Back during the stupidity of the Reagan administration, as the media went down on bended knee and pretended the emperor was clothed, Studs Terkel noted that having a long memory was a revolutionary act. True words, if the memory is accurate. It wasn't enough though, I'd say that being able to read long sentences and hard sentences is related and also indispensable for making change in the age of sound bites and 8 word sentences of short words.
I am reading though the short essays of Francis Bacon, easily found online, and am amazed at how topical they are. It might take a few readings of his long, classical sentences to figure out what he's saying but it would be good practice for people whose idea of the limits of language are based on the dumbed down discourse as taught by 20th century prescriptive rule books of writing and writing based on the exigencies of newspaper sales.
This passage from the first one, Of Truth, covers most of the online chatter and alleged journalism that I've seen since going online and a lot of it from before.
Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural, though corrupt love, of the lie itself.
It's been my experience that you might visit a website for the fun of the giddiness and the insouciant pose of agnostic non-commitment, affecting "free thought," but it will end in a love of the lies that are ubiquitous when you settle for that. If anyone wants to ask what we've lost as the culture gave up a willingness to practice the rigor that is so often necessary to find the truth of something, due to the devaluation of the truth or merely finding it inconvenient, making self-sacrifice necessary, look around at the Republican field and the rats piling on to the garbage scow that the Trump campaign is or the Cruz or Rubio campaign would be if they could.
This passage almost knocked me over.
The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure, to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure, to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
I don't know exactly what poet Bacon is referring to but the passage is amazingly close to the verses in the Dharmmapada, chapter 2.
28. When the learned man drives away vanity by earnestness, he, the wise, climbing the terraced heights of wisdom, looks down upon the fools, serene he looks upon the toiling crowd, as one that stands on a mountain looks down upon them that stand upon the plain.
29. Earnest among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepers, the wise man advances like a racer, leaving behind the hack.
30. By earnestness did Maghavan (Indra) rise to the lordship of the gods. People praise earnestness; thoughtlessness is always blamed.
And that's one of the milder translations of it, there was at least one that talks about the pleasure of the enlightened man standing on a height taking pleasure in pain of those who haven't been enlightened. It reminds me of the predestinarians who, forced by their commitment to the dogma of original sin saying that one of the joys they imagine in heaven consisting of the elect seeing the eternal torment of even those they loved in life. Keeping in mind that predestination isn't a majority opinion in Christianity. Even the Calvinists don't seem to really believe in it. But I won't get into a discussion of original sin (also not a universally held dogma) or how I would say it has distorted and damaged the culture of Christianity. It, more than just about anything, has made it possible for the likes of Trump, Palin, etc. to claim that their political messaging is in line with something they call "Christianity" which has nothing to do with the Gospels.
Anyway, when was I first reading through that passage my first thought was that I wasn't going to be able to continue, that was until I got to the qualification that Bacon made at the end of the sentence. and continued.
... so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
Maybe that's the defining difference that corrupts our politics. The angry, enraged hate talk of the Republicans but also of so many others, is big on the pleasure of watching the pain of other people, the pleasure at the pain of poor people, Black people, Latinos, Muslims, most of all women, is the predominant feature of the electorate as heard on TV and radio, as read in the papers. The enthusiasm for increasing that pain is certainly a major feature of many of the politicians jumping on the Trumpery powered poltical machine. Chris Christie and Paul LePage have won elections at holding the prospect of sticking it to the poor, the destitute, women, members of unfavored minorities while working to further enrich the rich.
Notice the claim of what would be "heaven upon earth" to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth" and compare that to what's coming out of the politicians and the hate talk media that dominates our "free press". Is it any wonder that we've gone to hell on a regime of hate and lies by those "affecting free will, as well as in acting?"
Then go back, reading it again, especially, especially the first few sentences in light of that. The easy, lazy, self-regarding cynicism that has replaced real liberalism is really not going to end up in a different place from where the Republicans have taken us.
Just this first three paragraph essay could incite a weeks worth of posts. But I'll stop it here. The more I read of Bacon the more astounded I am that he's not taught in high schools. These essays are all short and so full of substance, I think students could learn a lot more from reading a select few of them, learning what those long sentences mean and looking for relevant examples of what he's talking about in the lives of the students and the world they live in than they would from the typical teaching of THE PLAYS. That is if they still do that in most places.
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