Thomas_More
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Trollope said the more deprived and wretched the poor are, the more they fawn and snivel before the wealthy.
The most reactionary and nationalistic people I’ve met have also been of the lumpenproletariat.
My two lifelong friends were made through correspondence. Handwritten correspondence, by its nature, encourages the cultivation of real relationships and the lengthy expression of thought and feeling. One can return to a letter and one has leisure in its composition.
Digital communication tends, on the contrary, toward speed and brevity; relations are more numerous and accordingly void of depth. It encourages, by its nature, impetuosity and literacy becomes unimportant.
I also like calligraphy, especially the medieval illuminated book. But I also think the ink bottle with stilus ought to be used unselfconsciously to write ordinarily, and not just for calligraphy.
Which is why capitalism likes to say, with Henry Ford, that “history is bunk.”
And history is increasingly dumped from education and devalued. Meanwhile conspiralunatic “history” programmes are given mainstream air space on television and in book catalogues.
And the workers concur, because history holds no interest for them.
Nationalism, faced with real knowledge of history, cannot stand.
As a native asked the Trump during his first term when he said immigrants must go:
“So when are you leaving?”
All sadly true.
Trump’s policies, though, will openly accelerate this destruction. But yes, it is capitalism itself, and capitalism cannot resolve any of it, not even those politicians who like to appear to care, let alone those who openly don’t give a toss.Except the Law of the Jungle, in Kipling, is one of mutual assistance and cohesion, as are all nonhuman animal societies – the very opposite of capitalism!
” Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”A friend’s explanation.
” … It [handwriting] is an art cultivated throughout the whole body, expressed through the finely tuned fingers; keyboarding is a skill, utilitarian but not aiming for beauty. It is probably more useful than penmanship for taking notes because it is speedier but it lacks specificity and individual expressiveness. All pages typed on the same keyboard will look the same, with varying serifs, perhaps.
I remember how proud I was at 4 when I learned to read, and a few months later, when I started printing my own words and stories. Cursive came later and I was prouder yet. Even though my writing has rambled far from the ideals of the Palmer method which I was taught, every deviation has been meaningfully designed, every curlicue and flourish. It belongs to me, not to a piece of storebought hardware. It is easily identifiable when an card from me arrives in the mail. Keyboarding is a lesser achievement.”In spite of Trump, and before any deal can be agreed, the UK and EU appear to be pressing ahead with their Russophobia.
I get the UK’s stubbornness, but I still don’t understand the EU’s, given that it, and Germany especially, was three years ago hesitant to go along with US (Biden) policy (scrapping Nordstream and buying US gas).
Why is the EU so gung-ho now?
This is the third time I’ve asked this here.
My last word:
“Books offer a tactile experience that screens simply cannot replicate.”
If you have never had a life with books as I have and only want text, then you might as well just print text from your computer and staple it.
Fair enough – for you.
