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“There is nothing so annoying as to be fairly rich, of a fairly good family, pleasing presence, average education, to be "not stupid," kindhearted, and yet to have no talent at all, no originality, not a single idea of one's own—to be, in fact, "just like everyone else." Of such people there are countless numbers in this world—far more even than appear. They can be divided into two classes as all men can—that is, those of limited intellect, and those who are much cleverer. The former of these classes is the happier. To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing is simpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in that belief without the slightest misgiving. Many of our young women have thought fit to cut their hair short, put on blue spectacles, and call themselves Nihilists. By doing this they have been able to persuade themselves, without further trouble, that they have acquired new convictions of their own. Some men have but felt some little qualm of kindness towards their fellow-men, and the fact has been quite enough to persuade them that they stand alone in the van of enlightenment and that no one has such humanitarian feelings as they. Others have but to read an idea of somebody else's, and they can immediately assimilate it and believe that it was a child of their own brain. The "impudence of ignorance," if I may use the expression, is developed to a wonderful extent in such cases;—unlikely as it appears, it is met with at every turn. ... those belonged to the other class—to the "much cleverer" persons, though from head to foot permeated and saturated with the longing to be original. This class, as I have said above, is far less happy. For the "clever commonplace" person, though he may possibly imagine himself a man of genius and originality, none the less has within his heart the deathless worm of suspicion and doubt; and this doubt sometimes brings a clever man to despair. (As a rule, however, nothing tragic happens;—his liver becomes a little damaged in the course of time, nothing more serious. Such men do not give up their aspirations after originality without a severe struggle,—and there have been men who, though good fellows in themselves, and even benefactors to humanity, have sunk to the level of base criminals for the sake of originality)”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

Interesting take, Gloria...I was grappling with similar issues a couple of years ago when I wrote an overview on rethinking social class in the context of its health impacts...

Article Rethinking the health consequences of social class and social mobility

For a more general philosophical discussion of complex contested concepts, I always like to go back to Gallie's 1955 classic:

Gallie, W.B., (1955), Essentially contested concepts. In Proceedings of the Aristotelian society (Vol. 56, pp. 167-198). Aristotelian Society, Wiley.

Important question, Gloria. Same hold for all basic sociological categories, I guess.

I'm wondering – Perhaps there's not just "the one definition", but many according to the facets of class and class experience you are specifically looking into?

Thank you, Colleague Andrea Brighenti! Your comments are very import as I try to think through all the partial and sometimes conflicting definitions. Happy Winter Solstice.

Thanks, Colleague Dragos Simandan,

The effects of class on people's physical state is one that cannot be over studied. Your point is very important. I grew up in a steel mill town and spent almost a year in an asthma hospital when 15. No direct proof that all the pollution exacerbated my asthmatic tendencies, but suggestive. many ways that class, occupation, and work affect not only the worker parent but the family, too. Thanks for your comment!

Dear Colleagues,

As I write more on the Introduction to that essay collection on literature and social class, I am citing the foremost experts on class. I started with Karl Marx and was very surprised to learn that he cited literary sources.

Marx cited both Johann Goethe and Shakespeare's Timon of Athens who laments the distorting properties of money. Money, that is, that can change everything, including sexual attraction and social class ("base noble".) Changing the ugly person into a beauty, the criminal into an honest person, etc. Money can re-write and control history, also, but Marx didn't include that because Shakespeare does not mention this specifically.

Shakespeare in Timon of Athens:

“Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, Gods, I am no idle votarist! ... Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. ... Why, this Will lug your priests and servants from your sides, Pluck stout men’s pillows from below their heads: This yellow slave Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed; Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves And give them title, knee and approbation With senators on the bench: This is it That makes the wappen’d widow wed again; She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices To the April day again. Come, damned earth, Thou common whore of mankind, that put’st odds Among the rout of nations.”

And also later:

“O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce ‘Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow That lies on Dian’s lap! Thou visible God! That solder’st close impossibilities, And makest them kiss! That speak’st with every tongue, ||XLII| To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts! Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue Set them into confounding odds, that beasts May have the world in empire!”

