[lit-ideas] Re: Panic Attack Rant
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 10:00:15 +0100 (BST)
--- Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 'Andy' wrote:
>
> "I think the definition of stupid is being unable to learn, such as from
> history even when history is today in Iraq."
>
> This is classic. Is someone saving these?
"History is now
And in England"
T.S.Eliot wrote this, afair, somewhere in the 'Four Quartets'. It is possible
he is defending a position similar to Andy's re the way history can be highly
contemporary. It is also possible they are fundamentally differing as to the
current whereabouts of history; if, that is, history is not like Macavity the
mystery cat and cannot be in more than one place at once. It is also possible
to reconcile their views if we accept that history can be in more than one
place at the same time and that the notion of time in the context of
'history' cannot be reduced to the ego-centric particularity of terms like
'past, present, future', for - as Dylan pointed out- the paradox here is that
"the present now will later be past".
Apologies to Andy for this intervention so far, since he may well feel it
just amplifies needlessly what is clearly implicit in what he wrote.
Yet there is perhaps one separate point to be made about whether in fact "the
definition of stupid is being unable to learn". If we take God as omniscient,
this might imply S/He us unable to learn (as S/He knows everything already),
and would therefore make Him or Her "the definition of stupid". This result
will strike some (e.g. Gearyites) as intuitive, but may seem
counter-intuitive to others who may suggest that a fundamental review of the
proposed definition is in order. But I feel the intricacies of this
theological conundrum perhaps deserve a separate thread. Perhaps that is why
Andy did not develop the point in his post? If so I again apologise for
stating needlessly what was implicit in what he wrote.
Donal
Trying not to be the definition of stupid
By learning as much as I am able to everyday and in everyway
Cell-block 4H
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