W.H. Auden wrote, about the trends in late democracies:
"Reason will be replaced by Revelation....
Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish....
The New Aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums and permanent invalids.
The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire."
True? False? Outrageously irrelevant?
Posts: 6249 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02
Well, it sound false at this point in time, but strange things are happening everyday. I don't think I'd be surprised at anything that happens from here on.
Posts: 6628 | Location: Land of Lincoln, USA | Registered: 07-04-02
clearly he has the reason/revelation thing right. The rest is a bit hard to contextualize.
It's not democracy that's corrupt. It's that, as Bush has shown us, it's so easily corrupted. Democracy depends on an engaged electorate; a free and cynical press; at least two political parties (I could be wrong about that, but opposition is vital in one form or another); an education system free of political agenda (that is, a hewing to certain ideals of discourse and research). I suppose it can limp along for awhile in the absense of a couple of the above. But when, as in the current USA, all are disappearing, the future looks a little grim. Auden, it would seem, saw trouble on the horizon. He just got the avenues a little wrong. Or took poetic license.
Posts: 1505 | Location: Puget Sound, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I would say it is true. I think that is exactly what is happening today but we are too close to to the situation to see it. Hind sight will prove better than foresight for most of us but then it will be too late. A democratically elected government can never be any better than the people that put it into power.
Posts: 1033 | Location: The River | Registered: 07-04-02
There should be a middle road. That's why I don't think it's too late. There has to be a place where there can be courage without brutality, respect for strength and the ability to see strength in more than one form, and so on.
So education is still a good goal, but I think it wouldn't hurt to revive the notion of the humanities making people more fully human.
Back to values in education! But they must be humanist values.
There has to be something between a fascist dictatorship and mobocracy.
Posts: 6249 | Location: British Columbia, Canada | Registered: 06-11-02
The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Age...
With a little updating, this would maybe describe the premise of US television. Does it also suggest the current tendency for people to have to claim some kind of victimhood before their views are listened to? Claiming to be the unfairly picked on 'little guy' seems to be rhetorical position of choice for everyone from Presidents and billionaires downwards.
quote:
Reason will be replaced by Revelation...
That maybe predicts the rise of Creationism and ID (or whatever they're calling it this year), although the politically-motivated "Scientific" Creationists of North America tend to be liars, rather than people who really look to revelation. Maybe it could be more about the preference for that vague, feel-good, touchy-feely spiritualism which sells so many books and self-improvement seminars.
"W.H. Auden wrote, about the trends in late democracies..." -- Please explain what you mean by 'late'.
Not being well-versed in government and political science, I can only speculate. I know that a persistent problem with democracy is "tyranny of the majority", which is not mitigated by a two-party system. With three parties or more, however, there's at least a possibility that political stands on major issues may form pluralities without majorities. This would presumably encourage coalition-building. Like in Israel?
I observe that human nature (well, at least in the US) tends to reduce everything to binary categories: Republican/Democrat; red-state/blue-state; conservative/liberal; Time/Newsweek; Coke/Pepsi; boxers/jockeys... In the US we've seen 'independent party' presidential candidates several times in the past 30 years, but even the serious contenders never really had a chance. Why is it so difficult to form a third party?
Auden's reference to aristocracy is clearly an anachronism ("Or is it?!" many cynics would say... ) .
Posts: 1917 | Location: U.S. | Registered: 06-03-02
In the US we've seen 'independent party' presidential candidates several times in the past 30 years, but even the serious contenders never really had a chance. Why is it so difficult to form a third party?
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