... is invoked by Patrick Kurp: I prefer not to. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I second this. Too many poets actually buy into Shelley's risible notion that poets are "the unacknowledged legislators of mankind" and assume that they possess some grand moral authority by virtue of their familiarity with meter and metaphor. It is interesting that Robert Conquest - a fine poet and a major historian who actually does have authority to speak out on matters of geopolitics (having been in his time a practicing diplomat) - tends to have opinions on such matters widely at variance with those of most other poets - who do not come close to having his expertise.
I was just relieved to read a post by Patrick Kurp that I could understand ;-)
ReplyDeleteI too agree with him, by the way.
By a similar token, very few scientists I have met are maniacs bent on creating monsters or taking over the world. Those guys are out there, but probably their profession is independent of their lunacy or megalomania.
Many scientists are gentle, poetic and religious people. I presume a cross section of scientists would be pretty similar to a cross section of poets or engine drivers?
http://iwouldprefernot.blogspot.com/
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