Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Pedagogitis
Have a slight dose of pedagogitis this morning, so I will share it. A tautology if ever there was one.
My first is that, on checking in OED, I learn that pedagogue, pederast and paedophile all share the same pedo root from the Greek for boy.
I then move on to to saving the world and my second is hubris, also from the Greek. Although, by way of a diversion, I find on inspection that its present meaning - the falling that results from too much self confidence - is not an old meaning. Neither Chambers (encylopaedia not dictionary), OCD or OED (granted not the relatively recent second edition) have an entry for the word at all although OED manages hubristic for which it has a very short entry of seven lines, giving the meaning as insolent or contemptuous. Wikipedia is on the case, pointing to ate, but without mentioning that Ate, according to Hesiod, was the daughter of Strife and rather prone to acts of hubris in the modern sense. She also gets a walk-on part in episode 19 of the Iliad where Homer alleges that she is, inter alia, the eldest daughter of Zeus and that she interfered with the birth of Heracles. Can't be right all the time, even if you are Homer. Other ingredients in the mix are the proverb 'pride comes before a fall' and the famous quote from Lord Acton of 1878: 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Before checking I had thought it to be 1778 or so rather than 1878, so once again, not so old after all. I think I first heard the quote on the way to acquiring a second class, old-style O-level in history. Perhaps the weakness on dates accounts for the second bit.
Moving back to saving the world from the recession, people who are in power for long periods of time often fall prey to hubris. Maybe it is partly for this reason that in the US they have the sensible rule that you cannot play president more than twice. So we should learn from this example, and have a bigger rule that says that no-one should be in any position of any importance for more than seven years. I choose seven as this is a magic number which really is of considerable antiquity. Such a rule would probably have saved RBS from its fate at the hands of its late leader, who bought a big bank in a big act of hubris.
My third item, is the building of much social housing with taxpayers' money. This would create employment and do something useful, something which goes to one of the roots of the present crisis, an excess demand for housing. This strikes me as a much better wheeze than spending taxpayers' money on things which are not useful. Things like Olympic games and Trident replacements. Why the government persists with this last, a relic of the now long gone days when Britannia ruled the waves, is beyond me. On the other hand, perhaps in this unstable world, having a couple of modern aircraft carriers is a good thing. It is not healthy that the US should be the only free world purveyor of world law and order.
My fourth item, is to find some way of curbing the gloom and doom purveyed by the DT. The present crisis is in some large part a matter of perception, in a matter where, perhaps, perception is fact. Or, as we used to say in the world of work, if you think there is a problem, we have a problem, even if you are wrong. So it does not help to be laying on the gloom and doom day after day. And the DT is such a pompous paper; the standard bearer for all that is decent and sensible in the country.
Not quite sure how one could make a rule about this - although they have so many experts on rules in the world of New Labour, they ought to be able to think of something. Maybe they should put the chaps they paid to draft the no smoking regulations onto the case. Or maybe we just have to wait for the DT to acquire some of the community spirit about which it bones on about at such length.
After that lot I think I am cured and can move onto breakfast.
My first is that, on checking in OED, I learn that pedagogue, pederast and paedophile all share the same pedo root from the Greek for boy.
I then move on to to saving the world and my second is hubris, also from the Greek. Although, by way of a diversion, I find on inspection that its present meaning - the falling that results from too much self confidence - is not an old meaning. Neither Chambers (encylopaedia not dictionary), OCD or OED (granted not the relatively recent second edition) have an entry for the word at all although OED manages hubristic for which it has a very short entry of seven lines, giving the meaning as insolent or contemptuous. Wikipedia is on the case, pointing to ate, but without mentioning that Ate, according to Hesiod, was the daughter of Strife and rather prone to acts of hubris in the modern sense. She also gets a walk-on part in episode 19 of the Iliad where Homer alleges that she is, inter alia, the eldest daughter of Zeus and that she interfered with the birth of Heracles. Can't be right all the time, even if you are Homer. Other ingredients in the mix are the proverb 'pride comes before a fall' and the famous quote from Lord Acton of 1878: 'power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Before checking I had thought it to be 1778 or so rather than 1878, so once again, not so old after all. I think I first heard the quote on the way to acquiring a second class, old-style O-level in history. Perhaps the weakness on dates accounts for the second bit.
Moving back to saving the world from the recession, people who are in power for long periods of time often fall prey to hubris. Maybe it is partly for this reason that in the US they have the sensible rule that you cannot play president more than twice. So we should learn from this example, and have a bigger rule that says that no-one should be in any position of any importance for more than seven years. I choose seven as this is a magic number which really is of considerable antiquity. Such a rule would probably have saved RBS from its fate at the hands of its late leader, who bought a big bank in a big act of hubris.
My third item, is the building of much social housing with taxpayers' money. This would create employment and do something useful, something which goes to one of the roots of the present crisis, an excess demand for housing. This strikes me as a much better wheeze than spending taxpayers' money on things which are not useful. Things like Olympic games and Trident replacements. Why the government persists with this last, a relic of the now long gone days when Britannia ruled the waves, is beyond me. On the other hand, perhaps in this unstable world, having a couple of modern aircraft carriers is a good thing. It is not healthy that the US should be the only free world purveyor of world law and order.
My fourth item, is to find some way of curbing the gloom and doom purveyed by the DT. The present crisis is in some large part a matter of perception, in a matter where, perhaps, perception is fact. Or, as we used to say in the world of work, if you think there is a problem, we have a problem, even if you are wrong. So it does not help to be laying on the gloom and doom day after day. And the DT is such a pompous paper; the standard bearer for all that is decent and sensible in the country.
Not quite sure how one could make a rule about this - although they have so many experts on rules in the world of New Labour, they ought to be able to think of something. Maybe they should put the chaps they paid to draft the no smoking regulations onto the case. Or maybe we just have to wait for the DT to acquire some of the community spirit about which it bones on about at such length.
After that lot I think I am cured and can move onto breakfast.
# posted by Jim @ 12:27 AM 
