Who Killed Homer?

Stanford Magazine ^ | 1998 | John Heath and Victor Davis Hanson

[cornelis]

Congratulations!

gnwqi to eteron

[BlueLancer]

"I just followed up Gorky Park with Polar Star."

Then you've got one more to go in the series ... Red Square. Very very good ... more of the same.

[independentmind]

But it is foolish -- and dangerous -- to embrace these conventions of the West without understanding that the Greeks also insisted that such energy was to be monitored and restrained by a host of cultural protocols that have nearly disappeared: civic responsibility, philanthropy, a world view that is rather absolute, a belief that life is not nice, but tragic and ephemeral (Greek words both), a chauvinism of the middle class and an insistence on self-criticism. The death of the Greeks means an erasure of an entire way of looking at the world, a way diametrically opposite to the new gods that now drive America: therapeutics, moral relativism, blind allegiance to progress and the glorification of material culture.

I haven't liked most of what's been posted on FR by Hanson. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that National Review seems to favor his articles justifying the "War on Terrorism" rather than those providing his social commentary.

Very few in America now know much about the origins of the West in ancient Greece -- and our citizens are moving further from the central philosophical and ethical tenets that are so necessary if we are to understand and manage the leisure, affluence and freedom of the West.

And what do the authors propose to do about it? How do you make what seems like ancient history relevant and interesting to people today? At least part of the failure lies with a lack of imagination and a failure to inspire on the part of conservative academics. Even more probably has to do with the intellectual snobbery that seems to run rampant among those, who in spite of years of post-graduate education, possess less than impressive powers of perception. A better audience might be those who have more "real world" experience who sense that something was missing from their undergraduate education.

[1rudeboy]

bttt

[dighton]

Then you've got one more to go in the series ... Red Square. Very very good ... more of the same.

I just returned Polar Star and borrowed Red Square. A terrific read: I came close to murdering someone who interrupted.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[dfwgator]

[justshutupandtakeit]

I love to study the Greeks. It never gets old.

[Drawsing]

It is a little known fact that The Iliad was not actually written by Homer, but by another man with the same name.

[cornelis]

Some threads never age.

Plato was Greek. He recognized that education was about getting people to focus on the right thing. Facts are nice, but if we yield our attention to the peripheral ones, we become illiterates and beget them.

Media--the "great stereopticon" as Weaver called it--gets the most mileage by "wagging the dog" with true facts. The problem is actually larger than the MSM. It is monolithic. And here there is a special perk for living among Americans who are in the know. Their expertise shines when they remind others that phrases like "wagging the dog" yields ambiguous meanings: "Some suggest the dog is public opinion, and the tail represents the media; the dog is the media, and the tail is political campaigns; or the dog is the people, and the tail is the government."

Reading Plato closely can help cure this disease. He teaches us to focus on the right thing.

One caveat remains. Learning to see through the eye develops an increased sensitivity to error. This can be a problem. This is why Socrates cautioned against misanthropy.

A physician's precaution is needed. The greatest care is required when giving attention to disease. Why the fascination with the causes of death, facts that can only be treated with sanitary regulations, with gloves and mask, with hand washing afterward?

Today college students read Homer like yesterday's mothers giving birth: in the hospital with utensils infected. The particular virus here is one that diverts the proper focus of the eye of the soul toward peripheral facts.

[Alamo-Girl]

A lot of wisdom packed into your excellent post there, cornelis!

The particular virus here is one that diverts the proper focus of the eye of the soul toward peripheral facts.

So very true. But how shall we encourage sight at today's hectic pace?

[SunkenCiv]

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