On a more depressive note: In the Dilbert animated series (on the failed UPN network), Catbert instructs a young intern that his lack of experience is not a problem. It turns out:
“cynicism is almost the same thing as experience. Just try thinking the worst about people and you’ll usually be right.”
Seeing how people still treat Obama as a savior endowed with the magical ability of choosing the right Czar at any particular moment in time makes me believe in both Shaw cynicism and Catbert cynicism.
Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics.
I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence…
and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences
I think GBS, having spent forty years trying to promote a different way of thinking via his plays and prose, grew tired towards the end and was willing to endorse the strongman to force a change in thinking since people would not voluntarily change their thinking. Both Pound and Yeats endorsed the strongman as well. The First World War exhausted people morally and intellectually.
Great quote though. Shaw’s plays hold up pretty well.
“Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics. I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence… and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences. And maybe you need a bit of the latter for wisdom”
He was also an elitist, a Fabian and a member of the Bloomsbury group.
George Bernard Shaw wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay for this adaptation of his comedy which later became “My Fair Lady.” Leslie Howard is Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller is Cockney flower peddler Eliza Doolittle, whom he attempts to turn into a “lady of society.” With Wilfrid Lawson.
George Bernard Shaw shares blame for turning the swastika into alphabetical symbolism of S-letters for “socialism.” Although an ancient symbol, the swastika was altered into a utopian emblem of “super socialist society” for the new “socialist supermen.”
George Bernard Shaw, recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the youngest of three children born to George Carr and Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw. His father was an alcoholic, and he had a difficult childhood as a result. He was educated at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. He left at the age of 15 to work as a junior clerk. In 1884 he joined a socialist group called the Fabian Society.
Shaw supported women’s rights, equality of income, and the abolition of private property. He … campaigned for a simplification and reform of the English alphabet in the belief that this would benefit democracy. In 1889, Shaw edited and contributed to Fabian Essays in Socialism, and it is no accident that this entry into the political world approximately coincided with Shaw’s first experiments with dramatic writing. Through the Fabian Society’s founders, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw met the Irish heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he married in 1898. They seem to have enjoyed a happy, if sexless, marriage.
By the mid-1880s Shaw had discovered the writings of political philosopher Karl Marx and turned to public speaking and writing socialist propaganda and critical journalism. He … became, and remained, a firm believer in vegetarianism, and he never drank alcohol, coffee, or tea. He joined the newly founded Fabian Society in 1884 and served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. The Fabian Society was a middle-class socialist group that felt capitalism had created an unjust society. Its members aimed at transforming English government and society gradually and did not promote revolution.
“Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics. I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence… and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences. And maybe you need a bit of the latter for wisdom”
He was also an elitist, a Fabian and a member of the Bloomsbury group.
FYI: Your readers owe you thanks for picking up on this … an incredible story … “Louisiana Paper Demands Public Access To All State Records On Oil Spill”
George Bernard Shaw wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay for this adaptation of his comedy which later became “My Fair Lady.” Leslie Howard is Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller is Cockney flower peddler Eliza Doolittle, whom he attempts to turn into a “lady of society.” With Wilfrid Lawson.
George Bernard Shaw shares blame for turning the swastika into alphabetical symbolism of S-letters for “socialism.” Although an ancient symbol, the swastika was altered into a utopian emblem of “super socialist society” for the new “socialist supermen.”
George Bernard Shaw, recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the youngest of three children born to George Carr and Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw. His father was an alcoholic, and he had a difficult childhood as a result. He was educated at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. He left at the age of 15 to work as a junior clerk. In 1884 he joined a socialist group called the Fabian Society.
Shaw supported women’s rights, equality of income, and the abolition of private property. He … campaigned for a simplification and reform of the English alphabet in the belief that this would benefit democracy. In 1889, Shaw edited and contributed to Fabian Essays in Socialism, and it is no accident that this entry into the political world approximately coincided with Shaw’s first experiments with dramatic writing. Through the Fabian Society’s founders, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw met the Irish heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he married in 1898. They seem to have enjoyed a happy, if sexless, marriage.
By the mid-1880s Shaw had discovered the writings of political philosopher Karl Marx and turned to public speaking and writing socialist propaganda and critical journalism. He … became, and remained, a firm believer in vegetarianism, and he never drank alcohol, coffee, or tea. He joined the newly founded Fabian Society in 1884 and served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. The Fabian Society was a middle-class socialist group that felt capitalism had created an unjust society. Its members aimed at transforming English government and society gradually and did not promote revolution.
Here’s a fun George Bernard Shaw clip.
http://www.popmodal.com/video/897/George-Bernard-Shaw-defends-Hitler
The perils of intellectualism.
On a more depressive note: In the Dilbert animated series (on the failed UPN network), Catbert instructs a young intern that his lack of experience is not a problem. It turns out:
“cynicism is almost the same thing as experience. Just try thinking the worst about people and you’ll usually be right.”
