[Peace-discuss] Moon eclipse
C. G. Estabrook
galliher at uiuc.edu
Wed Feb 27 13:10:46 CST 2008
That book was written during WWII, and practically everything I read today leads
me back to it (e.g., Harvey's recently-mentioned Brief History of
Neoliberalism). --CGE
David Green wrote:
> From Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic
> Origins of Our Time (Chapter 12, "The Birth of the Liberal Creed")
>
> "Economic liberalism was the organizing principle of a society engaged
> in creating a market system. Born as a mere penchant for
> non-bureaucratic methods, it evolved a veritable faith in man's secular
> salvation through a self-regulating market. Such fanaticism was the
> result of the sudden aggravation of the task it found itself committed
> to: the magnitude of sufferings that were to be inflicted on innocent
> persons as well as the vast scope of the interlocking exchanges involved
> in the establishment of the new order. The liberal creed assumed its
> evangelical fervor only in response to the needs of the fully deployed
> market economy."
>
>
> */"C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu>/* wrote:
>
> I meant "liberal" in the sense of the account of Western history
> that we
> all learnt tacitly, in refutation of Marxism (tacit refutation being so
> much more effective that open discussion). The etymological root of
> "liberal" is of course "free," and it's been asserted since at least
> the
> 19th century that European history is the history of freedom, of the
> progressive emancipation of humanity -- intellectual, at least, if not
> so often political or social. (Note how the myth is being used in
> justification of killing Muslims these days.)
>
> We all learnt it in Western Civ classes: first there were the benighted
> religious ages, followed by the dawn of the Renaissance, and the full
> flowering of the Enlightenment, which led on to modern speculative and
> practical omniscience in Clinton-Bush America... (Classical antiquity
> is a problem here, as it was in a different way for Marx, but we deal
> with it by ignoring it and not learning Latin and Greek anymore.)
>
> In fact, to some extent the opposite is true. In contrast to the
> optimism and intellectual openness that characterized the High Middle
> Ages (12th-14th centuries) -- whose typical invention was the
> university
> -- Magellan's age, the Renaissance (15th-17th centuries) was one of
> terror, magic and, as a symptom, the fear and persecution of witches
> (which the Middle Ages didn't believe in).
>
> I'd suggest the source of the colossal loss of nerve in the European
> Renaissance is to be found in the demographic and social catastrophes
> that accompanied the break-up of the medieval mode of production in
> 14th
> century, and the concomitant attempt to reestablish European society by
> force of will (absolutism).
>
> The liberal myth was well under way by the time Jacob Burckhardt
> essentially invented the Renaissance in 19th century Basel with his
> great and influential book THE CIVILIZATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY:
>
> "In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness-that which turned
> within as that which was turned without-lay dreaming or held awake
> beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and
> childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen
> clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as a member
> of a
> race, people, party, family, or corporation-only through some general
> category. In Italy this veil first melted into air: an objective
> treatment and consideration of the state and of all the things of this
> world became possible. The subjective side at the same time asserted
> itself with corresponding emphasis: man became a spiritual individual,
> and recognized himself as such" -- and much more in the same vein,
> along
> with some good accounts of the age.
>
> A more just account of Magellan's age (which you suggest) comes from
> someone often taken to be a prophet of the liberal view -- but Adam
> Smith is not the man the WSJ takes him to be. In the year of American
> independence he wrote that "The discovery of America [and the work of
> other earthbound explorers --CGE] ... certainly made a most essential
> [change in the state of Europe]. By opening up a new and inexhaustible
> market ... A new set of exchanges ... began to take place which had
> never been thought of before, and which should naturally have proved as
> advantageous to the new, as it certainly did to the old continent. The
> savage injustice of the Europeans rendered an event, which ought to
> have
> been beneficial to all, ruinous and destructive to several of those
> unfortunate countries."
>
> On the manifold uses of "liberal," it would take more bandwidth to
> connect this liberal myth to Mr. Obama -- but I don't think it would be
> hard. --CGE
>
> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> >
> > ...why we would assume it's "liberal" myth-making is far from clear.
> > The original source of the quote is unknown. Nowadays it has
> > traction across several political positions that I know of due to the
> > Church's history of similar dogma in the face of reality, most
> > notably geocentrism (Earth at the center), which is what got Galileo
> > in hot water (or nearly did), and more recently other religious
> > authorities concerning the teaching of evolution in public schools.
> > Poking fun at such authorities, even inaccurately, is not necessarily
> > "liberal".
> >
> > Frankly, I still like the quote, whether the source is literary or
> > historical, for more general reasons: it expresses a basic skepticism
> > in the face of stubborn authoritarian dogma and/or ignorance, a
> > sentiment that resonates with many people because dogma and ignorance
> > of one kind or another is still very real. (This includes
> > Flat-Earthers, literal and figurative.)
> > ...
> >
> > Ricky --- "C. G. Estabrook" wrote:
> >
> >> Liberal myth-making, I'm afraid (which is not unknown in our own
> >> time).
> >>
> >> I doubt Magellan ever said any such thing, because educated
> >> Europeans (including church officials) of Magellan's time (and long
> >> before) did not think the earth was flat.
> >>
> >> The standard model (as in Dante) was of a round earth at the center
> >> of a series of concentric spheres, each one (except the ninth)
> >> holding the the moon, sun, or one of the planets.
> >>
> >> A quite brilliant book on the model of the world from ancient times
> >> through Shakespeare and Milton is C. S. Lewis, THE DISCARDED
> >> IMAGE. I used to insist my grad students in Renaissance studies
> >> read it. --CGE
> >>
> >> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> >>> Hope you saw it, it was a nice one - and early enuf that even
> >>> Catharine stayed up for it.
> >>>
> >>> We were reminded of a quote attributed to a famous, and famously
> >>> deeply flawed, earthbound explorer who despite his many
> >>> barbarous acts and allegiances was able to look up from the muck
> >>> and blood of brutal history and come up with this one:
> >>>
> >>> "The Church says the Earth is flat, but I have seen its shadow on
> >>> the Moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church."
> >>> - F. Magellan (not the first man to circumnavigate the globe)
> >>>
> >>> Ricky
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