Monday, July 12, 2010
The Poodle and the Mind
Dryden's epic poem The Hind and the Panther is a fable about religious factions in 1687. Some of the intramural Catholic factions have disappeared, but his observations on other major religions, and especially on human argumentation, are classic.
From the preface:
Compare with Polistra's observation a few weeks ago:
323 years. No change.
Dryden's single sentence on Mohammedans is promising in an odd way, showing that the face of Allah was not always severe and harsh:
Perhaps this fat Ottoman/Persian style can return to dominance if the Bedouin nastiness (which has only been in charge since 1948) fails often enough...?
Finally, 1687 had its Al Gore types:
¶ 5:07 AM
From the preface:
The nation is in too high a ferment for me to expect either fair war, or even so much as fair quarter, from a reader of the opposite party. All men are engaged either on this side or that; and though conscience is the common word, which is given by both, yet if a writer fall among enemies, and cannot give the marks of their conscience, he is knocked down before the reasons of his own are heard.
Compare with Polistra's observation a few weeks ago:
'Who' displaces both 'How' and 'What' on the verbal level. You can see this in any web forum. In Who-land, observation is illegal. You're not allowed to examine nature or events and draw a rational inductive conclusion. You're only allowed to quote a credentialed authority who belongs to Team A or Team B. If your quote is precisely accurate, the authority's own team will cheer and the opposing team will boo. If your quote is inaccurate or (horror of horrors!!!!) you cite nothing more than plain reality, you're out of the arena. Banned for life.
323 years. No change.
Dryden's single sentence on Mohammedans is promising in an odd way, showing that the face of Allah was not always severe and harsh:
Though our lean faith these rigid laws has given,
The full-fed Mussulman goes fat to heaven;
For his Arabian prophet with delights
Of sense allured his eastern proselytes.
Perhaps this fat Ottoman/Persian style can return to dominance if the Bedouin nastiness (which has only been in charge since 1948) fails often enough...?
Finally, 1687 had its Al Gore types:
But ah! some pity even to brutes is due:
Their native walks methinks they might enjoy,
Curb'd of their native malice to destroy.
Of all the tyrannies on human kind,
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.
¶ 5:07 AM
