Excellent, as always. I am going to add micropsychos to my list of epithets. But the question of snitching or misprision is one I would love to hear your thoughts on. When there was an incident at UVa, Jefferson was outraged that the students would not inform on the perpetrators (IIRC). And the service academies maintain that standard. Roger
It's fascinating that you keep a list of epithets. :-)
I have no settled policy on snitching vs. misprision because circumstances have not forced me to formulate one. So much would depend on the context, no? I do have a great admiration for dissidents within authoritarian and totalitarian regimes - a good example is Vaclav Havel - in part because they had a deep ethical resistance to snitching on their comrades. But in a free society would I hide my knowledge of treasonous behavior? I think not.
Have you read Rod Dreher's Live Not By Lies, about the anti-Soviet dissidents, like Havel? Their moral calculations make for fascinating reading. But because you love poetry, I must pass along the best line to come out of Watergate. Nixon's presidential lawyer Len Garment to his former colleague William Safire, then an NYT columnist: "Stonewalling does not misprision make."
I've long had this aspiration to write a book about dissidents - something like Profiles in Courage, totalitarian edition, but with a philosophical angle. It's likely that I won't find the time to produce this one.
Excellent, as always. I am going to add micropsychos to my list of epithets. But the question of snitching or misprision is one I would love to hear your thoughts on. When there was an incident at UVa, Jefferson was outraged that the students would not inform on the perpetrators (IIRC). And the service academies maintain that standard. Roger
It's fascinating that you keep a list of epithets. :-)
I have no settled policy on snitching vs. misprision because circumstances have not forced me to formulate one. So much would depend on the context, no? I do have a great admiration for dissidents within authoritarian and totalitarian regimes - a good example is Vaclav Havel - in part because they had a deep ethical resistance to snitching on their comrades. But in a free society would I hide my knowledge of treasonous behavior? I think not.
Have you read Rod Dreher's Live Not By Lies, about the anti-Soviet dissidents, like Havel? Their moral calculations make for fascinating reading. But because you love poetry, I must pass along the best line to come out of Watergate. Nixon's presidential lawyer Len Garment to his former colleague William Safire, then an NYT columnist: "Stonewalling does not misprision make."
I've long had this aspiration to write a book about dissidents - something like Profiles in Courage, totalitarian edition, but with a philosophical angle. It's likely that I won't find the time to produce this one.