Ode from the Echo Chamber

Resonances inherited from the past are frowned on by the revolutionary; the simplifying madness is at work, and Language has lost its memory

A whole people training their young in four principal virtues, Temperance, Industry, Exercise, and Cleanliness: we have read of this, and are even accustomed to its rituals: surfing, the Phys. Ed. major, the apotheosis of the Sanitary Engineer. Of the virtues on which more encumbered folk are catechized they have no need: not Justice, since rights cannot collide; not Fortitude, since there is nothing to be endured; not Prudence, when there is nothing to be decided. Their offspring, all nutrition supervised, learn especially strength, speed, and hardiness, a curriculum with no intellectual prerequisites. They reject all knowledge of which the use is not apparent; they regulate births; they consider that the proper object of affection is the whole species, among which they are careful to make eugenic choices when they mate, valuing chiefly on his side strength, on hers comeliness: Mr. Hargitay, Miss Mansfield.

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Hugh Kenner

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Resonances inherited from the past are frowned on by the revolutionary; the simplifying madness is at work, and Language has lost its memory

A whole people training their young in four principal virtues, Temperance, Industry, Exercise, and Cleanliness: we have read of this, and are even accustomed to its rituals: surfing, the Phys. Ed. major, the apotheosis of the Sanitary Engineer. Of the virtues on which more encumbered folk are catechized they have no need: not Justice, since rights cannot collide; not Fortitude, since there is nothing to be endured; not Prudence, when there is nothing to be decided. Their offspring, all nutrition supervised, learn especially strength, speed, and hardiness, a curriculum with no intellectual prerequisites. They reject all knowledge of which the use is not apparent; they regulate births; they consider that the proper object of affection is the whole species, among which they are careful to make eugenic choices when they mate, valuing chiefly on his side strength, on hers comeliness: Mr. Hargitay, Miss Mansfield.