Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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Athenians vs. Visigoths
Written by Zach in Art News

 

 

More than any time in my memory, it seems that Americans are interested not just in political or cultural labels, but rather in the mindsets that provoke them.  As the culture divide widens, more and more people try to justify why they find themselves on a particular side of the crack.  Perhaps the differences have always existed, but the discussions concern behavior less than they concern the precommitments that inform behavior.  Some see morality as a limited thing that minimizes harm (Don’t kill; Don’t steal).  Others see morality as a wider transcendent category that also defines a noble life (Be ye kind; Honor thy father and mother).  Some see the family as an indivisible societal unit that transmits cultural norms and diminishes selfishness.  Others see the family as a hierarchal structure that inhibits expressive morality and erodes the possibility for an egalitarian society.  American presuppositions about a moral order are no longer assumed.  They are now in a state of constant attack or assertion.  More than ever (in my memory) the values of self-control compete with the values of self-expression, and not just in practice.  The contest extends to the theoretical plane where people debate whether one ought to bend truth to one’s will, or whether one ought to bend one’s will to truth.

Though there are many good pieces of ideological analysis, I thought I’d dust off one from the late Neil Postman.  This is from a commencement speech he prepared in case he should ever be asked to deliver one.  Ladies and Gentleman, I present Mr. Neil Postman.

 

“… I want to tell you about two groups of people who lived many years ago but whose influence is still with us. They were very different from each other, representing opposite values and traditions. I think it is appropriate for you to be reminded of them on this day because, sooner than you know, you must align yourself with the spirit of one or the spirit of the other.

The first group lived about 2,500 years ago in the place which we now call Greece, in a city they called Athens…. They composed and sang epic poems of unsurpassed beauty and insight. And they wrote and performed plays that, almost three millennia later, still have the power to make audiences laugh and weep. They even invented what, today, we call the Olympics, and among their values none stood higher than that in all things one should strive for excellence. They believed in reason. They believed in beauty. They believed in moderation. And they invented the word and the idea which we know today as ecology.

About 2,000 years ago, the vitality of their culture declined and these people began to disappear. But not what they had created. Their imagination, art, politics, literature, and language spread all over the world so that, today, it is hardly possible to speak on any subject without repeating what some Athenian said on the matter 2,500 years ago…

… The second group of people lived in the place we now call Germany, and flourished about 1,700 years ago. We call them the Visigoths, and you may remember that your sixth or seventh-grade teacher mentioned them. They were spectacularly good horsemen, which is about the only pleasant thing history can say of them. They were marauders-ruthless and brutal. Their language lacked subtlety and depth. Their art was crude and even grotesque. They swept down through Europe destroying everything in their path, and they overran the Roman Empire. There was nothing a Visigoth liked better than to burn a book, desecrate a building, or smash a work of art. From the Visigoths, we have no poetry, no theater, no logic, no science, no humane politics….

… Now, the point I want to make is that the Athenians and the Visigoths still survive, and they do so through us and the ways in which we conduct our lives. All around us-in this hall, in this community, in our city-there are people whose way of looking at the world reflects the way of the Athenians, and there are people whose way is the way of the Visigoths. I do not mean, of course, that our modern-day Athenians roam abstractedly through the streets reciting poetry and philosophy, or that the modern-day Visigoths are killers. I mean that to be an Athenian or a Visigoth is to organize your life around a set of values. An Athenian is an idea. And a Visigoth is an idea. Let me tell you briefly what these ideas consist of.

To be an Athenian is to hold knowledge and, especially the quest for knowledge in high esteem. To contemplate, to reason, to experiment, to question-these are, to an Athenian, the most exalted activities a person can perform. To a Visigoth, the quest for knowledge is useless unless it can help you to earn money or to gain power over other people.

To be an Athenian is to cherish language because you believe it to be humankind’s most precious gift. In their use of language, Athenians strive for grace, precision, and variety. And they admire those who can achieve such skill. To a Visigoth, one word is as good as another, one sentence in distinguishable from another. A Visigoth’s language aspires to nothing higher than the cliche.

And, finally, to be an Athenian is to esteem the discipline, skill, and taste that are required to produce enduring art. Therefore, in approaching a work of art, Athenians prepare their imagination through learning and experience. To a Visigoth, there is no measure of artistic excellence except popularity. What catches the fancy of the multitude is good. No other standard is respected or even acknowledged by the Visigoth.

Now, it must be obvious what all of this has to do with you. Eventually, like the rest of us, you must be on one side or the other. You must be an Athenian or a Visigoth. Of course, it is much harder to be an Athenian, for you must learn how to be one, you must work at being one, whereas we are all, in a way, natural-born Visigoths….

… I can wish for you no higher compliment than that in the future it will be reported that among your graduating class the Athenians mightily outnumbered the Visigoths.”

 

Go be an Athenian!

Monday, November 17, 2008
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Cap’n Ahab
Written by Zach in News

 

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destorying but unconquering whale, to the last I grapple with thee: from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.  Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool!  And since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale!  THUS, I give up the spear!”

Forgive my rather mediocre rendering of Ahab.  It certainly isn’t worthy of the beauty of the text.  This post is likely to be haphazard.  I just want to post a couple of passages from the book that I like.  I especially like the melodrama.  Here’s a bit where Ahab talks trash about Moby to a fellow sailor.

“Look ye, Nantucketer; here in his hand I hold his death!  Tempered in  blood, and tempered by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the White Whale most feels his accursed life!”

