amicus
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2003
- Posts
- 14,812
Roxanne Appleby, who used to post regularly here, offered a thread concerning ‘civility’, and insisted that a ‘genteel’ posture should be taken during the discussion of issues.
I disagreed with her theme then; I do now, and proceed to make a case for, ‘incivility’, as the need arises.
Perusing several online dictionaries concerning civility and incivility, I noticed an absence, aside from a Greek reference to ‘civilization’ as opposed to barbarianism, of an objective point of view concerning civil behavior as concerns extreme opposites in both opinion and behavior.
To be sure, one must ascertain that certain fundamental values are acknowledged before any discussion can begin. This is where my Liberal colleagues on this forum begin to whimper that there are no ‘absolute’ values, that everything is negotiable, everything is relative and that, ‘values’ arise from the general, not the specific, e.g., the group, not the individual.
(e.g. abbr. Latin exempli gratia (for example))
My Life, is not negotiable, nor will I remain civil should you threaten it.
My Liberty, my freedom to act, is not negotiable; I will not discuss it in civil tones.
My Property; that which sustains my life and that which I have acquired by expending thought and effort, is not a matter of debate, as to whether you can take it or not.
My collectivist opponents insist upon my civility when their grandiose plans include the confiscation of my freedom, my property, and even my life, should they, as a group, so decide.
Yet they scream to the high heavens’, should I call them out on their unspoken determination to eliminate any or all of my individual rights in favor of their ‘greater good’.
A Joy for life, a Passion for Life is not the province of a ‘herd animal’, nay, my friends, ‘tis for one alone:
-- Dylan Thomas
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/38.html
That poem coursed through my mind as I concluded my thoughts on the value of life and freedom and one’s possessions. Perhaps not entirely an analogy or a metaphor, but close enough…
Amicus
I disagreed with her theme then; I do now, and proceed to make a case for, ‘incivility’, as the need arises.
Perusing several online dictionaries concerning civility and incivility, I noticed an absence, aside from a Greek reference to ‘civilization’ as opposed to barbarianism, of an objective point of view concerning civil behavior as concerns extreme opposites in both opinion and behavior.
To be sure, one must ascertain that certain fundamental values are acknowledged before any discussion can begin. This is where my Liberal colleagues on this forum begin to whimper that there are no ‘absolute’ values, that everything is negotiable, everything is relative and that, ‘values’ arise from the general, not the specific, e.g., the group, not the individual.
(e.g. abbr. Latin exempli gratia (for example))
My Life, is not negotiable, nor will I remain civil should you threaten it.
My Liberty, my freedom to act, is not negotiable; I will not discuss it in civil tones.
My Property; that which sustains my life and that which I have acquired by expending thought and effort, is not a matter of debate, as to whether you can take it or not.
My collectivist opponents insist upon my civility when their grandiose plans include the confiscation of my freedom, my property, and even my life, should they, as a group, so decide.
Yet they scream to the high heavens’, should I call them out on their unspoken determination to eliminate any or all of my individual rights in favor of their ‘greater good’.
A Joy for life, a Passion for Life is not the province of a ‘herd animal’, nay, my friends, ‘tis for one alone:
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/38.html
That poem coursed through my mind as I concluded my thoughts on the value of life and freedom and one’s possessions. Perhaps not entirely an analogy or a metaphor, but close enough…
Amicus
