Know Thyself

2025-03-31 by admin

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall:
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides;
Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th’empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule–
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature’s law,
Admired such wisdom in a earthly shape,
And show’d a NEWTON as we show an ape.
Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?
Alas! what wonder! Man’s superior part
Uncheck’d may rise, and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone."

– Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man (1711)

The Cure for the Evils of Democracy

2025-03-22 by N.N.

“Democracy came into the Western World to the tune of sweet, soft music. There was, at the start, no harsh bawling from below; there was only a dulcet twittering from above. Democratic man thus began as an ideal being, full of ineffable virtues and romantic wrongs—in brief, as Rousseau’s noble savage in smock and jerkin, brought out of the tropical wilds to shame the lords and masters of the civilized lands. The fact continues to have important consequences to this day. It remains impossible, as it was in the Eighteenth Century, to separate the democratic idea from the theory that there is a mystical merit, an esoteric and ineradicable rectitude, in the man at the bottom of the scale—that inferiority, by some strange magic, becomes a sort of superiority—nay, the superiority of superiorities. Everywhere on earth, save where the enlightenment of the modern age is confessedly in transient eclipse, the movement is toward the completer and more enamoured enfranchisement of the lower orders. Down there, one hears, lies a deep, illimitable reservoir of righteousness and wisdom, unpolluted by the corruption of privilege. What baffles statesmen is to be solved by the people, instantly and by a sort of seraphic intuition. Their yearnings are pure; they alone are capable of a perfect patriotism; in them is the only hope of peace and happiness on this lugubrious ball. The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!”

— H.L. Mencken: Notes on Democracy. New York 1926. ch. 1

(n)utidig kynisme

2025-03-17 by Admin

“Der er ingen tvivl om, at Pascal har haft en voldsom følelsesstemt oplevelse af ekstatisk karakter, som har efterladt ham i en tilstand af glæde og fred. Den synes også at have været forbundet med hallucinationer, men der er næppe tale om en oplevelse af samme karakter som de religiøse mystikeres, der mener direkte at have oplevet noget guddommeligt – ja, ligefrem oplevet en sammensmeltning med deres guddom og ofte mistet bevidstheden om tid. Det interessante er Pascals forståelse eller tydning af denne oplevelse. Det er klart, at bibelske forestillinger udgør hans forståelsesramme, og uvilkårligt er skriftsteder faldet ham i pennen. Denne forståelsesramme var naturlig og umiddelbart for Pascal og hans samtid. En nutidig psykiater ville nok hjælpe sin patient til en anden forståelse af en lignende oplevelse.” (Koch s. 20-21)

Ovenstående, med den afsluttende ret kyniske pointe, kunne have været et udtryk for en veludviklet sans for humor, hvis det ikke var fordi at Hr. Koch allerede på første side af forordet til sin bog om Pascal, havde taget afstand fra “den religiøse dimension i tilværelsen, som var det bestemmende for [Pascals] opfattelse af mennesket og tilværelsen som helhed”, men som hos Koch selv er helt fraværende, “undtagen som noget, [han] gerne så verden befriet for”.

Det er svært at se, hvad der vindes ved ovenstående perspektivering. Vindes der noget – forståelsesmæssigt – ved at forsikre læseren om, at genstanden for den bog man har valgt at skrive, i vor tid ville være et psykiatrisk tilfælde? Jeg tror det ikke … men det har jeg jo været inde på før.

— C. H. Koch: Pascal. København 2017.

The Unquiet Grave

2025-01-01 by N.N.

"The twelvemonth and a day being up,
The dead began to speak:
‘Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep."

— The Unquiet Grave, English folk song

Elementer

2024-08-20 by admin

[20240813]

Og jeg, den lille Menneskeorm,
Jeg sidder nu her og længes.
Og lytter efter den dybe Storm,
Og seer hvor Skyerne trænges.
Jeg sidder bag Ruden og seer derpaa,
I Læ for de kolde Vinde;

— H. V. Kaalund: Fabler og blandede Digte, Kbh. 1844. ➜

Forståelse

2019-07-21 by Admin

"Another possible objection to this kind of study concerns the degree of empathy for the perpetrators that is inherent in trying to understand them. Clearly the writing of such a history requires the rejection of demonization. The policemen in the battalion who carried out the massacres and deportations, like the much smaller number who refused or evaded, were human beings. I must recognize that in the same situation, I could have been either a killer or an evader—both were human—if I want to understand and explain the behavior of both as best I can. This recognition does indeed mean an attempt to empathize. What I do not accept, however, are the old clichés that to explain is to excuse, to understand is to forgive. Explaining is not excusing; understanding is not forgiving. Not trying to understand the perpetrators in human terms would make impossible not only this study but any history of Holocaust perpetrators that sought to go beyond one-dimensional caricature. Shortly before his death at the hands of the Nazis, the French Jewish historian Marc Bloch wrote, “When all is said and done, a single word, ‘understanding,’ is the beacon light of our studies.”3 It is in that spirit that I have tried to write this book."

— Christopher Browning: Ordinary Men. N.Y. 1992

Forståelse

2024-07-21 by Admin

"Another possible objection to this kind of study concerns the degree of empathy for the perpetrators that is inherent in trying to understand them. Clearly the writing of such a history requires the rejection of demonization. The policemen in the battalion who carried out the massacres and deportations, like the much smaller number who refused or evaded, were human beings. I must recognize that in the same situation, I could have been either a killer or an evader—both were human—if I want to understand and explain the behavior of both as best I can. This recognition does indeed mean an attempt to empathize. What I do not accept, however, are the old clichés that to explain is to excuse, to understand is to forgive. Explaining is not excusing; understanding is not forgiving. Not trying to understand the perpetrators in human terms would make impossible not only this study but any history of Holocaust perpetrators that sought to go beyond one-dimensional caricature. Shortly before his death at the hands of the Nazis, the French Jewish historian Marc Bloch wrote, “When all is said and done, a single word, ‘understanding,’ is the beacon light of our studies.”3 It is in that spirit that I have tried to write this book."

— Christopher Browning: Ordinary Men. N.Y. 1992

Skygger

2024-04-03 by admin

[20240318]

Prætentiøs Kedsomhed

2024-03-21 by admin

[20240319//Aros]

Først fandt han i en Oversigt
Ideen lovlig pretentiøs,
Begrundelsen ret mangelfuld,
Kompositionen endeløs.
Expositionen virked galt
Og delvis uoriginalt ...

— P. A. Rosenberg: Pil og Plekter, Kbh., 1910. ➜

At stille gå sin vej

2024-03-21 by admin

[20240318]

hvorfor vi lever —
ja —
det hænder, at vi er saa glade, at vi synger —
maaske blir vi saa lykkelige, saa glade,
at vi engang stille gaar vores vej,
af angst for at vi ikke mer skal høre livets unge latter —

— Gustaf Munch-Petersen (1912–38)