I am desperate to replace Jean Sibelius' Finlandia for Vaughan Williams' Greensleeves in my CD player!!!!!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
My favourite English composer
They say we are officially in Spring but this is how my house looks today:
I am desperate to replace Jean Sibelius' Finlandia for Vaughan Williams' Greensleeves in my CD player!!!!!
I am desperate to replace Jean Sibelius' Finlandia for Vaughan Williams' Greensleeves in my CD player!!!!!
Basic Victorian etiquette
Para que no os penseis que solo de política vive un liberal, os comparto una breve pero curiosa lección de etiqueta victoriana:
"In going up a flight of stairs, you precede the lady; in going down, you follow"
Extraido de "What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens knew", by David Pool
O traducido al castizo: Si vas a subir una escalera acompañado de una dama, tú debes precederla; si bajais, síguela.
Imagino que a los de la Royal Navy se les debió olvidar la etiqueta (ver foto)...
"In going up a flight of stairs, you precede the lady; in going down, you follow"
Extraido de "What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens knew", by David Pool
O traducido al castizo: Si vas a subir una escalera acompañado de una dama, tú debes precederla; si bajais, síguela.
Imagino que a los de la Royal Navy se les debió olvidar la etiqueta (ver foto)...
The "saving lie" or Fourier Complex
Una persona muy querida me cuestionaba el mensaje del post acerca del "sentirse clase media", por no considerar las dificultades invencibles que, según dicha persona, siempre impone el orden social prestablecido a los más desfavorecidos. Mi respuesta va a continuación en forma de cita adaptada de un libro cuya lectura debería ser obligatoria, preferiblemente antes de los 18 años (admito que yo lo leí muchísmos años más tarde):
"Opposition to liberalism does not stem from reason, but from a pathological mental attitude: from resentment and a neurasthenic condition called Fourier complex.
Resentment can be dealt with rational arguments: The important thing cannot be to worsen the position of his better situated fellow men, but to improve his own.
The Fourier complex is much harder to combat. The neurotic takes refuge in a delusion. A "saving lie", that not only consoles him for past failure, but holds out the prospect of future success: one's inability to attain the lofty goals to which one has aspired is not to be ascribed to one's own inadequacy but to the defectiveness of the social order. This "saving lie" tells him that not he himself but the World is at fault for having caused failure, and this conviction raises his depressed self-confidence and liberates him from a tormenting feeling of inferiority".
Extracted and adapted from "Liberalism", by Ludwig Von Mises.
"Opposition to liberalism does not stem from reason, but from a pathological mental attitude: from resentment and a neurasthenic condition called Fourier complex.
Resentment can be dealt with rational arguments: The important thing cannot be to worsen the position of his better situated fellow men, but to improve his own.
The Fourier complex is much harder to combat. The neurotic takes refuge in a delusion. A "saving lie", that not only consoles him for past failure, but holds out the prospect of future success: one's inability to attain the lofty goals to which one has aspired is not to be ascribed to one's own inadequacy but to the defectiveness of the social order. This "saving lie" tells him that not he himself but the World is at fault for having caused failure, and this conviction raises his depressed self-confidence and liberates him from a tormenting feeling of inferiority".
Extracted and adapted from "Liberalism", by Ludwig Von Mises.
The myth of Sisyphus
Besides being the title of a wonderful song by Stephen Stills (remember Crosby, Stills & Nash? yeeep, that Stills!), and also being part of Greek cultural traditions, the myth of Sisyphus is just as drawn by KAL:
Monday, March 24, 2014
About Freedom and Equality
"The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion for equality made vain the hope for freedom"
Sabias palabras de Lord Acton...
Sabias palabras de Lord Acton...
About being middle class
Otra joya de Maggie (seguro que alguno me odia ya...) sobre lo que es ser clase media media:
"Being middle class has never been simply a matter of income, but a whole attitude to life, a will to take responsibility for oneself"
"Being middle class has never been simply a matter of income, but a whole attitude to life, a will to take responsibility for oneself"
About rugby referees
Una perla de la Dama de Hierro acerca de la opinión del público sobre los árbitros de rugby:
"My concentration on the game was frequently disturbed by the less than complementary remarks which English crowds are inclined to exchange about the conduct of referees"
Margaret Thatcher "Path to Power".
"My concentration on the game was frequently disturbed by the less than complementary remarks which English crowds are inclined to exchange about the conduct of referees"
Margaret Thatcher "Path to Power".
A portrait of Britain
Les comparto la mejor descripción sobre Britania que he leído en mi vida. Me la encontré leyendo la sección de Bagehot en la revista "The Economist" en diciembre de 2013. Que la disfruten.
"An ingenous island country, most prosperous when open to the World, and with a mysterious concentration of eccentrics"
"An ingenous island country, most prosperous when open to the World, and with a mysterious concentration of eccentrics"
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