The Attribute Of Manliness

This is a technical, not a political, current-events, linguistic or academic blog. (You know of course that as soon as I say that, it's because I'm about to post something that is political, timely, linguistic and academic. Foreshadowing: your sign of a quality blog!) Despite all that, I was so struck by this passage I read last night that I felt I had to share it. We'll get back to error handling in VBScript or some such topic later this week.

The writer is discussing semantics, specifically how word meanings and popular opinions change in political debates during wartime. The writer is... well, I'll just let him say it, and talk about the writer afterwards.

Words had to change their ordinary meaning:

• reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally ; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice
• moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness, frantic violence became the attribute of manliness
• ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any
• cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defense
• the advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent was a man to be suspected
• the fair proposals of an adversary were met with jealous precautions by the stronger of the two, and not with a generous confidence
• revenge also was held of more account than self-preservation

The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded violence.

Thus Thucydides of Athens, 2435 years ago. (Translation by Richard Crawley. I've changed the formatting and trimmed it a bit -- Crawley gets a little wordy, but I love the balanced sentences.)

The first reaction I had upon reading this was "isn't it astonishing how modern Thucydides sounds across the ages? If he'd only thought to coin the snappy term 'doublespeak', he'd have scooped Orwell by a couple millenia!"

And then I gave my head a shake, because of course I was reasoning backwards. This shouldn't be astonishing in the least; I live in a culture where general opinions on government, politics, warfare, sports and art are more or less just as they were in Classical Greece. It would be more astonishing if Thucydides insights into human nature were not applicable today.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 18, 2004
  Glad to see your opinion on this important subject. You know, I've seen a general paucity of references to the classics in my career as software engineer. Sometimes it's downright frustrating, too. For example, my group is planning a tool which downloads bits and pieces of very large software updates over a long period of time, then triggers a "mass update" at some future time. We're wrapping BITS, of course, but we're supporting more platforms than BITS does, so it's nontrivial. Anyway, an email came round asking if anyone had a good name for this project. What's a project without a catchy moniker? Naturally it occurred to me that Aristophanes coined the perfect word: lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsan-odrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakaechymenokichlepikossy- phophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphe- traganopterygon.lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotri- mmatosilphioparaomelitokatakaechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperister- alektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon. But the reference went unnoticed. :(
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2004
  >I have the hardest time telling when people are being ironic
  
  As much as some people revile them, those little emoticons do serve this purpose.
• Anonymous
  August 18, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  Is there an "I'm being subtly ironic" smiley? That would kind of defeat the purpose of subtle irony I suppose.
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  >>Is there an "I'm being subtly ironic" smiley?
  
  Not that I've ever seen.
  
  Eric, at the risk of being sappy (which I hate), I must tell you that you're a very impressive person, at least as you come across in your blog.
  
  What's interesting is that the two bloggers I'm most impressed with both have math degrees from U. of Waterloo. What's embarrassing is that a year ago I'd never heard of the place.
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  Thanks, that's a nice thing to say. And hardly sappy at all.
  
  Who's the other UW alum blogger that you like?
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  > can't ask permission.
  
  My personal opinion is that anyone who puts their writing on the web does so because they want random strangers reading it. But, hey, whatever.
  
  > a coincidence
  
  Two data points do not a trend make. :-)
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  Checken das email boxen. :)
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2004
  > more talking to computers more than to
  > humans.
  
  More proofreading would help too. I wish there were a "preview" mode on these postings. But sometimes I even neglect to proofread outgoing ordinary e-mail before sending it, when previews are waiting there to be viewed. Sigh.
• Anonymous
  August 27, 2004
  This is embarrassing. All you Anglos using Greek words I've NEVER heard of ... :|
• Anonymous
  September 02, 2004
  I've always liked the Melian dialog. I find it so sad and so applicable. I'm a melian at heart.
• Anonymous
  May 03, 2006
  >Is there an "I'm being subtly ironic" smiley?
  
  Yes.  Right here.
  
  :):
  
  Happy, sad, funny, contradictory... ironic smiley.
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2008
  “ Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper.” That was a previous advertising slogan for Diet