What Can't You Say
This is a very provocative essay, one worth several readings. i pensieri stretti & il viso sciolto.
Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express
in front of a group of your peers?
If the answer is no,
you might want to stop and think about that. If everything
you believe is something you're supposed to believe, could
that possibly be a coincidence? Odds are it isn't. Odds are
you just think whatever you're told.
... Moral fashions don't seem to be created the way ordinary
fashions are. Ordinary fashions seem to arise by accident when
everyone imitates the whim of some influential person.
The fashion for broad-toed shoes in
late fifteenth century Europe began because Charles VIII of
France had six toes on one foot. The fashion for the
name Gary began when the actor Frank Cooper adopted the name
of a tough mill town in Indiana. Moral fashions more often
seem to be created deliberately. When there's something we
can't say, it's often because some group doesn't want us to.
The prohibition will be strongest when the group is nervous.
The irony of Galileo's situation was that he got in trouble
for repeating Copernicus's ideas. Copernicus himself didn't.
In fact, Copernicus was a canon of a cathedral, and dedicated his
book to the pope. But by Galileo's time the church was in
the throes of the Counter-Reformation and was much more
worried about unorthodox ideas.
... When Milton was going to visit Italy in the 1630s,
Sir Henry Wootton, who had been ambassador to Venice, told him
his motto should be
"i pensieri stretti & il viso sciolto." Closed thoughts
and an open face. Smile at everyone, and don't tell them
what you're thinking. This was wise advice.
Milton was an argumentative fellow, and the Inquisition
was a bit restive at that time. But I think the difference
between Milton's situation and ours is only a matter of
degree.
Every era has its heresies, and if you don't get imprisoned for them you
will at least get in enough trouble that it becomes a complete
distraction.
I admit it seems cowardly to keep quiet.
When I read about the harassment to which
the Scientologists subject their critics, or that pro-Israel groups
are "compiling dossiers" on those who speak out against Israeli
human rights abuses, or about people being sued for
violating the DMCA, part of me wants
to say, "All right, you bastards, bring it on."
The problem is, there are so many things you can't say.
If you said them all you'd
have no time left for your real work.
Via Jeffrey Veen
9:51:53 PM Permalink
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