Justin--
Thanks for recommending this--sounds like a classic!
:- Doug.
On Wed, 2009-07-08 at 12:05 -0700, Justin T. Sampson wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 2:34 PM, Harrison Owen <hho...@verizon.net>
> wrote:
> Michael -- I love you! You miserable old iconoclast (MOI). You
> are miserable
> because you make me laugh, Old -- because you and I are almost
> of an age.
> And an iconoclast because you are a blood brother. The circle
> of MOI's is
> actually a large one, but the membership is strictly
> controlled, and access
> granted only to those with the proper thought forms and secret
> handshakes.
> And since all thought forms are suspect, this is a great
> difficulty for The
> Circle. How on earth do you determine somebody to be a heretic
> when
> everybody is?? But our tribe increases!
>
> Reminds me of another good book... Heretics, by G.K. Chesterton.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=Sw0XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11
>
> Quoting:
>
> "Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of
> modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of
> the word 'orthodox.' In former days the heretic was proud of not being
> a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the
> judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having
> rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with
> their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous
> processes of State, the reasonable processes of law -- all these like
> sheep had gone astray. The man was proud of being orthodox, was proud
> of being right. If he stood alone in a howling wilderness he was more
> than a man; he was a church. He was the centre of the universe; it was
> round him that the stars swung. All the tortures torn out of forgotten
> hells could not make him admit that he was heretical. But a few modern
> phrases have made him boast of it. He says, with a conscious laugh, 'I
> suppose I am very heretical,' and looks round for applause. The word
> 'heresy' not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means
> being clear-headed and courageous. The word 'orthodoxy' not only no
> longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. All this
> can mean one thing, and one thing only. It means that people care less
> for whether they are philosophically right. For obviously a man ought
> to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical. The
> Bohemian, with a red tie, ought to pique himself on his orthodoxy. The
> dynamiter, laying a bomb, ought to feel that, whatever else he is, at
> least he is orthodox."
>
> Cheers,
> Justin
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