classical community.
There’s some element inherent within a contemporary Great Books renaissance that’s every bit as far-fecthed and ludicrous to many experts as the possibility of human flight was back in the Wright Brothers’ day. But if two unassuming brothers from Ohio could design, test, refine, and build the predecessor of all modern aircraft, and if they could do it with tools from their bike shop, without any formal degrees in engineering, let alone any degrees from high school even; then perhaps another Ohioan could perform the somewhat easier task of transporting the spirit of the Great Books about the watery globe, upon the boundless potential of the internet. As Einstein said, “there is no original idea of merit that at first does not seem insane.”
Chapter 2. THE CREW:
Building a WWW Community
Nothing can lift the heart of a man like manhood in a fellow man. –Herman Melville
The true test of civilization is, not the census nor the size of the cities, nor the crops—no, but the kind of man the country turns out. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.—John Donne
The value of the network is equal to the square of the "savvy" user connected to it.—The Dayton-Metcalfe Law
The fundamental value of a website derives from the members of the community it fosters. These are the people who return to the site on a regular basis to enjoy the company of others who also frequent the site. Brought together by similar interests, they create value as they share their expertise, making the site ever more valuable to newcomers with each and every exchange of information, which may be recorded in message board forums. Thus at jollyroger.com, somebody seeking to find out about Hamlet’s feigned insanity may come across a useful exchange on the topic from over a year ago. The members also engage in online commerce and provide constant feedback as to what they like best about the site, as well as what they would wish to see changed or added, and thus the site grows about them.
At jollyroger.com the classical niche community is far better defined than the communities at larger, more general sites such as tripod.com, geocities.com, and theglobe.com. This presents jollyroger.com with a smaller niche, which attracts less users, but which strengthens the brand. And on the WWW, even a small niche is potentially huge, so a strongly-branded, well-defined niche is a viable approach to business on the web. It would make little sense to open a bookstore devoted only to the classics in your local mall, but on the internet, with the ability of a community to spread like wildfire about the entire globe, the niche model is perfect. Jollyroger.com has become the “goto” place to converse about the classics. Before the internet happened, bringing tens of thousands of people to a common area to talk about the Great Books was simply impossible. But such an entity has been realized at jollyroger.com, and as time goes on, the world’s classical community can only grow.
Chapter 3: THE MASTHEAD AND THE KEEL:
Branding in the Online Era
masthead 1 : the top of a mast 2 a : the printed matter in a newspaper or periodical that gives the title and pertinent details of ownership, advertising rates, and subscription rates b : the name of a publication (as a newspaper) displayed on the top of the first page
keel: 1 a : the chief structural member of a boat or ship that extends longitudinally along the center of its bottom and that often projects from the bottom; --Merriam Webster
Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids.--Aristotle
A company’s brand should seek to pervade and represent the company’s entire structure. The brand should resound throughout the underlying foundations, or the keel, and it should be flown with pride from the masthead. Like a ship’s keel, the brand precedes the rest of the company, and like a flag flown from the masthead, the brand is that part of the company which is seen from afar, which either attracts the customer or wards them off. Brand is the company’s character, and the trademark is the emblem or phrase associated with it. Because of the prominence of the brand, and because it permeates the entire company, branding should be approached with a cautious, artistic flair. The art of branding should adhere to the following three precepts:
1. A good brand should be associated with a memorable, meaningful trademark, be it a phrase, graphic, or combination thereof.
2. The trademark and brand should address as many aspects of the company’s character in as brief a space as possible.
3. Dual or multiple meanings lend a profundity and subtlety to the brand, as it gives people something to think about, and as they reflect upon it, they shall certainly remember it.
The jollyroger.com trademark satisfies these three precepts. There are a few explanations for where the phrase “Jolly Roger” originally came from, and I would guess that the true origin lies in a combination of the explanations. In the days of sail, “The Jolly Roger” referred to all pirate flags, the most familiar of which is the classic skull’n’crossbones. The purpose of the flag, which was raised by pirates just prior to their conquests on the high seas, was to strike fear into the hearts of the intended prey, thereby encouraging a swift surrender—the pirates didn’t want a battle any more than anybody else did. The pirates always sought to stoke the flame of their nefarious reputation, so as to minimize potential resistance. The fiercest French Pirates were infamous for hoisting a blood-red flag, known by “joli rouge,” which is French for “pretty red.” And because an English name for the Devil was Roger, it is easy to see how English-speaking sailors started referring to the dreaded and feared pirate flag as “The Jolly Roger.”