1 min, 25 sec: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUw4STIfn7M
Seeing how people still treat Obama as a savior endowed with the magical ability of choosing the right Czar at any particular moment in time makes me believe in both Shaw cynicism and Catbert cynicism.
Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics.
I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence…
and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences
And maybe you need a bit of the latter for wisdom
I think GBS, having spent forty years trying to promote a different way of thinking via his plays and prose, grew tired towards the end and was willing to endorse the strongman to force a change in thinking since people would not voluntarily change their thinking. Both Pound and Yeats endorsed the strongman as well. The First World War exhausted people morally and intellectually.
Great quote though. Shaw’s plays hold up pretty well.
“Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics. I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence… and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences. And maybe you need a bit of the latter for wisdom”
He was also an elitist, a Fabian and a member of the Bloomsbury group.
——-
http://www.lycos.com/info/george-bernard-shaw–fabian-society.html
——-snip
George Bernard Shaw wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay for this adaptation of his comedy which later became “My Fair Lady.” Leslie Howard is Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller is Cockney flower peddler Eliza Doolittle, whom he attempts to turn into a “lady of society.” With Wilfrid Lawson.
George Bernard Shaw shares blame for turning the swastika into alphabetical symbolism of S-letters for “socialism.” Although an ancient symbol, the swastika was altered into a utopian emblem of “super socialist society” for the new “socialist supermen.”
George Bernard Shaw, recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the youngest of three children born to George Carr and Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw. His father was an alcoholic, and he had a difficult childhood as a result. He was educated at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. He left at the age of 15 to work as a junior clerk. In 1884 he joined a socialist group called the Fabian Society.
Shaw supported women’s rights, equality of income, and the abolition of private property. He … campaigned for a simplification and reform of the English alphabet in the belief that this would benefit democracy. In 1889, Shaw edited and contributed to Fabian Essays in Socialism, and it is no accident that this entry into the political world approximately coincided with Shaw’s first experiments with dramatic writing. Through the Fabian Society’s founders, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw met the Irish heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he married in 1898. They seem to have enjoyed a happy, if sexless, marriage.
By the mid-1880s Shaw had discovered the writings of political philosopher Karl Marx and turned to public speaking and writing socialist propaganda and critical journalism. He … became, and remained, a firm believer in vegetarianism, and he never drank alcohol, coffee, or tea. He joined the newly founded Fabian Society in 1884 and served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. The Fabian Society was a middle-class socialist group that felt capitalism had created an unjust society. Its members aimed at transforming English government and society gradually and did not promote revolution.
—–snip
“Yes – amazing how such an insightful writer was so wrong about politics. I suspect it’s because sharp analysis usually goes with a certain degree of self confidence… and protects the owner from both failure and difficult experiences. And maybe you need a bit of the latter for wisdom”
He was also an elitist, a Fabian and a member of the Bloomsbury group.
FYI: Your readers owe you thanks for picking up on this … an incredible story … “Louisiana Paper Demands Public Access To All State Records On Oil Spill”
——-snip
http://www.lycos.com/info/george-bernard-shaw–fabian-society.html
George Bernard Shaw wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplay for this adaptation of his comedy which later became “My Fair Lady.” Leslie Howard is Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller is Cockney flower peddler Eliza Doolittle, whom he attempts to turn into a “lady of society.” With Wilfrid Lawson.
George Bernard Shaw shares blame for turning the swastika into alphabetical symbolism of S-letters for “socialism.” Although an ancient symbol, the swastika was altered into a utopian emblem of “super socialist society” for the new “socialist supermen.”
George Bernard Shaw, recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the youngest of three children born to George Carr and Lucinda Elisabeth Shaw. His father was an alcoholic, and he had a difficult childhood as a result. He was educated at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. He left at the age of 15 to work as a junior clerk. In 1884 he joined a socialist group called the Fabian Society.
Shaw supported women’s rights, equality of income, and the abolition of private property. He … campaigned for a simplification and reform of the English alphabet in the belief that this would benefit democracy. In 1889, Shaw edited and contributed to Fabian Essays in Socialism, and it is no accident that this entry into the political world approximately coincided with Shaw’s first experiments with dramatic writing. Through the Fabian Society’s founders, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw met the Irish heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he married in 1898. They seem to have enjoyed a happy, if sexless, marriage.
By the mid-1880s Shaw had discovered the writings of political philosopher Karl Marx and turned to public speaking and writing socialist propaganda and critical journalism. He … became, and remained, a firm believer in vegetarianism, and he never drank alcohol, coffee, or tea. He joined the newly founded Fabian Society in 1884 and served on its executive committee from 1885 to 1911. The Fabian Society was a middle-class socialist group that felt capitalism had created an unjust society. Its members aimed at transforming English government and society gradually and did not promote revolution.
—–snip
Yes. The Bloomsbury circle had an undue influence
other writers –
Leonard and Virginia Wolf
Lytton Strachey
Lord Keynes
very influential on Edwardian and interwar years
This is the literary set of course, with their world weariness and angst
C. P Snow reminds us that at the same time you had Rutherford and the physicists, who were enjoying a boom in the physical sciences.