Here are the opening few paragraphs of my intro to Routledge Lit and Class Companion. I have shared this elsewhere so apologies if you already know about it. For coherence sake this may be too brief, so I include the rest of my partial introduction as attached file. ANY replies are most welcome because it becomes difficult to assess how interesting an opening is, being the writer. I start with the negative hypothesis.

OPENING

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Social class

What is “class?” In his novel Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut defines a granfalloon as part of the fictional religion Bokononism’s karrasses or intentional spiritual groups. But a “granfalloon” is a "false karass." A granfalloon is a group of people who affect a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is meaningless. Vonnegut cites a character named Hazel’s obsession with Hoosiers (people born in the state of Indiana), as a prime example of a granfalloon. Fictional Hazel exclaims “We Hoosiers got to stick together” as she travels across the globe, delightedly discovers Hoosiers everywhere. Vonnegut’s narrator continues

BLOCK INDENT

Hazel’s obsession with Hoosiers was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in the ways that God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokanon calls a granfalloon. Other

examples of granfalloons are the Communist party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company, the International Order of Odd Fellows, and any nation, any time, anywhere. (“Cradle”, 67)

END BLOCK INDENT

Some disturbing similarities to “class” seem to be erupting form this cited passage of Vonnegut’s novel. (More in file attached...)

The notion of a social class of type X is typically not some property or set of properties affected by the folks alleged to be in X (many of whom may not even be aware of being thus categorized or have any knowledge of the alleged X-properties), but is a conception imposed on them from without (e.g. by social scientists, public intellectuals, politicians, writers). So strictly speaking, it would not fit the definition of a granfalloon since it need not involve an affectation on the part of the class's members.

Hello, Karl,

I think what you are describing is the property in groups to (verb) "fantasy theme" each other's groups. This is communication's theory term for "group bonding"; that is, we reserve the good "fantasy themes" for ourselves and our group and the negative of bad ones for outside ourselves and our own group. FT serve to add coherence to a group's image of itself.

The FT behavior of classes is one example.

Ernest Bormann The Force of Fantasy.

Thanks!

I don't think many uneducated and unpoliticized dalits do much fantasy theme-ing or have the sort of raised consciousness fantasy theme-ing requires. Nor do I think dalit-hood can be considered an "affectation". Hence the social class of dalits is not a granfalloon.

Dalits do fantasy theming of others who are not dalits. They just do not know the term for what they are saying. FT is group bonding at all social ranks. We know who we are bc we are not them. And here is what we say about them...presumably mostly ranks above dalits.

Thank you, dear Gloria,

For your very important question! It was the ugliest creation of the apes, turning their tools to get a job done into the weapons to make people scared."I was hideously disillusioned... when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima" /Vonnegut/. Faulkner wrote, "The divisions between classes, genders and races kept the structure intact"R.W. Hambin, Ch.A.Peek/ . B.Shaw criticized the British class system. Russian writers depicted the decay and inevitable downfall of Russia's ruling classes. If society is particularly concerned about dictatorship, Bokononism, "harmless truths" and the "nine-ice concept"/weapons of mass destruction/, it leads to man's greed, madness, irresponsibility, government's inanity, religion's false hope and "the research, falling into the wrong hands".

“No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's . . ." "And?" "No damn cat, and no damn cradle.”/Vonnegut/

There is a dirty economic war and hostility against other countries and own folks trying to extinguish an entire people through hunger and diseases. "In this world you get what you pay for" /Vonnegut/.There are artificially created idols and ideals , aiming at enslavement. People starve, the masses are enslaved "and Caesar answers with less bread and more circuses". They are not the "chosen ones", they are self-appointed leaders.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. “If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.”