Now there’s an irony in selecting a dreaded and feared entity as a trademark for a company devoted to transporting the spirit of the classics, and this irony was intended. For in the inverted halls of academe, the Great Books are virtually always cast as the “bad guys,” and thus, as a salute to postmodernism’s success, The Jolly Roger works as a name for an online literary journal devoted to publishing literature penned in the context of the classics. And too, while admitting that postmodernism has succeeded, jollyroger.com also symbolizes that the Good Ship Jolly Roger is resolutely committed to conducting battle with the waterlogged postmodern vessels, while launching broadsides of the truth, and then boarding them and pirating the profound which has been buried ‘neath all the isms. For Machiavelli reminds us that it is better to be feared by one’s enemies than it is to be loved by them.
Arghrgrhr matey! Raise the anchor and rig the sail to the truth’s raging wind; prime yer wit’s pistol, and polish your imagination’s cutlass, for we’ll be taking no prisoners as we board the waterlogged cultural institutions to pirate back the popular culture and return it to the common man! Agrhgrhgrh! We’re sailing into the dawn of a cultural renaissance say I, and no quarter shall be given to the postmodern scalleywags! So you see how the jollyroger.com theme has been the source of a lot of good-natured fun, and when postmodernists see the flag on the horizon, you can bet it sends chills running up and down their spines. Jollyroger.com’s trademark should come in handy, as the crew intends to reclaim the halls of academia for the Great Books with little or no struggle.
And in addition to the pirate theme, a general nautical motif pervades jollyroger.com’s pages. A lot of my favorite literature has been set upon the sea, from The Odyssey, to Moby Dick, to Lord Jim, to Treasure Island. The whole idea of “going to sea,” is a powerful motif for travel and adventure, for a chance to come face to face with death so as to find out the immense value of life. All of these entities are captured within the jollyroger.com brand, and as I always wore a red bandanna when I performed as a member of the grunge band Drake’s Raft, even the company’s dress code is represented in the trademark.
Chapter 4: THE SHIP’S ARTICLES:
Thirteen Precepts of a Classical Business Philosophy
1. Humility
There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart—St. Augustine.
If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties. –Francis Bacon
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.—Matthew 23:12
Humility: Imitate Socrates and Jesus –Benjamin Franklin
Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense that I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men. –Albert Einstein
As the captain of jollyroger.com, I have always striven to be humble before higher ideals, and that has made me humble before all my crewmembers. For one of the highest ideals, found in every religion, is the golden rule that states, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So I seek to serve my crewmembers with the same prudence and justice which I would honor and respect in a captain. It is by humility that we listen and we learn, it is by humility that we hear and see, and it is one’s consistent humility that lends one’s judgements a definitive authority that is never gained by position nor title alone.
Like Augustine said, humility before the higher ideals ironically ends up exalting the heart. By seeing God in governing the higher laws within the circumference of our existence, somehow we find God at the center of our souls. As Melville noted, while pondering the inherent nobility of hard work:
But this august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike; that democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God; Himself! The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality! –Herman Melville, MOBY DICK
2. Creativity & Innovation
On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use. –Euripides
A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Imagination is more important than knowledge. —Albert Einstein
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somehwere. –G.K. Chesterton
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Nothing is more useful to man than those arts which have no utility
—Ovid
Fate favors the creative.—Becket Knottingham
After one has humbled themselves before the perfect forms, before the rules, before the standards, then that is when creativity has an opportunity to become meaningful and profound. In music the notes all occur at fixed intervals, with the frequency of the sound doubling once every octave, and while all the great composers adhere to the strict rules of the immutable scales, their compositions are yet infinitely varied and sublime. So too has it been aboard jollyroger.com, where I honored the rules of the technology in building the ship, and I pen the poetry and prose by the creative art of navigating by the fixed precepts of the classics. All profound poetry is but contemporary variations on the eternal themes.
3. Nature
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
–William Blake
An abundance of material found throughout jollyroger.com was inspired while hiking in the woods, biking in the North Carolina Mounatins, or windsurfing off of Cape Hatteras. Just about every day I have to go running, or play tennis or golf, or go biking. There’s an elemental power in Nature, next to which our worries seem infinitely small, and thus in Nature’s presence the loftier ideals of our spirits seem to matter more. Again, that which humbles us also exalts us. Looking in Nature’s mirror is where I have so often found the reason to create. Here’re a couple poems that I wrote awhile back, as tributes to all the places in North Carolina where I have happened upon a pretty girl I call inspiration:
Mountain peaks amidst October's glory,
I pause at the pinnacle, touch the point,
I tread lightly, leave with but a story,
with the fleeting view these words I annoint.