Ahab’s self-awareness smacks of high tragedy.  He knows his obsession with the whale means death, but his fatalism forbids him to change course.  The fact that he refers to himself in the third-person suggests that he’s abdicated himself of first-person responsibility.

“Ahab is forever Ahab man.  This whole act’s immutably decreed.  ‘Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled.  Fool!  I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders.  Look thou, underling!  that thou obeyest mine.”

Permit me one more.  This one’s terrific.

“Slowly crossing the deck from the scuttle, Ahab leaned over the side and watched how his shadow in the water sank and sank to his gaze, the more and the more that he strove to pierce the profunditiy.  But the lovely aromas in that enchanted air did at last seem to dispel, for a moment, the cankerous thing in his soul.  That glad, happy air, that winsome sky, did at last stroke and caress him: the step-mother world, so long cruel–forbidding–now threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck, and did seem to joyously sob over him, as if over one, that however willful and erring, she could yet find it in her heart to save and to bless.  From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.”

Thursday, November 13, 2008
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Veteran’s Day Week Post 2
Written by Zach in News

“Go forward until the last round is fired and the last drop of gas is expended…then go forward on foot!” General George S. Patton

I talked to my grandpa on the phone earlier this week. I asked him what he thought about General Patton, and he said that Patton was a great man and a terrific general. During WW2, my grandpa saw Patton in person in France when the General proposed a personal inspection of the men. I asked if he wore the ivory handled revolvers that people attribute to him, and my grandpa said, “oh sure.” Patton, historians note, was a snappy dresser.

Apparently, the General demanded behavior as disciplined as his own. He once said to the officers of the Second Armored Division, “You cannot be disciplined in great things and indisciplined in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valor of other men. Have you ever seen a few policemen handle a crowd?” Following his own advice, Patton insisted that his men adhere to a rigid dress code.

When Patton took control from Fredendall of the II Corps, he decided to institute stricter discipline with an aim to instill unit pride. This included daily shaving, and steel helmets for everyone, even doctors. His troops also had to wear leggings and neckties. Patton answered his critics with this, “It is absurd to believe that soldiers who cannot be made to wear the proper uniform can be induced to move forward in battle.”

While some may disagree with his conclusions (pot smoking college professors who long for those days in the minibus when they first became aware of their own infallibility), no one can disagree with his success as a military leader (unless you’re a pot smoking college professor who thinks that the only true military leaders are Argentinian Marxist revolutionaries).

Even Patton’s enemies were forced to admire his leadership. Stalin, whom Patton openly ridiculed, conceded that Patton’s French advance was beyond the planning and strategic capabilities of the Red Army. German Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt put Patton at the top of the US generals when he claimed, “Patton was your best.” Even Hitler was forced to take notice calling him “that crazy cowboy general.”

After Patton’s death, one journalist wrote, “Gen. George S. Patton believed he was the greatest soldier who ever lived. He made himself believe he would never falter through doubt. This absolute faith in himself as a strategist and master of daring infected his entire army, until the men of the second American corps in Africa, and later the third army in France, believed they could not be defeated under his leadership.” And they weren’t.

On December 21, 1945, Patton died of an embolism. He was paralyzed in an auto accident on December 9th, one day before he was to return to the US. A man who was made for his time, and who loved his country, faced his end at the end of a great American success. Perhaps it’s better for him that he was spared the sight of the 1960s.

Despite our culture’s approval of indecisive leadership, and inclination to discourage success, I’m glad that there is room in America to honor a man like Patton. He saw the board clearly, and made his moves without the need to keep his hand on the piece. During the Battle of the Bulge, Patton needed a day’s worth of good weather. Never without a plan, he asked the Third Army’s Chaplain, James O’Neill, to compose a prayer and plead with God for fair conditions. The weather cleared, and Patton immediately gave O’Neill a Bronze star before he continued planning. I think it’s this decisiveness and conviction that makes my Grandfather speak of the man with such respect. And in a day where we honor our Veterans, it seems fitting to follow suit.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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Happy Veteran’s Day
Written by Zach in News


Drawing by Justin.

At Portland Studios, it’s Veteran’s Day Week because we’re a fan of Veterans. We agree with Vice President Cheney’s statement today at Arlington.

“No single military power in history has done greater good, shown greater courage, liberated more people, or upheld higher standards of decency and valor than the armed forces of the United States of America. That is a legacy to be proud of, and those who contributed to it must never be taken for granted … They have fought our wars, defended our shores, and kept us free. May God keep us ever grateful for their service.”

So be sure to check back this week for more of our Veteran’s Day Week posts.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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The Prince’s Poison Cup
Written by Zach in Art

Ligonier just published R.C. Sproul’s new children’s book, The Prince’s Poison Cup. The book contains a Prince, a King, a forbidden fountain, and the question, “If medicine helps us get better, why does it always taste so bad?”

Poison Cup also features a whole heap of Justin’s art. This book is much in the vein of the Lightlings, but the art in Poison Cup shoulders more of the narrative burden. I also feel that the allegory is imbedded a little deeper in this story than in The Lightlings, which makes the text more ponderous. Ponderousness lets reader own the concepts rather than merely recognize them.

R. C. Sproul is most widely regarded as a theologian, and some of the story’s thoughts are a little complex. Included in the back of the book is a guide for Parent’s who wish to consider more deeply the story’s truths. All in all, it’s a top notch book, and you should pick up a copy if you’re able.

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