Harry wrote:
> Couple of weeks ago, a mutual friend was on her way to Arizona. The
> husband
> had been fired. He came home and put a bullet through his head.
>
> The future of work in America?
Hi Harry (O.F.)
Ezra Pound said that 'literature is news that stays news'. I believe
this is obviously true eg. Victor Hugo's Les Miserable ( i'm referring
to the long version of the novel not the play that 50,000,000 people
have seen). Poetry especially is news that stays news:
Richard Cory
By Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
- Edwin Arlington Robinson -
" The Children Of The Night "
===========
Kinda eerie, eh Harry? that you and the poet used exactly the same
words; only the context was different. Or was it?
"The only thing you can take with you is what you give away" (A
Wonderful Life)
Take care,
Brian McAndrews
ps Paul Simon has a song Richard Cory adapted from Robison's poem. You
might want to use it when you teach your young students how to compete
to get to the top of the heap as adults.
> Ed,
>
> Without doubt, whether its TANSTAAFL, or the Puritan Ethic, we know we
> have
> to work.
>
> It isn't so easy for us to put ourselves in the place of someone who
> just
> has "a job" - not a choice for a life's work, or a learning career,
> but a job.
>
> Yet, this is the lot of many.
>
> Working - which must be done if one is to survive - is better than not
> working.
>
> We received a form letter at Christmas from some friends in Arizona.
> It
> described all the good things that they had experienced during the
> year.
>
> Couple of weeks ago, a mutual friend was on her way to Arizona. The
> husband
> had been fired. He came home and put a bullet through his head.
>
> The future of work in America?
>
> Harry
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ed wrote:
>
> >Harry Pollard:
> >
> >
> > > Ed,
> > >
> > > Considering the miserable subject, this was a fun post.
> > >
> > > Classically, we don't want to work - which is why we follow the
> "least
> > > exertion" principle. We want the fruits of our labor - preferably
> without
> > > the labor.
> > >
> > > So, we don't want jobs, but we take them reluctantly because
> without them
> > > we are soon hungry. Religion comes into play always to make us do
> the
> > > miserable jobs because we will get a later reward - or because
> it's
> >penance
> > > for our inadequacies.
> >
> >Harry, I suspect that we really do want to work, whatever the
> exertion, not
> >only because of biblical injunctions, but for many other reasons.
> It's
> >partly a class thing - not to work, not to put forward the effort,
> >identifies you as social trash. Parents with a sense of the
> importance of
> >their position in life encourage their kids to work from an early age
> not
> >only for the sake of independence but in order to maintain the status
> of the
> >family. Friends of ours, both professional, have a nineteen year old
> who
> >does not want to work or go on to higher education. They are
> appalled!
> >When they are not beating him over the head and shoulders they are
> beating
> >themselves over the head and shoulders.
> >
> >Despite how the Classicists put it for theoretical purposes, I'm sure
> they
> >recognized the implications of work for maintaining class and self-
> and
> >family-respect. Robert Louis Stevenson's life overlapped the later
> >Classists. His "Child's Garden of Verses" contains several little
> mantras
> >to help keep children moving in the right direction. For example,
> the poem
> >"System":
> >
> >Every night my prayers I say,
> >And get my dinner every day;
> >And every day that I've been good,
> >I get an orange after food.
> >
> >The child that is not clean and neat,
> >With lots of toys and things to eat,
> >He is a naughty child, I'm sure ---
> >Or else his dear papa is poor.
> >
> >Work means not only food on the table, but Godliness, cleanliness and
> >status.
> >
> >Ed
>
>
>
> ******************************
> Harry Pollard
> Henry George School of LA
> Box 655
> Tujunga CA 91042
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Tel: (818) 352-4141
> Fax: (818) 353-2242
> *******************************
>
>
>
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