A field of rasberries, fourth of July,
For a moment I lose her amongst the rows,
Serene green 'neath the Carolina sky,
Silent, windless still, in my heart it grows.
Surging Hatteras surf in December,
Standing beyond the breakers on my board,
I often voyage here to remember,
The tranquil sublimity of the Lord.
These are the places I pause, stand in awe,
Of man's freedom under Natural Law.There's something I saw in the mountain mist,
That too I perceived in the thundering wave,
But then when I felt it, when we first kissed,
I knew it was something I had to save.
Nature's noble rapture, changing seasons,
Beauty owns the blossoms and falling leaves,
But man walks alone in owning reasons,
Reflected in all is what he believes.
I passed it last night, riding the warm wind,
I was out late, rebelling against time,
Against the wind I had set out to find,
Words to anchor eternity in rhyme.
O' Captain my Captain, hark, it's in me,
This thundering soul, creating to be free.
4. Reverence
He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality... The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is submitted indeed in some degree to the guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we call Common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules. –Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. Papers, 12:15.
I never doubted. . . that the most acceptable Service of God was the doing Good to Man; that our Souls are immortal; and that all Crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter; these I esteem'd the Essentials of every Religion, and being to be found in all the Religions we had in our Country I respected them all. Tho' I seldom attended any Public Worship, I had still an Opinion of its Propriety, and of its Utility when rightly conducted. –Benjamin Franklin
The founding fathers have ever been a great inspiration at jollyroger.com, and a common that which pervades all their writings is their profound reverence for the laws of Nature and Nature’s God, as well as for common sense. As all the Great Books are marked with a moral sentiment, a devout reverence by and by becomes a characteristic quality for all who sail with the classics. Reverence is the source of all faith, which is the source of all profound and meaningful labor, the fruits of which make us ever more reverent and thankful.
5. Industry & Frugality
The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do; with them, everything –Benjamin Franklin.
Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss. But cheerily seek how to redress their harms.—William Shakespeare
Make yourself necessary, and fortune shall follow.
–Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Work is often the father of pleasure. –Voltaire
These days many people have grown a bit cynical, thinking that they could have become vastly rich had they only picked the right stock or worked for the right company. ‘Tis true that much money can be gained and lost in stocks, but one can always become infinitely rich in a deeper sense by industry and frugality, by working hard at one’s passions. For the following of one’s passions is ever a source of bountiful payment itself, and so often it is that when one loves their labor, others also tend to share a fondness for the end product. Aboard jollyroger.com I have ever sought to be paid foremost in a spiritual manner—for the first three years the Good ship never even thought of turning a profit, but now she cannot help it. I have found that by following one’s convictions, by making one’s passion one’s profession, by utilizing the bountiful technological resources at our fingertips, by saving and reinvesting all the profits back into the business, a timeless, revenue-generating operation is born. Only art that was created out of necessity of one’s passions ever becomes necessary to the hearts and minds of others.
6. Character
For as I detest the doorways of Death, I detest the man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another. –Homer, Iliad (Achilles to Odysseus)
One man with courage makes a majority –Andrew Jackson
The vision of the founders was to occupy the land with men of character.
–Robert Frost
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Shakepeare’s Julius Caesar. II, ii
But truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth:
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
–Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act 2. Scene 7.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.
–Thomas Jefferson
At jollyroger.com, character comes first in every endeavor. Character is ever present in the classic literature that pervades the company, in all my business dealings with advertisers and customers, in every aspect of composing the poetry and prose. Character is the iron rule that determines what a man will do in a given situation, and thus it is the source of all trust and meaning of the words he writes. It is a writer’s most valued possession, both upon the printed page and within the public’s eye. A noble character requires three untarnished entities: a history of correct and prudent action, a consistent, sober presence of conscience, and an exalted destination to strive for.
