tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post1260868994978527649..comments2023-07-31T10:39:53.182-05:00Comments on The Blog of the American Chesterton Society: The Saints, or a Bar of PlatinumNancy C. Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06169395014931291729noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-13475411019049406862008-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:002008-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:00Roy, Roy! I know you too well to think you will mi...Roy, Roy! I know you too well to think you will misunderstand my reply... those of us who have dealt with "bosh" in a ballade cannot be at odds with each other.<BR/><BR/>But... as much as you may dislike the metric system, I wonder if this may be a stretch of GKC's thought - for he applied those words not to the metric system, nor even to science - but to art and culture:<BR/><BR/>"To put it shortly, the evil I am trying to warn you of is not excessive democracy, it is not excessive ugliness, it is not excessive anarchy. It might be stated thus: It is standardisation by a low standard. ... That danger of standardisation by a low standard seems to me to be the chief danger confronting us on the artistic and cultural side and generally on the intellectual side at this moment."<BR/>[GKC, <I>Culture and the Coming Peril</I>]<BR/><BR/>Moreover, you are using the internet to communicate even now, and so must conform to a whole bevy of standards - or you cannot use it. That is all covered in the famous quote from <I>St. Thomas Aquinas</I> about how no sceptics work sceptically. (CW2:542] And you are far beyond the reach of that error.<BR/><BR/>But regardless of whether one uses the metric system, or ounces and gallons (or is it pounds?) and miles and inches, and all the panoply of odd traditional measures, the simple point I am making is still the same thing as GKC made in <I>Heretics</I>. The ISO happens to provide a grand example of this idea, and people bow to them who would never be caught bowing to some other inter- (or super-) national authority, like the one based in that little town on the Tiber.<BR/><BR/>--Dr. Thursday<BR/><BR/>PS. As useful as metric is, there are several things I happen to detest about it. For example, I think it wrong to have changed "cycles per second" to "hertz", "centigrade" to "celsius"; they have not given over the length, weight and time units over to persons, why change those? And then to have dropped the degree sign for temperature in degrees Kelvin? But then I am not in the ISO. (Not yet, anyway... when I do get in, I intend to add a new measure, to be called the "Chesterton" which shall be the unit of paradox. Hee hee.)<BR/><BR/>PPS. Don't forget there is a unit called the "gilbert", a METRIC measure (in the CGS system) of magnetomotive force, equivalent to 10 over four pi ampere-turns. Yes, there is, I can show where it says. Hee hee!<BR/><BR/>PPPS. I will NEVER metric many things, the units of common English. I will not change the mystic and longest word "smiles" to "skilometers". I refuse to kilogram my fist on the table or centimeter my way to a conclusion. But I have drank my beer from a beaker graduated in milliliters, it seems so - er - mad scientist a thing to do. Hee hee.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-5481854260121962832008-10-30T18:59:00.000-05:002008-10-30T18:59:00.000-05:00Death to the metric system! It is, to quote the mi...Death to the metric system! It is, to quote the mighty Gilbert, "standardization by a low standard".Roy F. Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02404597899864235343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-64481556312400855392008-10-30T15:21:00.000-05:002008-10-30T15:21:00.000-05:00Thanks, anon. You are indeed correct, according t...Thanks, anon. You are indeed correct, according to the Dickens I have, and I have revised my text.<BR/><BR/>Those of you who may have CW11 ought to turn to page 507 and revise the footnote as follows:<BR/>"These three are characters in novels by Dickens:<BR/>Pardiggle in <I>Bleak House</I>,<BR/>Bumble in <I>Oliver Twist</I>,<BR/>Gradgrind in <I>Hard Times</I>."<BR/><BR/>Any Dickens enthusiasts can add further details as they see fit.<BR/><BR/>Thanks again for assisting us!Dr. Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04666301445831509481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-82896788327755040222008-10-30T14:34:00.000-05:002008-10-30T14:34:00.000-05:00Actually, Dr. T, Gradgrind is a character in Hard ...Actually, Dr. T, Gradgrind is a character in <I>Hard Times.</I><BR/><BR/>"I want nothing but Facts ... Plant nothing else, and root out everything else."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-60960025339218329862008-10-30T12:26:00.000-05:002008-10-30T12:26:00.000-05:00Good job, well done.It seems to me as if we could ...Good job, well done.<BR/><BR/>It seems to me as if we could make some sort of code for the moving ideals of the day out of that blue tiger comment. Something like, "Oh no! The blue tiger needs repainting!" or "There goes the blue tiger, off to sulk" or some such nonsense.<BR/><BR/>Thanks, Dr.T.Nancy C. Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06169395014931291729noreply@blogger.com