tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post6084153463503928713..comments2023-11-02T11:32:38.324+00:00Comments on The Joy of Curmudgeonry: In Keeping with the TimesDeogolwulfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02197539477668018797noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-77665641095358847292007-03-15T18:59:00.000+00:002007-03-15T18:59:00.000+00:00Patiently and yet eagerly we await your next.Patiently and yet eagerly we await your next.James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-68166484445361761052007-03-11T14:15:00.000+00:002007-03-11T14:15:00.000+00:00Shear brilliance, thanks.Looking ahead, when today...Shear brilliance, thanks.<BR/><BR/>Looking ahead, when today's deconstruction workers retire a new generation is sure to appear desiring more continuity and stability. The current disarray will then be increasingly refined and perfected, and traditions will develop, all ready to be torn down again at some point in the more distant future.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-68857288300787994262007-03-10T15:37:00.000+00:002007-03-10T15:37:00.000+00:00Certainly there is a pathological modernising "pro...Certainly there is a pathological modernising "progressive" school of thought which will seek to destroy any tradition. But you exaggerate its extent.<BR/><BR/>Equally there is a nostalgic "regressive" schook of thought will which argue against any change, any deviation from ancient ways, as nothing more than cultural vandalism, often in apocalyptic and hysterical tones. I assume you wouldn't wish to be grouped with it.<BR/><BR/>In between are more reasonable people who wish to get rid of those traditions which are evil, adapt for the modern age those which need it to function better, and preserve untouched those which are truly sacred.Larry Teabaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08283701267147459665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-12170192405826572972007-03-09T22:44:00.000+00:002007-03-09T22:44:00.000+00:00Though I have been told that Very-Ropey was more c...Though I have been told that Very-Ropey was more careful in his scholarly writing, some of his journalism on Highland Tradition was woefully inaccurate. Even we lowlanders jeered. But then he was an old fraud, wasn't he? He made his reputation with The Last Days of Hitler. Only decades later did we learn that he didn't understand colloquial German. By watching him trying to explain away his Hitler's Diaries fiasco. Bah.deariemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06654632450454559188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-71340275868775401442007-03-09T22:36:00.000+00:002007-03-09T22:36:00.000+00:00It is with the typicality, tendancy, and degree of...<I>It is with the typicality, tendancy, and degree of antipathy against tradition in the modern world - as though tradition could serve no purpose in it and as though there could be a culture worthy of the name without it - that I am dealing.</I><BR/><BR/>These days, people are likelier to know of the barefaced lying that tends to accompany the invention of tradition(s). <BR/><BR/>Hugh Trevor-Roper's "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition in Scotland" in <A HREF="http://tinyurl.com/3c44u3" REL="nofollow"><I>The Invention of Tradition</I></A> nicely points out how the kilt became a piece of immemorial Highland Scottish tradition.Cirdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06161072165681849178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-16731603757554135132007-03-09T22:14:00.000+00:002007-03-09T22:14:00.000+00:00Recusant,Some has an inclusive and an exclusive se...Recusant,<BR/><BR/><B>Some</B> has an inclusive and an exclusive sense. To borrow <A HREF="http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/hometoc.htm" REL="nofollow">Peter Suber’s</A> <A HREF="http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/courses/log/transtip.htm#tip20" REL="nofollow">example</A> for the inclusive sense: <B>Some of you will earn an A on the final exam</B> would remain true even if <I>all</I> in the class earned A’s. The inclusive <B>some</B> and <B>all</B> have a similar sense. <BR/><BR/>Exclusive <B>some</B> entails the negation of <B>all</B>; it has distinct senses: <B>Have some cake</B> is ambiguous between <B>Have one or more slices of cake, but not <I>all</I> of them</B>, and <B>Have one or more slices of cake, but <I>not many</I>, and <I>not all</I> of them</B>. <BR/><BR/>The objection you raise relies on the false premiss that <B>all</B> and <B>some</B> always have distinct senses. (My argument above plainly relies on the first <I>exclusive</I> sense of <B>some</B>).Cirdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06161072165681849178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-32916162309466455332007-03-09T18:44:00.000+00:002007-03-09T18:44:00.000+00:00And the verb of the Progressive who wants to chang...And the verb of the Progressive who wants to change something without being capable of explaining cogently why, is "modernise".deariemehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06654632450454559188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-17229941864901539332007-03-09T16:40:00.000+00:002007-03-09T16:40:00.000+00:00"the critical examination of tradition in light of..."the critical examination of tradition in light of present knowledge is not a recent invention."