The social countries are able to cope with the divisions. "Social Classes in Contemporary Sweden " by Marvin E.Olsen

Abstract

Survey data from Gävle, Sweden, are examined to determine whether the three Swedish occupational groups reflect actual social classes. Analyses reveal that (a) occupational status is heavily influenced by educational attainment; (b) education and amount and source of income all differ significantly among the three social groups; (c) upward generational occupational mobility is largely restricted to the top two groups; (d) Sweden is generally perceived as having three social classes; (e) most persons in all three groups identify with Group II; and (f) Swedes in all social groups desire to increase economic and social equality. The argument is made that Sweden may indeed contain a three-class structure based primarily on occupation, but many Swedes view this structure largely in economic terms. Recent marked rises in income across all social classes in Sweden have therefore left most people relatively satisfied with their society.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4105792?socuuid=97fd00f0-fa6d-4569-9ad2-32cab5915a78&socplat=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1OOwJfr3qBpoRyZtO9CpFwl6p-YfVYc9KUCVav7W3lMYZVwRtqdHkkcXw&seq=1

Dear Irina, Karl, and others,

It helps so much when people take time to read drafts. Irina, you have given me very much to think about in drafting this introduction to the nexus of litwrature and class. I have moved from is CLASS real to is LITERATURE real?

What kind of "critter" is it?

What are its dimensions?

Where have we taught lit. and how?

Amazing things went on behind closed doors in departments that changed how people were even ABLE to think. Consider: how we think what is significant to read and how makes us who are are in many ways. Or is literature only "truly" understood when read aloud?

Gerald Graff has the major text (Professing Literature) for the origin and growth of teaching literature here in the United States. Much of the earlier formation of the field of literary studies in universities comes from two specific places: England and Germany, with their very different philosophical groundings. More to come. I hope to post this section in a day or two.

That is anice.. Thank you

Thank you, dear Gloria, dear All,

"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center"/K.Vonnegut, Player Piano/-"Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger? Surely, Aesopian language is a brilliant idea of the brilliant mind. A genius is a prophet, but as we know, a man is not a prophet in his own country.

“If [literature] should turn into pure propaganda or pure entertainment, society will slip back into the sty of the immediate -- which is to say, the memoryless existence of hymenoptera and gastropods. None of this is so important, to be sure. The world can get by nicely without literature. But without human beings it can get by better yet.”

― Jean-Paul Sartre

Dear Irina,

I feel like a like AEsop's mole all burrowed in and sticking its nose out of that mole hill to say, "What a lucky mole I am, living in this wonderful mole hill."

Moles being vain.

Gloria

“Sometimes I wonder if he wasn't born dead. I never met a man who was less interested in the living. Sometimes I think that's the trouble with the world: too many people in high places who are stone-cold dead.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

The trouble with identifying social class as a granfaloon (surely on of the most wonderful neologisms ever!) is the idea of identification. In Vonnegut's description, the members identify as a group around a meaningless identity of purpose.

However, people's identification with social class is problematic. Who confidently asserts that they are upper class? And asserting that you are working class is not so much identification "with" as identification by difference – people with working class origins are likely to identify with them and treat them as credentials even when they obviously belong to a non-manual class.

But it's a concept well worth discussing with the added value of being able to use that wonderful word!

Dear Voles, Colleague Ferrets, and Others,

Funniest serious discussion this mole has ever been involved in!

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be always", Matthew 6: 19-21

Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina – or possibly:

Everything we cherish and hold dear today, we will have to let go of and be separated from in the future. In not too long a time, I will also pass away. Therefore, I urge you to practice being an island unto yourself, knowing how to take refuge in yourself, and not taking refuge in anyone or anything else.

(Taisho Revised Tripitaka, No.99, Samyukta Agama 639)

Now, now. Dueling aphorisms will make Hegelians of us all.

Gloria Lee Mcmillan – heh, heh!

To Noam Chomsky," In the United States/as well as in other countries/ you're not allowed to talk about class differences. In fact, only two groups are allowed to be class-conscious in the United States. One of them is the business community, which is rabidly class-conscious. When you read their literature, it's all full of the danger of the masses and their rising power and how we have to defeat them. It's kind of vulgar, inverted Marxism. The other group is the high planning sectors of the government. They talk the same way — how we have to worry about the rising aspirations of the common man and the impoverished masses who are seeking to improve standards and harming the business climate. So they can be class-conscious. They have a job to do. But it's extremely important to make other people, the rest of the population, believe that there is no such thing as class. We're all just equal, we're all Americans, we live in harmony, we all work together, everything is great."

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky?fbclid=IwAR0qNc0sUPTU24hvPK3rxfdGU7avk-AY_LOABP2LqBCq26OH_OHBkUK7Rus

Dear Colleagie Irina,

Ain't it wonderful? Yes, I think industrial workers are the least heard along with the disabled and homeless--actually unemployed.

