Oh look. Beardy old white male philosopher - how could he get past a review board in today's society?
I imagine he thought that being one of the contemporary great and good would make him safe in a world where people he disliked were removed from his society.
I'll invent the term 'Utopianismist' - I expect a few fellow travellers would build a bomb or two to make sure people complied.
Watching England play Netherlands the other day, I thought of GBS review of a Wagner premiere. "Mr Wagner has given us some wonderful moments; and some dreadful quarters of an hour."
Because he is read by virtually nobody these days, it's difficult to know whether the old gobshite was engaging in a bit of stage-Irish whimsy and satire. I suspect, given that he was a supporter of eugenics, that he was being serious but allowing himself a bit of distance to keep safe.
Always significant that advocates of this sort of thing always want the dirty work to be done by a tribunal or committee or commission or somesuch. They should have let him go down the docks or mining villages and hand-pick some unemployed worthless men for him to dispatch with his bare hands.
DJ - I'm sure he was safe and those around him weren't violently opposed to the things he said, assuming he wasn't entirely serious. Yet ideas of that type were floating around the upper middle class Utopianismists.
decnine - not the same, but that reminds of the Samuel Johnson quote -
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
Sam - "I suspect, given that he was a supporter of eugenics, that he was being serious but allowing himself a bit of distance to keep safe."
I agree, he once described himself as a "gadfly" as another way to distance himself from his words.
4 comments:
Oh look. Beardy old white male philosopher - how could he get past a review board in today's society?
I imagine he thought that being one of the contemporary great and good would make him safe in a world where people he disliked were removed from his society.
I'll invent the term 'Utopianismist' - I expect a few fellow travellers would build a bomb or two to make sure people complied.
Watching England play Netherlands the other day, I thought of GBS review of a Wagner premiere. "Mr Wagner has given us some wonderful moments; and some dreadful quarters of an hour."
Because he is read by virtually nobody these days, it's difficult to know whether the old gobshite was engaging in a bit of stage-Irish whimsy and satire. I suspect, given that he was a supporter of eugenics, that he was being serious but allowing himself a bit of distance to keep safe.
Always significant that advocates of this sort of thing always want the dirty work to be done by a tribunal or committee or commission or somesuch. They should have let him go down the docks or mining villages and hand-pick some unemployed worthless men for him to dispatch with his bare hands.
DJ - I'm sure he was safe and those around him weren't violently opposed to the things he said, assuming he wasn't entirely serious. Yet ideas of that type were floating around the upper middle class Utopianismists.
decnine - not the same, but that reminds of the Samuel Johnson quote -
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
Sam - "I suspect, given that he was a supporter of eugenics, that he was being serious but allowing himself a bit of distance to keep safe."
I agree, he once described himself as a "gadfly" as another way to distance himself from his words.
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