How do you not also recall that "lunchpail" used to be the term for what construction workers and other workers used to carry their lunches to work? Now we call them "lunchboxes" or other, branded terms. But "pail" makes perfect sense in this sense as well.
Excellent account of what seems like a very important work, thank you. One point: original sin is not 'committed': rather, in Christian doctrine, it's the default and unavoidable human condition; so the parallel with being born into a 'capitalist' family is entirely apt, because both are inherited, rather than personally incurred.
This kind of reading is essential reading if you’re a sympathizer with Marxist-Leninist communist ideology - it gives you a hint into how the Cultural Revolution was a mess, broadly, and the complex perspectives of the individuals who fell by the wayside. (I will say it till I’m blue in the face, moral judgement is not the most important aspect of a political project) On my list now for sure.
Particularly the idea that truth is a matter of policy - I believe this to absolutely be the case universally, it’s a sort of childish dream state that has westerners believing otherwise. Maybe one day in a utopian future reason can triumph over reality.
Thanks for the great piece. I especially enjoyed your lengthy tangent! It’s easy for us Englishmen to forget that English was not always the world’s language. And I love your note about the common or “dirty” phrases as English evolves as a language. You mention Richard II and my mind went to Henry V. Only a generation later he was speaking plainly to his men and rallying his troops with “Fellas, let’s go!”
How do you not also recall that "lunchpail" used to be the term for what construction workers and other workers used to carry their lunches to work? Now we call them "lunchboxes" or other, branded terms. But "pail" makes perfect sense in this sense as well.
Yea - either a slip by the author or a sign of a class background bereft of labor
I mean, I am not someone from a background of labor.
Excellent account of what seems like a very important work, thank you. One point: original sin is not 'committed': rather, in Christian doctrine, it's the default and unavoidable human condition; so the parallel with being born into a 'capitalist' family is entirely apt, because both are inherited, rather than personally incurred.
I suppose it was committed by Eve lol, but otherwise
"After the Norman Invasion of England in the 11th Century, Britain was ruled by native French-speakers for about four centuries."
I've always found it interesting that they were so quick to abandon Norse in favor of French and so slow to forgo French and adopt English.
This kind of reading is essential reading if you’re a sympathizer with Marxist-Leninist communist ideology - it gives you a hint into how the Cultural Revolution was a mess, broadly, and the complex perspectives of the individuals who fell by the wayside. (I will say it till I’m blue in the face, moral judgement is not the most important aspect of a political project) On my list now for sure.
Particularly the idea that truth is a matter of policy - I believe this to absolutely be the case universally, it’s a sort of childish dream state that has westerners believing otherwise. Maybe one day in a utopian future reason can triumph over reality.
Thanks for the great piece. I especially enjoyed your lengthy tangent! It’s easy for us Englishmen to forget that English was not always the world’s language. And I love your note about the common or “dirty” phrases as English evolves as a language. You mention Richard II and my mind went to Henry V. Only a generation later he was speaking plainly to his men and rallying his troops with “Fellas, let’s go!”