I did get some help from these theorists. George Simmel was the most scary because he says all ethics, values, everything, is going to be only valued in monetary terms. Being an artist myself, this does explain what I have wondered about how the middle-class rejected Vincent van Gogh and then how he was "discovered" by a few fashion setters. Now the price of a van Gogh is into the econo-stratosphere.

Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction about the main reason for "taste" being to keep the classes separate makes empirical sense, with its extensive charts of classes. (Bourdieu is one I will use in this INTRO. to Routledge Companion to Literature and Class, even though B. did not dissect literature so much as visual art and music.)

I have told people who work at gaining voices for the poor and who invariably meet near the poor neighborhoods and on our university campus to join the upscale arts groups (!) Most symphony, art museum, dance, ballet, poetry, opera have a fairly low yearly memberships. Their various League members can avoid the poor entirely by having events at homes in our local outlying suburbs.

By contrast, having "poetry slams" about getting a voice of the disenfranchised, etc. in our south side of town feels good to do and we need to keep morale building there, as well, but I told my friends I didn't see much "power" there.

So, I joined the Opera League and I attend their Book Club. The mostly female group take umbrage at my actually reading the books they "discuss." But their social slights and supercilious behavior remind me of Groucho Marx's interactions with the perfect "straight woman" Margaret Dumont. I don't know what will come out of this.

But I insist that ALL my Ph.D. work in rhetoric says you have to get into the room to be heard. (And I have many funny episodes that may make it into a play, who knows. I have people laughing, just to hear them. These Book Club members are unused to somebody coming with textual analysis training plus not being from their class discourse group.) I have hopes for my fellow Opera League Book Club members. Don't give up on them yet.

One of my friends said, "Gloria, the Opera League Book Club may take to holding its meetings in secret."

Make sense?

Gloria Lee Mcmillan did no-one tell you that book clubs are for people who want to drink Californian wine at lunchtime without the stigma? It is very naughty of you to read the actual book, and you know this. Leave the poor unfortunates to their little comforts, for goodness' sake!

Dear Gloria,

Thank you for sharing your amazing illustration of your skills and experience with me! It reminds me of A.Chekhov, S.Maugham and N.Sarraute's graceful writing style. I'm sure you are able to make people happy! To Chekhov, "A human being needs neither three arshins/2,1336 m/ of land, nor an estate, but he needs the entire globe, where he could recognize, express and develop the potentialities and specific features of his free spirit on open spaces". Surely, it's an eternal problem for us, according to the genius of objective Truth- Avram Noam Chomsky. "Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relationships, this creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes a person's noblest impulses", A.Solzhenitsyn. What can we do? 'I say look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do and set out on the work", N.Chomsky

Dear Irina,

Have you ever heard of the Us 1950s comedy film Harvey? It has much deep philosophy in it. You can get it on DVD and maybe on YouTube or Amazon. To me, it is amazing how much is in that charming piece of what seems like whimsy--until you think about it.

It concerns Elwood P. Dowd, who has a new friend, a six-foot invisible rabbit named "Harvey" who is a pooka (Celtic mischievous spirit.) Elwood used to have a promising career, attend the Yale Club, etc., etc., but now he has found happiness. Dr. Chumley, a very rich director of the loony bin they want to place Elwood into, discovers what an amazing creature Harvey is and--of course--tries to lure him from Elwood (whose sister has been trying to have him committed because she is a socialite and he's hurting her daughter's chances at a wealthy marriage.) Hope you can find it to watch. When I feel low, this is one of the films I pull out to watch.

Dear Ronan Michael Conroy,

I like your "he-he".

"If someone were to say “Life is just a bowl of cherries?”

