Just Injustice

Thanks for the feedback on my recent posts, everyone. Our online collaboration, and the realization that posting my work on this blog meant I couldn't quietly fail in Dr. Burton's eyes alone, lead me to re-read Areopagitica to ensure I wasn't taking things out of context or offering a stale argument. I also dug back into the timeline of Milton's life for inspiration. Want a teaser? Here it is:

Penal knowledge control, according to a young John Milton—thirty-six years old and in the midst of political revolution and religious reformation—is “contrary to the manner of God and of nature.” When he dictated Paradise Lost roughly twenty-three years later—after his own words had been burned while he suffered imprisonment at the hands of a reinstated monarchy—we might presume Milton’s voice rose with righteous, though veiled, indignation: his convictions redoubled. But the opposite occurs: as Milton spoke to “justify the ways of God to man,” he defended the suppression of reason by violence as harmonious with God’s will and natures way.

In my initial draft, I spiraled off in a couple interesting directions, but cut those passages because I didn't have time to fully explore the ideas they introduced. I'm thinking I'll pick them back up and expand this into the larger, final paper.

Click here to read this version in full.