Balkinization  

Monday, September 25, 2006

Thucydides weighs in

Sandy Levinson

A reader of Balkinization was kind enough to send me the following quotation from Thucydides:

"To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings. What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one's unmanly character; ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back was perfectly legitimate self-defence . . . and indeed most people are more ready to call villainy cleverness than simple-mindedness honesty. They are proud of the first quality and ashamed of the second." Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War III, 82, trans. Rex Warner, The Penguin Classics, pp. 209-210.

Interestingly enough, one of the sources I found as I was looking for an exact citation was http://www.anti-rev.org/textes/VidalNaquet92c/, which posts a lecture by Pierre Vidal-Naquet. "Who are the Assassins of Memory?" Vodal-Naquet, who died only a few weeks ago, I believe, was a notable historian of the Holocaust and, necessarily, how so much of the issue is linked with the integrity of language.

Comments:

Thank you, Sandy, for reminding us that Thucydides is a far more complex and nuanced thinker than the man so reflexively cited by the Neocons.
 

Found a similarly FAB quote about the *treacheries* of the Trojan War ("Helen of Troy" by Margaret George - pg 347):

"What it is they said? 'I love treachery, but I hate Traitors!' As If there could be one without the other."

But in this case it's the delusion that they are Not the Traitors, and hypocrisy of pretending to hate treachery...while Loving BOTH Traitors and the Treachery they Perpetrate (as long it's for their SIDE! and Their PARTY!)
 

Yes! Oh yes! Thank you, I've been trying to relocate that section of Thucydides for about three years.
 

Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is great blog. A great read. Horse Betting Strategy Tips Latihan Kriket
 

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.
Agen Judi Online Terpercaya
 

سارع الان بتحميل العاب مجانا وتنزيلها على الكمبيوتر من هذه الروابط مجانا
http://downloadgames1415.blogspot.com تحميل العاب - تحميل العاب مجانا
العاب طبخ
تحميل العاب
 

Post a Comment

Older Posts
Newer Posts
Home