burrthephilosophersir

[burrthephilosophersir]

Happy Birthday Audrey (anxioustonywonder) who wanted the Reservoir Dogs guys to make up and be happy in the afterlife :D pls go wish her a happy birthday she is fantastic!!

[burrthephilosophersir]

Daveed being a cutie at SPF30

[burrthephilosophersir]

Rules:

To participate, you must be following me, otherwise you won’t be picked. (((Don’t be a jerk and follow then unfollow once you get the prize)))

You can reblog as many times as you like :D

Remember that I’m picking winners randomly, so it doesn’t matter how many times you reblog :0

💖 What I WILL draw: -OCs -Other fandoms -Ships (depending on the ship and whether I’m comfortable with drawing it) -Kissing

💔 What I will NOT draw: -NSFW -Fetishes -Any form of nudity -Incest, pedophilia, rape -Any form of racism -Mecha -Complicated designs or backgrounds -Animals or furries (I’m rlly bad at drawing animals 😩)

Sorry if the not list was really strict and long, but I’m a minor and I can’t be drawing any of that nasty shit 👀

🌙Deadline is February 29th 11:59pm EST Winners will be contacted on here at 12am EST. If you fail to respond within 48 hours, I will have no choice but to pick another winner.🌟🌟🌟

Once again, thank you all for helping me reach over 1000 followers!!! I love you all so much! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

[burrthephilosophersir]

[burrthephilosophersir]

[burrthephilosophersir]

[burrthephilosophersir]

Life doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes.

Aaron Burr

[burrthephilosophersir]

Talk Less...

Aaron Burr, the vice president under Thomas Jefferson from 1801-1805, has one of the largest roles in Hamilton: An American Musical. He serves as the narrator, Hamilton’s first friend, and the man behind Hamilton’s eventual demise. 

  In my opinion, Burr is the most interesting character/figure in the entire musical, and certainly the most complex and human; he wants something to become of his life, but he doesn't always have the initiative or courage to go out and make it happen. He’s a relatable character, and though he eventually makes a huge mistake, I am pretty fond of this interpretation of Burr. 

I’ll start by drawing some comparisons between him and the man the musical focuses on, using songs from the musical as reference:

  Alexander Hamilton:

an ambitious young man who doesn’t think before he speaks out- and he speaks out a lot, against what he believes is wrong and what should be regarded as right [see 1:20 Cabinet Battle #1]

stands up for his beliefs passionately (to the point of arrogance) [see 0:45  Farmer Refuted]

is willing to sacrifice everything for his cause [see My Shot] 

never hesitates when he wants something to get done [see 2:15 Wait For It] 

Aaron Burr: 

has opinions and loyalties, but prefers to hold his cards close to his chest [see 3:05 Non-Stop] 

prefers others to perceive him as indifferent [see 0:57  Aaron Burr, Sir] 

is not as ambitious as Hamilton, prefers to wait for opportunities to act to present themselves [see 2:28 Wait For It]

That last point is what I find so interesting about Burr; in the song Wait For It, his frustration with his own stoicism is obvious, yet he remains indifferent in the public eye. Throughout the musical, it is obvious he is a rationalist: the belief that actions should be thought out rationally before done, as Burr does, opposed to acting based on emotions, as Hamilton does.

Burr follows a philosophy in his life aptly called “Stoicism Of Mind”- an idea that rose from ancient Greek and Roman philosophers like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, stating that we all have opinions and entertain ideas, we just don’t always respond to them. He is highly restrained in his impulses to promote his personal ideals, which is the only thing in life holding him back from becoming greater and more successful than he is. Throughout the Hamilton musical, he constantly seeks to be as great as, if not greater than, Alexander Hamilton, but his own philosophy conflicts with this desire to rise up to his potential and surpass his intellectual equal/better and friend. 

Burr believes in riding the wave of life. Using 2:19 of  Aaron Burr, Sir as a reference through the line, “You spit (i.e. speak), I’mma sit, we’ll see where we land,” Burr basically believed that if you sit back and let life play out on its own, things will come together in the end. This is another example of stoicism, or the indifference of opinion, my previously mentioned take on Burr’s personal philosophy. 

