tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post8422967679680415274..comments2024-03-02T12:39:23.745+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: An earlier outlookUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-64413379358117181612013-12-29T01:30:06.733+11:002013-12-29T01:30:06.733+11:00In order for the story to work, Ned Stark has to s...In order for the story to work, Ned Stark has to show a complete lack of common sense, making it rather incredible that his ancestors maintained rule of northern Westeros for thousands of years. Even if First Man culture is incredibly naively honourable, you would think that selective pressure from competition with the Andals would have taught the survivors a more jaundiced view of human nature. The Starks are shown as having a complete lack of consequentialist thinking: "If I do X now, what will happen?" They never ask "Is person Y honourable too? How will they act?" I don't recognise their behaviour as any kind of real-life honour I've ever seen. It's stupidity. Simon in Londonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-35571996060213086792013-12-26T23:45:44.928+11:002013-12-26T23:45:44.928+11:00I don't think chivalry ever really became a ne...I don't think chivalry ever really became a negative thing. Chivalry was part of a kind of unofficial understanding that while men had certain privileges those privileges meant that they had certain duties. The most important of those duties was to protect women and to defend society (by service in the armed forces). Both duties, as Warren Farrell points out in his excellent book THE MYTH OF MALE POWER, brought with them the very real risk of serious injury or death. One of the reasons for the breakdown in our society is that those duties (and those risks) are no longer acknowledged.<br /><br />Part of the reason for this has been the abolition of compulsory military service, which has had (as Alain Delon noted in the interview you were discussing a few days ago) catastrophic consequences. It has taken away from men one of their major roles in the maintenance of a society.dfordoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02306293859869179118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-75072511527763831612013-12-25T21:57:06.627+11:002013-12-25T21:57:06.627+11:00Asdf, interesting. I've been thinking a bit ab...Asdf, interesting. I've been thinking a bit about this kind of thing lately - I'll try to expand on it in some posts in coming weeks.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-63467516258431479262013-12-25T21:53:42.575+11:002013-12-25T21:53:42.575+11:00Aaron, I'll take a look at it, thank you.Aaron, I'll take a look at it, thank you.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-50642095455040456472013-12-25T17:02:31.809+11:002013-12-25T17:02:31.809+11:00Mark -- I think this "unbalance" carried...Mark -- I think this "unbalance" carried in some degree through later centuries in a hypertrophied "platonic" dedication to women; allow me to suggest Baldassare Castiglione's "book of the courtier" as a fitting context for thinking this through.<br /><br />Merry Christmas!Aaron S.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-40776178229963365252013-12-25T14:37:46.253+11:002013-12-25T14:37:46.253+11:00Chivalry is based around the idea that manly virtu...Chivalry is based around the idea that manly virtues are prized. However, in the modern environment a kind of passive aggressive non-physical opportunism is prized. That tends to be what helps one get ahead in mass scale capitalistic cultures.<br /><br />In Game of Thrones the character Little Finger talks about how when he was young he challenged Ned Stark to a chivalrous duel to win his loves hand. He was weaker and lost badly, and knew he could never win that game. So he started to learn how to politic, backstab, slime, and wormtounge his way to the top. In the modern white collar world that is basically what works. Ned Stark, meanwhile, chivalries his way to a backstab and grave.asdfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-26460625468907778792013-12-25T10:02:53.548+11:002013-12-25T10:02:53.548+11:00Yes, Merry Christmas!Yes, Merry Christmas!Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-54526680553735356312013-12-25T00:04:06.652+11:002013-12-25T00:04:06.652+11:00Merry Christmas!Merry Christmas!Titus Didius Tacitusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-63583274531435037742013-12-24T10:45:18.195+11:002013-12-24T10:45:18.195+11:00Simon, I can't agree. It's not that mediev...Simon, I can't agree. It's not that medieval chivalry got it entirely wrong, but there was an over the top devotion to other men's wives that comes across as disordered and unbalanced. I'd like to look at this in more detail in a future post.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-63008262698067244232013-12-24T10:11:41.793+11:002013-12-24T10:11:41.793+11:00Chivalry - "men supplicating to women" -...Chivalry - "men supplicating to women" - originally the sacralisation of women was an antidote to the usual practice of raping and enslaving the enemy's women. I don't really see any sign of it metastasisng into something harmful until at least the late 19th century in Britain & the Anglosphere - Victorian chivalry does start to look excessive. But arguably it remained part of a reasonable social contract until Feminism broke the contract - dumping all prior obligations on women while pocketing the benefits of chivalry as a continued entitlement. Simon in Londonnoreply@blogger.com