Thomas_More
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How many times do we hear from elders: “Youngsters don’t know how lucky they are!” “In my day they’d have got what was coming!” “Bring back hanging. That’ll sort them!”
And “Our dad would take his belt off to us”, said with great relish as though it was a virtue?Very well said.
In a similar vein, an American made a quip that many love their cars more than their children. S/he pointed out that people whose sons/daughters/grandsons/grandaughters have been killed or mutilated through war don’t hate the authorities that sent them to war. Instead, they become even more militaristic, jingoistic, and fawning than they were before.
Whereas, if someone damages their cars, they know whom to blame straightaway!War between Russia and NATO by 2029.
To repeat, I’m not talking about rules of dress, but neurosis. And primarily neurosis about one’s body: leading to bulimia and other psychological illnesses.
Young noblemen of the 16th century and earlier would have been fit: not for body image or sexual attractiveness, but for war. They learned to ride while small children, and to fight in armour with sword, axe, lance and shield. Peasants worked in the fields from childhood too. Hardly either were navel-gazing over their waistlines or whether they stank, nor about what other members of their class were thinking of them.
I see no evidence of body obsession/neurosis prior to the 1890s, especially none where men are concerned. Nor in peasant communities. Indians who bathe in the Ganges I doubt are worrying what others think of their bodies or looks.
I think the majority of the working class’ valuing of each other prioritises the physical, the manual, and the sportive.
Unless one occupies an academic position which brings in a high salary, and can therefore choose one’s social milieu accordingly, intellectual attributes are of little consequence in others’ eyes.
Now that some sort of agreement has been reached over Greenland, the old yarn is being repeated yet again: Ukraine will join NATO and the EU, and Russia has “lost” in Ukraine.
And Greenland is apparently a lovely big block of ice over which missiles can fly.
