Omakase

Amazon Search
«  
  »

Elegy

By lex, on November 23rd, 2008

VDH gives us ten reasons why the world is going to hell.

Of course, being a classical scholar, he probably  understands that it always has been.

Share
November 23rd, 2008 | Tags: | Category: Politics and Culture

12 comments to Elegy

  • PeterGunn
    November 23, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Interesting that you decided to comment on this Lex; I’d seen it earlier and visited with a friend about it at the store this afternoon. Two points captured my attention: numbers 1 and 5.

    The first point was that 4 years of Latin would stop the decline of education in America today, if not rescue it altogether. My friend, one of our kids elementary school teachers, and I agree wholeheartedly. He was even so bold as to suggest Greek as alternative to Latin.

    Personally, I’ve never learned so much about English in ANY class as I did in Latin! I’ll never forget Mrs. Krause and what she instilled in me, enabling my appreciation and understanding for English.

    Second, as we’ve learned in the Pacific Northwest, I-5 is a direct conduit from California for all things, both good and bad. We moved to Oregon, before Seattle, about 30 years ago, smack dab in the middle of then Gov. McCall’s highway sign campaign.

    Literal epithets could be seen on the Oregon southern borders in full sign-board size, such as:
    “We’re Glad to Have You Visit Oregon, Don’t Forget to Go Home” or the now infamous, “Don’t Californicate Oregon!”

    It’s truly sad that one of our best states has become the benchmark for our very best and the worst. Even the ever-escalating price of real-estate (of which you just spoke) has taken its high-speed track along I-5 to our very own neighborhoods.

  • MaxDamage
    November 23, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    I believe it was Cicero (106BC – 43 BC) who once opined, “Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.”

    This whole world going to hell thing? Been a long trip.

    – Max

  • MaxDamage
    November 23, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    Lex, you sly dog! It was mere *seconds* after I posted that the second paragraph jumped at me.

    You. Set. That. Up.

    Well done.

    – Max

  • Heather
    November 24, 2008 at 6:56 am

    Hee-hee! There’s also Hesiod in 700 BC:

    “I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.”

    And, btw, Classical homeschoolers are addressing a few items on that list.

    http://www.welltrainedmind.com/moreaboutbook.php
    :-)

  • virgil xenophon
    November 24, 2008 at 10:44 am

    I believe one will find that such concerns pre-date Cicero. Cuneiform writing on clay tablets from the time of the Assryians reveal complaints that children were not doing their homework as religiously as in the past and that they were being increasingly disrespecting of their elders. The question, it seems to me, is whether or not this playing out of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics has changed from an arithmetic progression to a geometric or logarithmic one. I, for one, believe this to be the case. It may take 29 days for the lilly pad that doubles in size every day to cover half the pond–only one more day to cover 100%–lots of people fear we are perilously close to the 29th
    day.

  • Kris, in New England
    November 24, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I love Latin. Took it in my senior year in high school and like Peter says – I learned more about the English language than in all the preceding years. It was offered for the first time in my senior year, else I’d have taken it all thru high school.

    I took Spanish instead. Sometimes wish I’d taken that Conversational Spanish in my senior year, given what the world looks like today.

  • RetRsvMike
    November 24, 2008 at 11:17 am

    Id quod circumit, circumvenit.

  • RonF
    November 24, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    I’ve long been an advocate of requiring all high school juniors to take at least one semester of formal logic. I figure it’ll help them detect bullshit when thrown their way by marketers, politicians, etc.

  • Bill K.
    November 24, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    How about the wisdom of Solomon in 1000 BC?

    (Eccl 7:10): “Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.”

    Is VDH wiser than the ancients?

  • b2
    November 24, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    My son is in his 3rd year of Honors Latin..I hope what VDH says is true. Of course I ain’t smart enough to recognize them attributes!

    His rant on California is particularly right on. Funny he didn’t mention Ronnie as governor when the Golden Stae was the Land of Milk and Honey.

    The one on the accent of 25 year olds. is great, too. It’s what I’m always this-close to saying here and abouts but haven’t been able to articulate it like he from lack of talent. Not all of ‘em are like that thank G(most military 25 year olds I know at least).

    Many here say that this probably ain’t the end of the world but it sure has morphed into Superman’s Bizzarro World.

    b2

  • Justthisguy
    November 24, 2008 at 9:24 pm

    I only had two years of Latin in Jr. High and High School. Mrs. Reynolds, my ferocious High School Latin teacher, once confiscated a f*#k book from a fellow pupil, inspected it thoroughly, tore it to pieces, and tossed it in the trash.

    She then said, “If you want to read that kind of stuff you’ll have to sign up for Third Year Latin and read Suetonius!”

    I did not understand what she meant until, a quarter-century later, I read Robert Graves’s translation of The Twelve Caesars.

    Those were some right pervy guys, some of them. The eyelashes on the babies….

  • Justthisguy
    November 24, 2008 at 9:42 pm

    P.s.

    Mrs. Reynolds was famous for bringing a briefcase to school each day with exactly three items in it:

    A brown paper bag containing her lunch.

    A file folder container necessary papers for her Latin teaching.

    A revolver. (this was 1966, it was still perfectly legal and the principal did not dare cross her.)

    P.p.s. She identified me as the laziest white boy in Dade County, Florida.

    I still haven’t made up my mind about whether I feel complimented or insulted by those words.
eXTReMe Tracker

View My Stats