tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post518749398056329208..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: The sophomoric LeftBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18124609529144552892016-06-11T10:09:57.138+01:002016-06-11T10:09:57.138+01:00@M - Your quite comes from Robert Conquest e.g. - ...@M - Your quite comes from Robert Conquest e.g. - <br /><br />http://muchow.dk/ttrttc/?p=142<br /><br />The counter examples I have called 'evil geniuses' in my recent book The Genius Famine - you can find it via the link at the top of the blog. They are very important - but of course very rare: I was talking about the mass majority of modern people who are actually and in practice Leftists (including all non-religious conservatives, reactionaries and libertarians, and all 'liberals' in all religions). <br /><br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-28042510489439980432016-06-11T09:34:41.064+01:002016-06-11T09:34:41.064+01:00I discussed this post on my Facebook page and this...I discussed this post on my Facebook page and this is what I said:<br /><br />This is an interesting quotation from Bruce Charlton, the British academic and blogger: "Uneducated people, unexposed to mass media or mass education, are naturally conservative; and so are experts when it comes to the area of their expertise. Radicals are drawn from those whose knowledge and skills lie in-between ignorance and expertise."<br /><br />I'm not saying I agree with it, but it certainly seems to have something going for it. I once read (and I can never find the source) this statement: "Everybody is right-wing about the things they understand".<br /><br />Take the example of religion. I can understand someone with a little bit of knowledge and reflection on the subject thinking that greater liberalisation/modernization of a religion will naturally lead to more adherents. But a fairly casual investigation of the history of organised religion will quickly tell you that this is never what happens, over the long run. In fact, the opposite happens, although it seems counter-intuitive.<br /><br />Of course there are counter-examples. What about Picasso, one of the great modernizers in art whose level of accomplishment in traditional art was undoubtable? What about John Lennon, who could obviously write a song but who then moved onto Revoution No. 9 etc? I am not a reader of Tolstoy but I understand he disowned all his famous novels and developed his own radical view of art. Bobby Fischer apparently wanted to totally change the rules of chess. So there also seems to be a trend of people who have a very thorough knowledge and expertise in a field exhibiting an extremely radical attitude towards it.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-78861955359695675572016-06-10T03:12:12.965+01:002016-06-10T03:12:12.965+01:00One of your bests, Bruce. I had been vaguely aware...One of your bests, Bruce. I had been vaguely aware of this for longtime, but I couldn't see it well until I read it from you. <br /><br />Let me add that this sophomoric behavior is only a part of something more general. The adolescent character of our culture, which I initially read in "The Culture Code" by Clotaire Rapaille. People are stuck in a perpetual adolescence and this sophomoric behavior is something associated to it (I see it everyday in my college students: they think they know it all: I used to be that way too at their age). <br /><br />Other adolescent features of our culture: rebellion, following basic instincts without curbing them, rejecting shame and guilt (because I am always good and the world is unfair), rejecting religion, looking for sex without commitment, having romantic love as the highest ideal, considering that the world starts with oneself and all the past is obsolete, shallowness, avoidance of responsibility, delusions of grandeur, living as if death didn't exist, narcissism, being self-centered. <br /><br />In general, adolescence is the ME phase and our times are the ME times. We are ruled by a bunch of brats.Imnobodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87049189752484683572016-06-09T19:32:53.595+01:002016-06-09T19:32:53.595+01:00A stinging analysis, Bruce. Razor sharp in every r...A stinging analysis, Bruce. Razor sharp in every respect.John Fitzgeraldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13951246561259007162noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-79013168622277157182016-06-09T11:09:06.214+01:002016-06-09T11:09:06.214+01:00Or as Francis Bacon said:
“I had rather believe a...Or as Francis Bacon said:<br /> “I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran than that this universal frame is without a mind. And therefore God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”<br /><br />In many ways Bacon was one of the founding fathers of the modern world but he still accepted the reality of God unlike most of those who followed in his footsteps who pride themselves on breaking free of the dead weight of tradition (as they see it) without being able to perceive the truth behind it.<br />William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.com