tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post4719892468560309316..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Grimmelshausen's wise foolDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-22903617121071606302016-05-24T15:08:09.189+01:002016-05-24T15:08:09.189+01:00Only domestic murders, incest, crime. Nowhere is e...Only domestic murders, incest, crime. Nowhere is ever really that quiet and peaceful.<br /><br />Got to love Justin Trudeau for the way he welcomed the Syrians. Integration thriving there, or so it seems. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-83432283449595942972016-05-23T11:54:29.668+01:002016-05-23T11:54:29.668+01:00Just think what it was like for all time in a Suff...Just think what it was like for all time in a Suffolk village.... nothing ever happened.I can just remember the pre motor car days. The non-events in the countryside over centuries formed the English character. This is not upset by the fact of that there was some violence, occasionally, or recently.<br /><br />Your quotations about Switzerland are echoed in recent reports from Canada where refugees are happy at every moment as there are no dangers threatening and enough food etc.<br />David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-61414192122962419022016-05-23T11:42:53.517+01:002016-05-23T11:42:53.517+01:00Like Milton's Satan, Sue, 'apprehending th...Like Milton's Satan, Sue, 'apprehending the good but powerless to be it'. And yes, Sir David, as compared to the Thirty Years' War our own rape and pillage was distinctly limited. But we've never been entirely free from man's appetite for random violence (viz the summer riots in London, brief though they were).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-731341808808737532016-05-23T06:59:08.120+01:002016-05-23T06:59:08.120+01:00Statistically over the years England was quiet. As...Statistically over the years England was quiet. As regards the Wars of the Roses and the Civil War, only a few places were the scene of battles, and those armies fought each other - they did not set out to ruin the countryside. And the character of the English was set long before the bombs arrived. In Central Europe the effects of wars were frequent - the thirty years war in itself was terrible. Over the centuries plunder and devastation were always threats. Note the remarks of Marshall Blucher when he saw London in 1815 - peaceful and unprotected " What a place for plunder "David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-7028557413496573892016-05-23T03:15:47.218+01:002016-05-23T03:15:47.218+01:00Somehow your lines, "But Simplicius is always...Somehow your lines, "But Simplicius is always capable of meditating on how his deeds haven't always matched up to his thoughts, how what seemed like good fortune has led him to ruin" put me immediately in mind of Goodman's brilliant text for the Chou En-Lai aria at the end of Nixon in China, particularly, "How much of what we did was good?/Everything seems to move beyond/Our remedy." And of course your comment, "War, and the absence of war: the contrasts are as simple as that," resonates completely. It is so simple to do right, and therefore all the more incomprehensible that we so often fail to do it.Susan Scheidhttps://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16391010503042883612016-05-23T00:12:51.257+01:002016-05-23T00:12:51.257+01:00Wars of the Roses? Peasants' revolt? Cavaliers...Wars of the Roses? Peasants' revolt? Cavaliers v Roundheads? 'We' were not exactly unscathed. And many of our towns suffered more bomb destruction than the countless preserved gems of Czechia, for instance.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-71536138449721951382016-05-22T19:24:23.222+01:002016-05-22T19:24:23.222+01:00The way of life in a country without war is exempl...The way of life in a country without war is exemplified especially by England, where nothing happened - ever - in most villages and towns and indeed all over the country. Unless visited by the Black Death or the Plague one century passed and then another, and then another, without disturbance. As Reynaud (I think it was ) said, this explains the English character.David Damantnoreply@blogger.com