If that is the way you want to look at life, fine. If you decide your life is maximization of goods, then that is the meaning of life. We can have sympathy for you, but that is what it is. If you decide that your life is friendship, love, mutual aid, mutual support, a community of people who try to increase their own and other people’s happiness and welfare, then that is the meaning of life. But there is no external force that decides."Noam Chomsky. I stand for kindness.It's my island. The most optimistic and adaptive species are blinded by power, domination, fear and greed. Surely, evil conquers good in the rotten corrupt society. "Alas, poor Yorick", we are all mortal. "Six pieds de terre suffisent au plus grand homme." https://zcomm.org/zmagazine/the-most-dangerous-belief-an-interview-with-noam-chomsky/?fbclid=IwAR1MB2dDfouPKp_icwOSqTHOTh-3x6xjAefuOqGDDsrtsZJxM3i79fvZnDQ

Yes, it certainly is.

Dear Gloria.

Thank you for your multicultural communication! I liked Harvey. In my turn, my favourite one is about Funtik "The most important thing is kindness"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWNM-gt9REM

Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina and so Vonnegut comes around again, with Mr Rosewater's motto : "God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

Dear Ronan Michael,

A genius is always right, like my ancestors, "No good deed goes unpunished". And what? Who is able to change strong human beings? I like your "he-he"."Atlantes are there , holding the sky on their hands", A. Gorodetsky. If they are women...in the world of lie, meanness and betrayal. It's always an alternative to evil. If we are not here, the world is destroyed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=GNgERqoSnJY&feature=emb_logo

https://lyricstranslate.com/ru/атланты-atlantes.html?fbclid=IwAR0AOBlRrFtdFgox6FJY5EG6yPFtoiq6PtcQsYSkG5iKBe6-lgOywV8KOi

http://www.visit-petersburg.ru/en/showplace/199385/

Irina, Ronan, and all! I loved Funtik and understood Dobra Dan, anyway. I know Czech a bit. Not much Mluvim cesky ale spatne. So that gets me a few words in most other Slavic languages.

They say, "Jazyk vas privede do Kuiv". It's very important to learn other languages.

I learned Russian for a year, which was enough time to realise how difficult it was! I am working instead on my Portuguese.

Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina thank you for the words and the music! May I return the gift with one of my favourite poems sung by one of the greatest musicians of the last century – Евгений Нестеренко : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c88vHwwIoeE&t=2102s

Caro m’è ’l sonno, e più l’esser di sasso,

mentre che ’l danno e la vergogna dura:

Non veder, non sentir, m’è gran ventura;

però non mi destar, deh! parla basso.

How dear to me to be asleep, and dearer still to be of stone,

While injury and shame reign all around.

Not to see, not to feel, these are my great fortune.

So do not wake me, please – speak softly.

Gloria Lee Mcmillan far from apologising, I blame your failure to keep this discussion on track.

Ronan--Artists do not follow "tracks" so sometimes we stray into the fields of flowers and butterflies. This little image of some Bohemian bobbin lace butterflies may make you sad because they are not on tracks. I do not know if butterflies have classes, but I doubt that they are granfalloons.

Now get back to class! Is it a granfalloon?

Dear Colleagues,

Colorful though they be, try not to be distracted by the České motýly ot "Bohemian butterlfies." It is often said in zlata Praha (golden Prague) that the Czechs are the Irish of Central Europe and just as Joycean. Anybody ever tried to keep James Joyce on track? (Full disclosure: my dad was half-Irish and half-Czech.) Despite these handicaps, I will try to behave. Remind me if I do not, please.

We need to discuss whether social class is a Vonnegutian granfalloon. Maybe if we decided if class is permanent or intermittent (I vote for intermittent)? Some theorists say class is "performative" (naming names: Derrida, Lyotarde) you never know you have one until somebody else tries to, as it were, out class you. From inside, we don't go around all day remembering our social class, or do we?

Anybody, have a thought, theoretical of otherwise?

I am not well versed in many of the things mention in other replies, nor do I know all of the theories, philosophies and works which you quoted. I did read one of Vonnegut's stories, but "it kills me" that these words are all I can recall. "Don't you hate it when...." And "Wouldn't you just die?" That's about all I remember.

While I am studying at Abilene Christian University to teach High School Social Studies, I am just beginning to get into the methodology. But if there is one authority with which I am very well acquainted, it is the Bible.