<BR/><BR/>Did you think I had never heard of the Greeks? One can find almost all that is good and bad in the modern world present too in the ancient. Doesn't that go without saying? And I have no problem with "the critical examination of tradition in light of present knowledge". It is with the typicality, tendancy, and degree of antipathy against tradition in the modern world - as though tradition could serve no purpose in it and as though there could be a culture worthy of the name without it - that I am dealing. <BR/><BR/><BR/>"Besides, an 'old custom or institution, tamed and made humane by time and bitter trial' can still be an evil."<BR/><BR/>Indeed it can. Did you think that I believed that there were no evils enshined by tradition?Deogolwulfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02197539477668018797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-79765255753512375382007-03-09T16:01:00.000+00:002007-03-09T16:01:00.000+00:00Cirdan:I think you might usefully learn the differ...Cirdan:<BR/><BR/>I think you might usefully learn the difference between 'some' and 'all'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-307851127908806272007-03-09T15:41:00.000+00:002007-03-09T15:41:00.000+00:00The odd thing about modern “progressive” man — wha...<I>The odd thing about modern “progressive” man — what sets him apart from his forebears — is that when some old custom or institution, tamed and made humane by time and bitter trial, is said to be not in keeping with the present times, then it is not the present times to which he directs his critical eye, so as to see what therein makes it intolerant of that thing, but rather his eye fixes narrowly on that thing itself,…</I><BR/><BR/>The first premiss is false: Socrates spends most of <A HREF="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html" REL="nofollow"><I>Euthyphro</I></A> showing the bankruptcy of old Greek piety; the critical examination of tradition in light of present knowledge is not a recent invention. In any case, an 'old custom or institution, tamed and made humane by time and bitter trial' can still be an evil. See: <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery" REL="nofollow">slavery</A>, <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting" REL="nofollow">female circumcision</A>, and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding" REL="nofollow">chinese foot binding</A> for starters. That something is evil is sufficient reason to seek its end. No age is morally infallible; every age is obliged to eradicate those evils that lie in plain sight.Cirdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06161072165681849178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-9741660279678796572007-03-08T23:06:00.000+00:002007-03-08T23:06:00.000+00:00A lucid analysis, Mr D., upon my soul it is. My re...A lucid analysis, Mr D., upon my soul it is. My reading at the moment concerns the conversion to Christianity of the Norsemen, whose pagan culture was exceedingly rich, taking its origins from Germanic myth as well as the beliefs of peoples in the far north.<BR/><BR/>Their resistance to change was very great. It comprised a fondness for the old gods and the ways that had sustained their culture for centuries; and that had also, as they believed, been of utility to them in the forays that founded colonies all over the North Atlantic, as also in their trade (which reached as far as Baghdad and Constantinople). They were extraordinary and dynamic people, full of innovation (trial by jury and a written legal code are Viking ideas), thrusting and resourceful. It can be argued that they were the dynamo of Europe, kickstarting our emergence from the Dark Ages. My point is that they were innately conservative, and yet open always to the new.<BR/><BR/>Nothing exemplifies the decay of our present culture more than our attitude to morals. Marriage, for example, is an institution hallowed by long success: it provides the environment most favourable to the stability of children. Along the way it became sanctified by the Christian church, so that unmarried cohabitation became unrespectable -- to the benefit of innumerable generations. But now all that is dismissed as worthless. "What is marriage?" they cry. "Just a bit of paper!"<BR/><BR/>The high priest of this cult is, I fear, none other than our beloved Prime Minister, whose knowledge of history is about as extensive as his dedication to the truth.D. C. Warmingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14558167181352609635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13305228.post-43463778754534835952007-03-08T21:55:00.000+00:002007-03-08T21:55:00.000+00:00Ah, a bit each way, sire and thanks you kindly. A ...Ah, a bit each way, sire and thanks you kindly. A thought provoking piece which had me momentarily stumped.James Highamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14525082702330365464noreply@blogger.com