My friend was perfectly right, though it was not until long, long afterwards that experience of life taught me the evil that comes of thinking—still worse, of saying—much that seems very fine; taught me that there are certain thoughts which should always be kept to oneself, since brave words seldom go with brave deeds. I learnt then that the mere fact of giving utterance to a good intention often makes it difficult, nay, impossible, to carry that good intention into effect. Yet how is one to refrain from giving utterance to the brave, self-sufficient impulses of youth? Only long afterwards does one remember and regret them, even as one incontinently plucks a flower before its blooming, and subsequently finds it lying crushed and withered on the ground.
Leo Tolstoy – Youth (1857)
An old problem we've managed to make worse. It takes time for people to learn that brave words seldom go with brave deeds. We gradually grow into the adult world of trade-off and compromise to learn that carrying out those brave deeds may be too difficult, impossible or best forgotten altogether.
Yet the problem seems to have been exacerbated by modern levels of prosperity where practical, pragmatic insight is much less valuable than it once was. We also have to contend with the expansion of university education way beyond achievable academic excellence. The curse of the well qualified midwit is not a trivial curse.
Hence the perennial problem with student activists and retarded maturity which sometimes never does mature because careers may now be built on the evil that comes of thinking—still worse, of saying—much that seems very fine. Evil careers perhaps, but careers all the same.
6 comments:
Cast your mind back to the 50s and (particularly) the 60s. This is when young people started to have an economic voice. They started to buy music on 78s, and then 45s, that appealed to 'the youth'. Apprentices no longer wore short trousers when they started work. Hats were no longer a required dress choice when going around in public. Coffee bars proliferated. All these changes exposed a whole new raft of 'consumers' - and their choices mattered for the first time. And their youthful thoughts were no longer kept to themselves, they were encouraged to express themselves by businesses seeking sales.
Now I'd add that the pre-50s were pretty hidebound and socially conservative so the reaction was natural, as in previous generations. The key difference this time was that young voices were suddenly significant.
Your middle paragraph describes the problem essence of our present society, which I am always enunciating, AK, I'll sue you for plagiarism!
I was hoping that this would be a recantation by Thunberg, Owen Jones, or Monbiot. Never mind.
Yes, a big problem now is that near-universal Higher Education means a lot of ordinary people are exposed to extraordinary ideas. It was thought that the ideas would improve the people, but all too often the uncultured dullards drag the ideas down to their level.
DJ - to my mind, having lived through it, expanded choice for young people raises some interesting uncertainties about the nature of choice. The period could be seen as an increased range of controlling influences rather than more choices. From this perspective, it may be said that people are still hidebound, but in different, less coherent ways.
Tammly - oh no, I thought I'd just discovered it!
Sam - yes, it's as if certain perspectives have a certain social cachet but are no more useful than simpler perspectives and possibly less useful. We've increased the number of people who aren't well grounded.
“The curse of the well qualified midwit is not a trivial curse.”
Indeed not, AKH.
James - and fewer universities would be one remedy worth trying.
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