  One more lyric from the song “Wait For It” explains Burr’s philosophy through the idea that “life goes on” or the “circle of life.” 

“Life doesn’t discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes, and it takes, and it takes, and we keep living anyway. We rise and we fall, we break and we make our mistakes.” 

He believes that everyone is born, they survive, and they die, no matter who you were in life, and everything around you goes on and on forever. Burr pretty much believes what western civilization does in this case.

[burrthephilosophersir]

...Smile More

Burr’s murder of Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel was what he is best known for, yet it was his greatest shame. Alexander was his friend and his comrade, who shared many of his ideals and life experience… but at the time, killing him seemed the only way to finally rise up.

In “The World Was Wide Enough”, the song where the duel takes place, Burr is guessing Hamilton’s motives and passionately reiterating how he always seems to surpass him in every sense. His level of frustration reaches a boiling point when he realizes that he can never, ever, no matter how much he tries (and he’s been trying for the entire musical- i.e. many years of his life), beat him. At 1:11 of this song, Burr says:

“They won’t teach you this in your classes, but look it up, Hamilton was wearing his glasses. Why? If not to take deadly aim. It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.”

Burr is audibly distressed at this point, at the full recognition of Hamilton’s intellectual invincibility, and commits a fallacy in his emotional blindness: begging the question. He says: “Why? If not to take deadly aim,” which is assuming Hamilton’s motives before his question of why is answered. Fallacies aside, his stoicism is no longer in play here- he is abandoning his philosophy to adopt a new one: kill or be killed, a branch of the sociological theory Social Darwinism. This philosophy is the idea that if you do not kill those who can easily kill you, you will be killed- “it’s him or me.” (Hamilton could both metaphorically kill Burr in overcoming him in life, or actually kill him in the duel).

  “It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.”

Burr believes, in this moment, that if Hamilton doesn’t die and disappear from his life, he himself will, as a result, eventually fade away into someone else’s history. In other words, he must get rid of Hamilton or Hamilton will metaphorically kill him by erasing him from the narrative. Burr’s argument is inductive, looking something like this:

Premise: In my experience, Hamilton has surpassed me in everything we’ve both accomplished. 

Premise: Based on my experience, Hamilton will continue to surpass me until I fade away and become nothing. 

Conclusion: I must kill Hamilton, my life will lose its meaning. 

There are a few fallacies in Burr’s reasoning here, one being accident- Burr is overlooking the unusual circumstance of murder to support his point that he can’t go on if Hamilton survives. He’s also committing a slippery slope, from referring to only himself and Hamilton then quickly broadening to a global scope: “It’s him or me, the world will never be the same.” 

At this point, Burr has completely done a 180 with his outlook on life, mostly due to the heated, emotional nature of the situation. He’s done waiting- he’s finally standing up for what he wants to do. He’s finally taking the shot he never took.

In the song I’ve been referencing, the lyrics return to those of Wait For It after Hamilton is killed, in the profound line at 3:58:

“Death doesn’t discriminate, between the sinners and the saints, it takes, and it takes, and it takes, and we keep living anyway. We rise and we fall, we break and we make our mistakes.”

The reprise of these lyrics at the end of the musical reflect his idea of the circle of life, and they are an example of how Burr’s philosophy has come full circle; he used to sit and wait for things to happen in his life, and when he went out and did what he knew he had to, nothing changed. Hamilton is dead, but life goes on for him and everyone else- Hamilton rose and he fell like everyone else would- nothing changed.

At the end of the song, Burr goes for a drink, reflecting upon his deed. He regrets it deeply, and also realizes through his philosophy that despite his own painful awareness of Hamilton’s absence, the world keeps on without him, and history will continue to be painted. Nothing in life ever really changes.

Makes me cry every time. 

[burrthephilosophersir]

Hamilton: If you stand for nothing, Burr, what'll you fall for?

Burr: Oh, I do stand for something, Alex. It's called stoicism.

Hamilton: ...