For these reasons, rather than share my own ideas, thoughts, and opinions I will quote a few passages, praying that you will bear with me. In a few instances it seemed wise to quote a verse in various versions to give a fuller sense of the intended meaning. It is important to keep in mind that whenever reading a translation rather than the original Greek or Hebrew text, the original words used do not always fit perfectly with the words in our own language. This is why looking at multiple renderings can help clarify the intended meaning. So, without further deviation, here are a number of key scriptures from God's Word dealing with the related subjects of social and economic class, and the role of good government in administering justice.

Christian Class Warfare? - abreviated

Jas.2.9

A literal translation

'But if you show favoritism, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as criminals.

Lev.19:13-17

‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor; I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord. - Leviticus 19:13-18 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus19:13-18&version=NASB

Lev.19.15

GOD'S WORD® Translation

'Don't be corrupt when administering justice. Never give special favors to poor people, and never show preference to important people. Judge your neighbor fairly.

New International Version

"'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

A literal translation

'Do not distort justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or defering to the rich and powerful. But you shall judge in righteousness.

John 7:24

Contemporary English Version

'Don't judge by appearances. Judge by what is right.

Good News Translation

'Stop judging by external standards, and judge by true standards.

The Amplified Bible

'Do not judge by appearance [superficially and arrogantly], but judge fairly and righteously. - John 7:24 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John7:24&version=AMP

Exodus 23:3

New International Version

'and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.

New Living Translation

'And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.

GOD'S WORD® Translation

'Never give special favors to poor people in court.

Exodus 23:6

Berean Study Bible

'You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.

New American Standard Bible

'You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

Deuteronomy 1:17

GOD'S WORD® Translation

'Be impartial in your decisions. Listen to the least important people the same way you listen to the most important people. Never be afraid of anyone, since your decisions come from God. You may bring me any case that's too hard for you, and I will hear it.

Deuteronomy 10:17

New American Standard Bible

'For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

Deuteronomy 16:19

A literal translation

'You shall not distort justice, nor shall you show favoritism, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and overturns the cause of the righteous.

2 Chronicles 19:6

Contemporary English Version

'and (Moses) told (the judges) : Be careful when you make your decisions in court, because you are judging by the LORD's standards and not by human standards, and he will know what you decide.

Good News Translation

'and instructed them: "Be careful in pronouncing judgment; you are not acting on human authority, but on the authority of the LORD, and he is with you when you pass sentence.

Job 34:19

A literal translation

'(God) is not partial to rulers and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.

Proverbs 18:5

New International Version

'It is not good to be partial to the wicked and so deprive the innocent of justice.

New Living Translation

'It is not right to acquit the guilty or deny justice to the innocent.

English Standard Version

'It is not good to be partial to the wicked or to deprive the righteous of justice.

New American Standard Bible

'To show partiality to the wicked is not good, Nor to thrust aside the righteous in judgment.

New King James Version

'It is not good to show partiality to the wicked, Or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.

Proverbs 31:9

New American Standard 1977

'Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Now, I hope, trust, and pray that this helps add some perspective for all with a sincere desire for justice for all classes.

Doyl L Watson II,

I deduce that Sherlock Holmes may be your cousin or cousin of your moniker.

-Mycroft

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“There is nothing so annoying as to be fairly rich, of a fairly good family, pleasing presence, average education, to be "not stupid," kindhearted, and yet to have no talent at all, no originality, not a single idea of one's own—to be, in fact, "just like everyone else." Of such people there are countless numbers in this world—far more even than appear. They can be divided into two classes as all men can—that is, those of limited intellect, and those who are much cleverer. The former of these classes is the happier. To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing is simpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in that belief without the slightest misgiving. Many of our young women have thought fit to cut their hair short, put on blue spectacles, and call themselves Nihilists. By doing this they have been able to persuade themselves, without further trouble, that they have acquired new convictions of their own. Some men have but felt some little qualm of kindness towards their fellow-men, and the fact has been quite enough to persuade them that they stand alone in the van of enlightenment and that no one has such humanitarian feelings as they. Others have but to read an idea of somebody else's, and they can immediately assimilate it and believe that it was a child of their own brain. The "impudence of ignorance," if I may use the expression, is developed to a wonderful extent in such cases;—unlikely as it appears, it is met with at every turn. ... those belonged to the other class—to the "much cleverer" persons, though from head to foot permeated and saturated with the longing to be original. This class, as I have said above, is far less happy. For the "clever commonplace" person, though he may possibly imagine himself a man of genius and originality, none the less has within his heart the deathless worm of suspicion and doubt; and this doubt sometimes brings a clever man to despair. (As a rule, however, nothing tragic happens;—his liver becomes a little damaged in the course of time, nothing more serious. Such men do not give up their aspirations after originality without a severe struggle,—and there have been men who, though good fellows in themselves, and even benefactors to humanity, have sunk to the level of base criminals for the sake of originality)”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina a splendid description of a particular form of the Dunning-Kruger effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect).

