[lit-ideas] Re: Do You Have a Moral Urgency?
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:59:22 -0400
Andy: Most people in this country, so-called
educated or not, know *nothing* about what's going on in the
world.
Agreed. That's what makes the war on terror such a hard sell.
However, if you read my post again, you'll see I mentioned
the US twice for places one might find the unwashed.
And here's some unwashed etymology courtesy of Bartleby:
-----
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
1898.
Unwashed (2 syl.).
It was Burke who first called the mob “the great unwashed,”
but the term “unwashed” had been applied to them before, for
Gay uses it. 1
“The king of late drew forth his sword
(Thank God, ‘t was not in wrath),
And made, of many a squire and lord,
An unwashed knight of Bath.”
-A Ballad on Quadrille.
------
John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
AUTHOR: William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
QUOTATION: Another lean unwashed artificer.
ATTRIBUTION: King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
------
It's even used by social reformer and photographer Jacob
Riis in _The Battle with the Slum_ (chapter 11).
The free river baths have registered five and six millions
of bathers in one brief season. The “great unwashed” were
not so from choice, it would appear.
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