No sagacious man will
long retain his sagacity, if he live exclusively among reformers and
progressive people, without periodically returning into the settled system of
things, to correct himself by a new observation from that old standpoint.
So not a new problem, living among reformers and progressive
people who cast themselves adrift from reality. Hawthorne saw it over one hundred and fifty years ago. It
wouldn’t matter if more stable folk were left alone to pursue what works
and leave the rest alone but now we have mass meddling to contend with.
The second half of this Hawthorne quote bears an uncanny
resemblance to blogging.
It was now time for
me, therefore, to go and hold a little talk with the conservatives, the writers
of “The North American Review,” the merchants, the politicians, the Cambridge
men, and all those respectable old blockheads who still, in this intangibility
and mistiness of affairs, kept a death-grip on one or two ideas which had not
come into vogue since yesterday morning.
I have a feeling that there are many people in the blogosphere with a death-grip on one or two ideas which have not come into vogue since yesterday morning. At least I hope I’m one of them. Not so sure about being a respectable old blockhead even though Hawthorne probably meant it ironically. Maybe it's still better than the alternative.
I have a feeling that there are many people in the blogosphere with a death-grip on one or two ideas which have not come into vogue since yesterday morning. At least I hope I’m one of them. Not so sure about being a respectable old blockhead even though Hawthorne probably meant it ironically. Maybe it's still better than the alternative.
3 comments:
Hawthorne had wisdom.
In general old blockheads have encountered many more blockheads of various kinds than young ones. Often young blockheads have only moved in limited circles if only because they are young. The question is are blockheads therefore better able to make an estimate of what is coming than young ones because they have seen so many things come and go.
James - he did.
Demetrius - yes, we've seen the real blockheads and know their style.
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