Thursday music link
Isaiah Berlin said (and it is widely quoted by people who want to sound profound) that the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
Mind you, the thing that the hedgehog actually knows, is how to shove its nose up against its arse and hope that its problems go away by themselves. It's not really all that impressive a thing to have as your Very Big Knowledge.
Cinderella, by the Sonics, a band which really did know one big thing.
Update: Guest suggester Des von Bladet points toward pagan metal stuff. Since I don't speak Saxon, it just seems like fairly decent melodic thrash to me. It does underline the point though that the Nazi-pagan types are the ones with a firm grip on the traditions of pre-Christian Europe, while the nature and tolerance Wiccans really aren't. All of which goes to show that the ancient tribal cultures were a bunch of bastards, and 1950s hippy-dippy chanters are much nicer and better people. Civilisation was a massive improvement on traditional cultures, that's why they call it "civilisation".
Mind you, the thing that the hedgehog actually knows, is how to shove its nose up against its arse and hope that its problems go away by themselves. It's not really all that impressive a thing to have as your Very Big Knowledge.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, hoping that you choke whatever eats you isn't number one on the list of strategies for life.
ISTR Andrew Sullivan used the fox/hedgehog quote as an argument for voting for George W. Bush.
Ronald Dworkin's forthcoming book is called "Justice for Hedgehogs". It has a cute hedgehog picture on the cover. I understand the idea is that all forms of justice are really variations on one big idea. But I intend to tell everyone that it's a plea to finally give those prickly bastards the harsh treatment they deserve.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching the Philadelphia Phillies play the NY Mets (baseball, fyi), and the Mets have a player with the wonderful name of Angel Pagan. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteBerlin said? Berlin quoted, surely, from one of the ancient Greek epigrammacists. With approval, to be sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's the most mystifying bit of (pseudo-?) wisdom I've ever encountered. The frequency with which it's quoted makes me strongly suspect that its obscurity/meaninglessness is precisely its value to quoters.
ReplyDelete"Only connect" is another one.
ReplyDeleteHighbrow antecedent to insufferable "Dead Poets Society" fans mouthing "carpe diem." Although that, at least, means something.
ReplyDelete