Carolina QuotesOne of the strangest disparities of history lies between the sense of abundance felt by older and simpler societies and the sense of scarcity felt by the ostensibly richer societies of today. Charles Péguy has referred to modern man’s feeling of “slow economic strangulation,” his sense of never having enough to meet the requirement which his pattern of life imposes on him. Standards of consumption which he cannot meet, and which he does not need to meet, come virtually in the guise of duties.
Richard M. Weaver Carolinian
Source
pp. 14-15
- work
- Ideas have Consequences (1948)
- year
- 1948
- locator
- pp. 14-15
Cite this record
“One of the strangest disparities of history lies between the…” Richard M. Weaver. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-F3A3AAEBE2. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/f3a3aaebe2
More from Richard M. Weaver
Those who based their lives on the unintelligence of sentimentality fight to save themselves with the unintelligence of brutality.
Modern publication wishes to minimize discussion. … Phrases … are carefully chosen not to stimulate reflection, but to evoke stock responses of approbation or disapprobation. Headlines and advertising teem with them, and we seem to approach a point at which failure to make the stock response is regarded as faintly treasonable.
There is much to indicate that modern publication wishes to minimize discussion. … For one thing, there is the technique of display, with its implied evaluations. This does more of the average man’s thinking for him than he suspects. For another, there is the stereotyping of whole phrases. These are carefully chosen not to stimulate reflection, but to evoke stock responses of approbation or disapprobation. Headlines and advertising teem with them, and we seem to approach a point at which failure to make the stock response is regarded as faintly treasonable. … Journalism becomes a monstrous discourse of Protagoras, which charms by hypnotizing and thwarts that participation without which one is not a thinking man.