7. Community
Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of the people is no more determined by their number than the greatness of a man is determined by his height. –Victor Hugo
Light is the task when many share the toil. –Homer
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. –Herman Melville
The Great Books and classics serve as powerful beacons for attracting a highly-educated, literate audience, and too, those who share a fondness for the words reflecting the truth are often those same people who have a fondness for truth in their lives. For those who enjoy reading words which mean things also enjoy speaking them. Thus the community at jollyroger.com is filled with members of sublime integrity.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of this community is that it creates an immediate context for those who have not yet become acquainted with the classics to set sail with the Great Books. Time and again, my favorite correspondence has been the emails I receive from those thanking me for introducing them to classics like Hamlet, The Declaration of Independence, or Moby Dick. In this age of cynicism, the community at jollyroger.com has been and continues to be a great source of inspiration. For I never forget that were it not for all the honest readers out there, jollyroger.com would not be.
8. Humor
A jest often decides matters of importance more effectively and happily than seriousness.
—Horace
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. –Albert Einstein
Laughter is man’s answer to fate’s fortuitous nature. –Becket Knottingham
While NAVIGATING AN INTERNET BUSINESS WITH A CLASSICAL BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY, I have had a few run-ins with postmodernists and deconstructionists who did not exactly enjoy a lot of what I was accomplishing. I have learned that humor is the best way to handle detractors, as it allows one to make a poignant point from behind a gentle smile. While jollyroger.com was still being run off a school server in the early days, a very liberal administrator told me that either I had to include more viewpoints, or he would shut the operation down. So I took the opportunity to add Virgil, as although I had saluted Homer on the site, I had not yet had the time to include any Romans—hey, my dissertation advisor was keeping me busy writing grant proposals. My choice of Virgil only augmented his disdain for jollyroger.com, and he fired me an email saying that I had to include more living people, that jollyroger.com couldn’t be just a vanity page for my work, even though I hadn’t written any of the Great Books the site was devoted to. So I added Drake Raft and Becket Knottingham, which were two characters of mine. I gave them both emails, and I got kicked off the school server, which was OK, because when I launched jollyroger.com off my own private server, I was allowed to sell t-shirts, for profit. It’s all worked out, pretty much, although the only drawback is that Drake and Becket always get a lot of the credit, while I have to do all the work.
9. Faith
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto the mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you —Matthew 17:20
I have lived a long time, and I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has come out stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith. Go forward. –Thomas Edison
It’s kind of funny thinking back on it, that a small-town Midwesterner would apply himself at starting a literary revolution to transport his generation beyond the postmodern fog, but I guess it’s no more funny than the two Midwestern brothers who traveled to Kill Devil Hills for four years in a row to learn how to fly. I guess I just had this undying faith that people love the classics. I’d seen it firsthand in small town Ohio, not far from where Orville’s and Wilbur’s Father wrote to them:
Sons,
Be men of the highest types personally, mentally, morally and spiritually. Be clean, temperate, sober minded, and great souled.
Whereupon the Wilbur Wright replied,
Father,
All the wine I have tasted since leaving home would not fill a single wineglass. I am sure that Orville and myself will do nothing which will disgrace the training we received from you and Mother.
Faith in the higher ideals was one of those things my parents took great care to instill within me, as did most parents, teachers, and Coaches in Akron, Ohio. It is because our parents and teachers have faith in God that we have faith in them, and that’s why a lot of postmodern boomers are having trouble raising and educating their children. I learned of the beauty and power of words to express the higher ideals when I was sixteen, as I mentioned in the introduction, and it was because my English teacher, Mr. Smith, was devoted to introducing his students to the beauty of literature’s higher ideals. And I don’t think you can ever teach anyone to forget anything they learned when they were sixteen, even though I was kicked out of a creative writing class at Princeton for writing poetry which rhymed. Nothing and nobody shall ever take my faith in the power of the classics away from me, as it’s something I learned as a teenager, and I’ll never be able to forget the honest, vital sentiments of that sixteen-year-old I once was, which I shall forever see reflected in Salinger’s and Shakespeare’s words. And the greatest thing about true faith is that it is always true.
10. Curiosity
A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. –Sir Francis Bacon
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. –Samuel Johnson
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious ; it is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. –Albert Einstein
Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher; and philosophy begins in wonder. –Plato
Were I not the curious type, I probably wouldn’t’ve come across the internet as early as I did. The way I satiate my curiosity is I regularly patrol bookstores. I walk everywhere. I love Barns & Nobles—no matter where I go, I’m always home, just like jollyroger.com is the same everywhere throughout the globe. I love spending hours browsing through the magazines, the history section, the philosophy section, the science section, and of course the computer section, where one day in December 1994, I came across a book on the internet. Right then and there I saw the opportunity for the lone poet to immediately publish his verse all around the globe. Suddenly poetry would be rendered superior to petty politics, and content would be king, as the playing field was more or less leveled. Had I not been in the habit of cruising bookstores, jollyroger.com may have waited a few more months, or even years, to set sail. It’s by curiosity that we often come across the opportunity to be a first mover. I returned to the physics department that night, pulled up a Mosaic browser, and set about marrying a cultural renaissance to a technological revolution.
