How to Deal With Blog Guilt
Write something.
I haven't stopped thinking (completely) but I haven't felt inspired to write, either. However, I did run across a few quotes I'd like to share. They are from "A Short History of Progress", by Ronald Wright. I don't share his worldview, but his analysis of the fates of some of the world's great civilizations is a great thought-provoker.
To start, there is the definition of progress, penned by historian Sidney Pollard (1968):
"the assumption that a pattern of change exists in the history of mankind...that consists of irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is toward improvement".
This concept of "progress" is only about 300 years old, but it seems to be the unconscious and unquestioned foundation of many people's thinking.
I think most of us have heard Alexander Pope's famous saying, "A little learning is a dangerous thing", but have you heard Thomas Huxley's rejoinder:"Where is the man who has so much (learning) as to be out of danger?"
And, G.K. Chesterton , on the origins of mankind:"Man is an exception, whatever else he is. ...If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off it's head."
Random, I admit, but these ones jumped out at me, and my wife urged me to get back to posting, so this is step one.
I haven't stopped thinking (completely) but I haven't felt inspired to write, either. However, I did run across a few quotes I'd like to share. They are from "A Short History of Progress", by Ronald Wright. I don't share his worldview, but his analysis of the fates of some of the world's great civilizations is a great thought-provoker.
To start, there is the definition of progress, penned by historian Sidney Pollard (1968):
"the assumption that a pattern of change exists in the history of mankind...that consists of irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is toward improvement".
This concept of "progress" is only about 300 years old, but it seems to be the unconscious and unquestioned foundation of many people's thinking.
I think most of us have heard Alexander Pope's famous saying, "A little learning is a dangerous thing", but have you heard Thomas Huxley's rejoinder:"Where is the man who has so much (learning) as to be out of danger?"
And, G.K. Chesterton , on the origins of mankind:"Man is an exception, whatever else he is. ...If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off it's head."
Random, I admit, but these ones jumped out at me, and my wife urged me to get back to posting, so this is step one.
posted by John Elliot | 11:53 PM
2 Comments:
Well, seeing as it has been about 9 months since your last post, we'll just think of this as you coming to full term. It's always worth the wait though.
Tom
Progress...that's the religion of many people I know. That's not to say that I don't think progress is a bad thing; I just say that progress is not THE thing.
Kristoffer
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