I think, though, that there is a third class of person of modest talents : the "wasted genius". The person who believes that but for the demands of a demeaning job or of raising a family or any other such excuse, but for these demands they would have written an earth-shaking novel. It's funny how many people believe that they have a great novel inside them, and how few believe that they have a great painting or a great piano concerto. In the latter cases, it's quite obvious that a lot of hard work and technique go into the creation of art. People make the mistake of thinking that because they can type, they can write.

Thank you, Gloria Lee Mcmillan , for hosting this symposium, in the true and original sense of the word.

Dear Ronán Michael Conroy ,

I appreciate your participation. Right now, so many things are in flux that we will need to combine brain power wherever and whenever we can. Sojourner Truth, a slave born in the US south (at the 1851 Akron, OH, Women's Rights Conference), gave this speech that also addressed the questions of both class (the waste of talent) and the divisions by skin pigment in her speech "An'd Ain't I a Woman?

This excerpt below catches the contradictions under a "normalized" mentality that some women are worth paying attention to, mourning when they die, etc., and others are less than the dust underfoot. Social class may be performative and not as physical as pigmentation but the social class aspect of Sojurner Truth's speech are readily apparent. Yet they are inseparable from the race and gender aspects

One theorist in Women's Studies used the term "nested variables." These are those elements formed nested within each other that, when she wakes up in the morning, a woman sees about herself. Nested variables also carry with them social class marks in her accent in speech, her posture, her weight, height, and other physical aspects, incl. respiratory disease from polluted air. Class is not totally immutable, but the trappings of class mixed with the others are what Sojourner Truth tries to convey. She says

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman? Delivered 1851 Women's Rights Convention, Old Stone Church (since demolished), Akron, Ohio

Dear Ronan Michael Conroy,

I highly appreciate your opinion, too.To me, "a paradigmatic/truth with a beard/ formula is: a genius is born. However, only negligible proportion of them is able to be realized. The origin of the potential genius is a biological problem, or even a genetic one. Development of a genius is a biosocial problem. Realization of a genius is a sociobiological problem. Conclusion: not the genetic, but the biosocial and the sociobiological inhibitors lead to the reliable results- there is one of the tens of thousands of the potential /the would-be/ will be able to be realized "

V. Ifroimson http://ec-dejavu.ru/g/Genius_Ifr.html

Genius is also in the eye of the beholder. Genius is a rhetorical construct that suits the people who have the power to control the moentary markets for works of culture. See Pirerre Bourdieu's _Distinction_. Also, Georg Simmel's "Fashion."

In the field of rhetoric, the "great man" has long been held up to scrutiny as what he so often is...feet of clay and a placeholder in a parade of fashion. As the saying goes, "Sic transit gloria mundi."

I did a painting I was going to title that, about all the clawing and scraping for first rank in the herd. Here it is...I think these goofy creatures are funny.

Questions of "brilliant minds" are like the defensiveness of "the people of the pillar" in the film by Val Lewton _Bedlam_. (1940s--probably available on You Tube. a very insightful "take" in genius and madness. And how people used to handle "difference.")

TITLE: A Brilliant Planet (of the Oligarchs) I am indebted to Max Ernst. He inspired some of this painting.

"Every place on our planet affords its own unique experience ", Baatarzorig Batjargal

https://onartandaesthetics.com/2019/12/21/every-place-on-our-planet-affords-its-own-unique-cognitive-experience-baatarzorig-batjargal/

Dear Irena,

I am all for parallax views of art, of class, from all locations.