11. Vision
Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea. —Fydor Dostoyevsky
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. –William Faulkner
One of jollyroger.com’s major advantages was its simple and unique vision, which at the same time was bold, sublime, and adventurous. Over and over and over again, throughout all entities associated with jollyroger.com, the classical spirit and higher ideals manifest themselves. In the free greeting cards at classicgreetings.com, where one might combine classical music, art, and poetry, within the thousands of discussion forums devoted to the Great Books, and within all the poetry and prose written within a classical context. Jollyroger.com stands for something greater than itself, and thus it will always have something left to aspire to, and a place to progress.
12. Perseverance:
It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer.–Albert Einstein
13. Unity
But yield who will to their separation
My object in living is to unite
My vocation and my avocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one
And the work is play for mortal stakes
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.Robert Frost, "Two Tramps In Mud Time"
By keeping jollyroger.com a closely held business entity, I have been able to ensure the company’s unity in its developmental stages. Perhaps this is far more important in art than it is in software, for while one can hire people to hammer out code to perform specific tasks, one cannot hire others to write the poetry which performs the task of rendering one’s vision in words. And because I had full control over the hardware, the software, and the content, jollyroger.com is now stamped with that uniqueness of an individual’s vision that seems to be a more common feature of art than bureaucracy. The time is now at hand where she’s ready to become a bigger company, if fate’s winds favor it, but even as she is in her present state, nothing can change the reality that jollyroger.com was the first mover in becoming the world’s classical portal. And that she’ll forever now be, for the internet happens but once in all of eternity.
Chapter 5: THE CARGO
The Great Books
All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstacy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. –Ernest Hemingway
I keep to old books, for they teach me something; from the new I learn very little.
—Voltaire
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mightly bloodless substitute for living.—Robert Louis Stevenson
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to life beyond life. —John Milton
I cannot live without books—Thomas Jefferson.
Other relaxations are peculiar to certain times, places and stages of life, but the study of letters is the nourishment of our youth, and the joy of our old age. They throw an additional splendor on prosperity, and are the resource and consolation of adversity; they delight at home, and are no embarrassment abroad; in short, they are company to as at night, our fellow travelers on a journey, and attendants in our rural recesses. —Cicero
As the captain of jollyroger.com, I am often asked, “What constitutes a great book?” I feel that the best answer to that question has been given by the likes of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Melville, and Twain. For perhaps the only way to truly define a classic is to write one, and then let time prove its eternal merit. But a briefer definition might be as follows: a Great Book is that body of words which renders mankind’s common moral sense in eloquence, thereby inspiring and exalting the reader with the eternal forms of noble character and action.
Chapter 6: THE BOWSPRIT:
The Aesthetics of Principled Vision
Every noble activity makes room for itself.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, and any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.—Henry David Thoreau
It was almost more splendid and sublime to have once wondered what it would be like to fly like the birds, than it actually was to be flying within the machine. –Orville Wright
Trickery and treachery are the practices of fools that have not wits enough to be honest.—Benjamin Franklin
The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality.
—Henry David Thoreau.
My precept to all who build, is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.
—Cicero
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
—Rudyard Kipling
On ships of yore it was ever a tradition to sculpt an elegant statue on the head of the bowsprit. The bowsprit is the leading spar, pointing straight out over the water, and a carved decoration, usually a head or figure, was placed directly under it. Where the rugged nature of sailing mandated a physical practicality for the construction of virtually all aspects of a ship, the bowsprit was the one place where aesthetics reigned, where a spiritual beauty was the goal. Ancient ships had beaks on the bow to ram enemy vessels; these were often surmounted by figureheads of national or religious significance. Roman vessels often carried bronze gods' heads, and Viking ships had elaborately carved prows. Dragons, lions, and human forms adorned Renaissance vessels. In the final phase of the art, in the 18th and 19th centuries, highly original wood figureheads were carved in the United States. And so it is that while aesthetics often have no physical function, they yet have a practical spiritual function. Thus all companies should seek to adorn the leading edge of their vision with an artistic flair.
Jollyroger.com strives to adorn all the underlying technology with a sense of higher aesthetics, all united in the classical jollyroger.com theme. Thus instead of forums, or message boards