cal confusion with the word "pablum," or food monks and nuns in the Buddhist religion, similar,
for infants, the word has come to connote shal- in some respects, to the English word "clergy." low or trite thought.
[218] Sub lege: "Under the law"; the phrase here refers to a government that is bound by, and accountable to, legal authorities.
[219] Sumedha: In Buddhist tradition, Sumedha
was a man who inherited great wealth from his parents but, instead of accepting it, opened his treasury to the people of the village and declared that anyone could take whatever they wanted. Upon renouncing his wealth, Sumedha
[221] Emperor Ashoka: ruler (d. 232 bce) of the Mauryan Empire, the first political entity that united nearly all of the Indian subcontinent. In the early part of his reign, Ashoka was violent and ruthless, but after converting to Buddhism, he became renowned for his compassionate government and commitment to peace.
[222] Jakatas: a collection of stories about the Buddha's lives in previous incarnations. Tradi
tionally, the 550 Jakatas represent the Buddha's 550 previous lives.
[224] Umkhonto weSizwe: translates as "Spear of the Nation." [Author's note]
[225] Nuremberg: German city where Nazi officials were tried for war crimes after World War II.
[226] "Social truth . . . debate.": In The Healing of a Nation? Alex Boraine, Janet Levy, eds., Justice in Transition, 1995. [Author's note]
[227] Augusto Pinochet: a Chilean military dic
tator (1915-2006) who was ousted in 1988 and, ten years later, arrested in Britain under a Spanish warrant for crimes committed against Spanish citizens during his dictatorship. In 2000, a British court allowed Pinochet to return to
[229] George Santayana: Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (1863—1952).
[230] Weltanschauung: a German word meaning "worldview."
[231] One of the world's poorest nations: From 1967 through 1971, Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen.
[232] David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones: All of these references are to biblical stories that speak to persecution and to the eventual triumph of the persecuted. David was a shepherd who killed the giant Goliath. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt in defiance of the pharaoh, who had forced them into
[233] Geraldine Ferraro: former member of Congress and 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate (1935-2011). Ferraro, who supported Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primary, caused
[234] William Faulkner: American novelist (18971962) and winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature. Here, Obama paraphrases a passage from Faulkner's 1951 novel Requiem for a Nun.
[235] Brown v. Board of Education: the 1954
Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in public schools.
[237] Reagan Coalition: Republicans and white, 8. Inside dealing: profiting, usually on the stock
socially conservative Democrats who gave vic- market, from information not available to the
tories to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 general public. presidential elections.
[239] Katrina: In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, especially its minority communities; many criticized the government for its slow response. OJ triaclass="underline" In 1994, African American actor and former football
[240] Augustine: early Christian writer (354—
430 ce) and bishop of the North African town of Hippo, in present-day Algeria. Augustine's writings in The City of God and elsewhere are generally considered the starting point of the Christian "just war" theory.
[242] Jerome: early Christian writer and scholar of the Bible, the standard version in Christian
(circa 347—419 or 420 ce) best known as the nations throughout the Middle Ages.
translator of the Latin, or "Vulgate," version
[243] Eftsoons: immediately afterward.
[244] Corn: before the discovery of the New World, a generic term for grain.
[245] Lerna: a lake in Ancient Greece that was the fabled home of the Hydra—the many-headed water serpent that Heracles fought in Greek mythology.
[246] William James's famous essay: In the 1906 essay mentioned here, the American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) argues that the natural instincts of human beings
[247] Lepchas of Sikkim: Sikkim is a small state in the Himalayan mountains of northeastern India. Its original inhabitants, the Lepchas, are noted for their peaceful traditions. About fifty thousand Lepchas still live in India and eastern Nepal.
[248] Syllabary: a writing system in which a char
acter represents a syllable rather than a single sound (as a character in an alphabet does).
[250] The Sioux or the Maori: The Sioux, or Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Lakota, are a Native American tribe that origi- The Pueblo Indians inhabited the American nally inhabited the northern Great Plains; the Southwest.
[251] Balinese: the people of the island of Bali, in South America between Guyana and French present-day Indonesia. Guiana.
[252] Dutch Guiana: the country presently known as Suriname, located on the northeast coast of
[253] Ordeal and trial by combat: medieval methods of "trying cases." Trial by ordeal subjected the accused to burning or drowning as a way of allowing God to signal guilt or innocence.
[254] PPU: the Peace Pledge Union, a pacifist organization founded in 1934 by Richard Shep- pard, an Anglican clergyman and radio broadcaster with a large following in England before World War II. Members of the PPU advocated conscientious objection during World War II and often faced persecution and even arrest for their beliefs.
[255] The Axis: Germany, Italy, Japan, and their allies during World War II.
[256] Russia and China: A war between Britain and Germany could be viewed by Marxists as simply a clash between two corrupt bastions of
[257] Trotskyists: followers of Leon Trotsky (see note 8).
[258] Noveclass="underline" Burmese Days (1934).
[259] POUM: Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista (Workers Party of Marxist Unification). In the
Spanish Civil War, the POUM was a small, radical faction that opposed both the fascists and the Stalinists, or followers of the Soviet leader,
[261] Taken together, these six men represent the Catholic gang, the Stalinist gang, and the present pacifist . . . gang. Christopher Dawson was an esteemed Catholic historian whose 1937 essay "The Catholic Attitude to War" argues that true peace is impossible in a flawed world. Arnold Lunn was a Catholic aristocrat and adventurer whose attacks on the Trotskyists in the Spanish Civil War earned a rebuttal from Orwell in his 1944 essay "As I Please." Andre Malraux was
[262] Sadza: porridge made out of cooked cornmeal. 2. D.A.: District Administrator.
[263] Easy as to death: Epictetus assumes that the recipient of the letter follows the teachings of Stoicism and has therefore proclaimed himself unafraid of death.
[264] Sophocles . . . Diogenes . . . Cleanthes: philosophers who taught—and practiced themselves—the value of living simply.