The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

by Stephen Greenblatt

“Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone.”

It was an amazing moment- before the heavy Christian Dogma was baked into civilization

Freedom here has nothing to do with political liberty or a notion of rights or the license to say whatever he wished or the ability to go wherever he chose. It is rather the experience of withdrawing inwardly from the press of the world—in which he himself was so ambitiously engaged—and ensphering himself in a space apart.

I can see this becoming a way of life for me as our country gets uglier and uglier