Last edited by Russell_Street (2010-05-15 01:50:52)
You gave me an hour of effort trying to locate that line. I benefited from a incredibly talented english literature professor. He was bemused when I expressed my delight in sharing birthdays with Oscar Wilde, shocked that I had read most of Gertrude Stein and some of the contemporary gay writers in San Francisco; stating 'Kav, you're the queerest- in the classical meaning- straight student I ever taught.'
He was an early casualty of AIDs. During our last conversation in hospital he said ' God, at least I wont live to see being gay become respectable in society, what a depressing thought to be like everyone else!'
My deformity is losing people. RIP Al
... It's all about loss, isn't it?
Losing things, people, abilities.
Or for others the feeling of not having what others have - Born being robbed of being 'whole'. Manton & Chensvold have that I think. Harris probably too.
And, when you view it all that way, you can't help but understand things better.
Last edited by Russell_Street (2010-05-15 01:52:26)
Townshend talks about the 3 minute, 45 rpm, single as the only way that others could communicate too...
I edited this to stop poking fun. Maybe there is something in your proposition that the damaged and the deformed strive harder than the rest of us. This would account for most of those in government in the world would it not, and the world's consequential state? Unfortunately, being in a state of near perfection, I have neither personal experience to add to your agony, nor any wish to excel in other than merely being admired.
RR
Last edited by Reckless Reggie (2010-05-15 07:53:45)
The desire to be Prime Minister is an interesting one too...
There's no real money in it, just a lot of hate. Nobody who was ever really any good has ever done the job. The best of their peers always kept away from the poisoned chalice.
... Maybe some might like Churchill - But he really wasn't 'all that' when compared to others of his generation.
I think that you have a point about the top jobs often going to the beta brains. The alpha brains have more sense and (according to an old government service joke) everyone can be promoted to the level of their own incompetence! Churchill was magnificently right for 5 years but, later on, useless in peace time but I would say that as a youngster he did some good stuff - introducing labour exchanges and so on. Of course, he wasn't, intellectually, up to say F E Smith but then hardly anyone was and, rather like your Ada Gordon, F E demonstrated his brilliance by drinking himself to death. I am sure that there is a book in that subject: "History's Greatest Drunks and Drug Addicts."
On a slightly different note, I was thinking last night that there are definitely some men even those in the public eye, such as JFK and Alan Clark, whose outrageous behaviour is not merely tolerated but even slyly celebrated by the public and the press whereas, there are others, such as Clinton who slip up once (so to speak) and end up going on the road to hell in a handcart. What is the explanation for this? Maybe this should be a separate thread. Interested to know your views.
RR
Last edited by Reckless Reggie (2010-05-15 10:05:15)
Curious, christianity with classical philosophy form the basis for western civilisation.
Yet christianity's basic tenet of the trinity includes the perfect and sinless son who suffered doubt,pain and death meted to the least and best of us. If you accept the divinity of Jesus, and by extension, yours; you must accept deformities without denial.
Last edited by ckav (2010-05-15 11:39:48)
Last edited by Reckless Reggie (2010-05-15 10:34:11)
People may be driven by deformity or succumb to self pity and resignation. Societies like Sparta largely solved the problem by a rigorous post natal examination and accepttance or a dive off a cliff.
People forget it was a father's letter to Adolph Hilter seeking euthenasia for his mentaly defective son that sparked the 'Final Salution.'
The namby state seeks to silence deformity by it's very language. Nice people don't use ;retarded and handicapped etc which also replaced dummy and cripple;themselves replacing monster and demon. Now people are 'challenged' which pretty much describes me mentally and physically @6 A.M. before I make coffee, assuming I remember to add grounds.
Of course, 30 seconds after drinking same, the birds outside sing Thus Sprach Zarathustra and I stand erect, and erect like Michaelangelo's David ( including my huge 11 1/2 EEE Allen Edmond #5 last feet to support the marble's wieght) in perfect prepotency.
Last edited by ckav (2010-05-15 11:58:57)
Its interesting that the periodic cyber attacks on RS, mention along with alleged jewish ancestry, hints to debilitating injury, possibly a wheel chair, as evidence that the man cannot be trusted.
Obviously, these individuals live in their own little private third reich located in the basement of their parents house, rich in Eugenics and comic books. Evidently, they missed the series of Ironside and the Marvel comic Fantastic Four.
RR missed along with Alan Clark, Belusconi, a man whose behaviour in public office in any civilised society would not be tolerated. And yet, there’s a large minority/majority of Italian males who celebrate and adore his behaviour – the use of whores, the links to the mafia and other alleged sleaze – as a sign of greatness.
Churchill was the greatest Prime Minister that Britain ever had. Also, we need to remember during his second stint at the job, he was a very old man whose powers had faded. His writing style displayed great prowess and energy. No one comes close, not in the 20th century.
Most writers of worth display madness of one sort or another. Alternatively, acute alcholism generally works in getting the conscious and subconscious working together in synergy.
Churchill also drank whisky, as opposed to other forms of alcohol. And there is a difference.
Whisky induces deep contemplative thoughts, whereas, beer produces bleariness and wine does not enrich ones mental capacity.
For the last three years I've been working my way through Churchill's History of the Second World War. I read other books, many other books, but this remains in the background.
The problems that face the USA and UK, that of the need to reindustrialise, in a very short time frame, requires leaders of the capability and capacity of Roosevelt and Churchill.
This should not be executed on anything less than a war footing.
The baby-boomers should be punished for their crimes.
No?