Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Destroying the books has always been a key to destroying a culture. We must save our own culture before we save anyone else’s.

Material wealth has obscured our view and our vision

  • We have lost our connection to the sources of that wealth-the history and philosophy that made it possible-and cheapened the value of what we have
  • Destroying the books has always been a key to destroying a culture
  • In England, Henry VIII's looting of Glasney College was a strike against Roman Catholic monasteries and a purposeful destruction of the Cornish and Celtic past

Technology has replaced the scroll

  • The printed volume has been replaced by the digital facsimile
  • With each stage, something of the past has been lost in order to gain a "better" future
  • First the art of illumination and hand lettering, never mind the editorial alterations by the copyist, but then paper making and even typography have been forgotten for the most part

What are we losing and what have we lost?

  • The purposeful addiction to the internet and social media leaves little time for reading and contemplation.
  • History is no longer taught. Nor is philosophy. In its place now is politics, where there is only one truth.
  • Books can be had by the million on the internet, free of charge. There is no economy in that, either.

We must save our own culture before we save anyone else's

  • And the culture we save must be our own
  • The algorithmic judgment of some piece of artificial intelligence is meaningless. It takes no account of the empathy and emotional ties that bind. It is, in the end, our ties that matter.

 

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/21/where-it-begins/ 

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