tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post2247418319165926065..comments2024-03-28T11:58:31.928+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The Bohemian impulseBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-39980982708079337882014-01-03T18:45:19.234+00:002014-01-03T18:45:19.234+00:00Yankee Doodle went to town / Riding on a pony / St...<i>Yankee Doodle went to town / Riding on a pony / Stuck a feather in his cap / And called it macaroni.</i><br /><br />Yankee Doodle is such a hick, he thinks that wearing a feather will make him look like a sophisticated man of the world.Christopher Burdhttps://twitter.com/christopherburdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-77113542519024510982013-12-28T16:57:16.969+00:002013-12-28T16:57:16.969+00:00I have little use for intellectualism, but in this...I have little use for intellectualism, but in this particular case, it has worked astonishingly well. Great essay, Bruce, and true as true could be. <br />Maybe I recognize the once-Bohemian in me. The underlying motivations. The chaos that followed, and the fulfillment that followed <i>that</i>. <br />If you're not alive when you're young, then you never will be. <br />The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-12070681585028060162013-12-27T18:09:38.881+00:002013-12-27T18:09:38.881+00:00@Anon - Well, OK in a sense (but imposing chastity...@Anon - Well, OK in a sense (but imposing chastity and poverty is difficult/ impossible over the long term unless people embrace them willingly) - but surely it is much more widely applicable for people to marry and have kids? That's what happened for hundreds of years. <br /><br />PS Use a pseudonym, not Anonymous. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-64024278465331425962013-12-27T17:35:28.911+00:002013-12-27T17:35:28.911+00:00The solution is to take these people, impose vows ...The solution is to take these people, impose vows of chastity and poverty on them, and give them space to talk to each other and drive intellectual accomplishment.<br /><br />The true creative intellectuals will accept this bargain. The hangers-on looking for sexual license will not.<br /><br />The problem is it means taking the best and systematically extinguishing their line of genes. We need to find a way to reproduce them somehow, without actually permitting them sexual contact, or making their lives glamorous.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-90502590383039715562013-12-27T14:53:48.247+00:002013-12-27T14:53:48.247+00:00I also find this perennial Bohemian impulse intrig...I also find this perennial Bohemian impulse intriguing. For one thing, it's interesting to imagine how it might have manifested itself in times when travel and "easy living" wasn't so easy.<br /><br />I've been reading <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Young-Nelsons-sailors-Napoleonic-Military-ebook/dp/B007B2FT10/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1383863250&sr=8-3&keywords=napoleonic+wars" rel="nofollow">Young Nelsons</a>, about the British Navy's employment of boy sailors during the Napoleonic wars. In a letter to his father, one boy described another sailor-boy as a <i>"macaroni"</i>, and the author goes on to tell that although we may not understand that term today, the boy's father surely would have - it denoted a young man who was "well-traveled" and "affected European ways". Plus ca change!Samson J.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-24587876152831285612013-12-27T13:02:40.653+00:002013-12-27T13:02:40.653+00:00@Adam - "an impossible problem to solve defin...@Adam - "an impossible problem to solve definitively" <br /><br />Yes I agree. This post was partly stimulated by reading the biographical book of interviews about Sterling McMurrin. Because of the personal interventions of Mormon Presidents and General Authorities - McMmurrin was kept in contact with the LDS church, and on the side of the church, and in fact ended-up strengthening the church. <br /><br />It could easily have been otherwise and McMurrin could perhaps have damaged the LDS church significantly; but McMurrin's liberalism was seemingly based not on covertly justifying sexual liberation (apparently he continued to live as a Mormon, with strict sexual morality, even when his beliefs were heretical and sometimes contrary), but stemmed from the drive for genuine intellectual liberation.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-36106236517649806692013-12-27T12:50:02.096+00:002013-12-27T12:50:02.096+00:00That sounds like a real problem, but frankly like ...That sounds like a real problem, but frankly like an impossible problem to solve definitively.<br /><br />That may be one divine purpose in allowing the proliferation of sects, as lamentable as it may be otherwise. In a world of religious competition, sects have more incentive to accommodate their creative members. But more to the point, its easier to found new denominations.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.com