Rhetorical Phrases
This is for potentially useful phrases.
In 1835 Disraeli and Daniel O'Connell quarrelled publicly over press reports that O'Connell had been called a 'traitor and incendiary' by Disraeli. The pair were to fight a duel but the police intervened and Disraeli was bound over to keep the peace. This was the first of their confrontations. In a heated debate in parliament, O'Connell referred to Disraeli's Jewish ancestry in disparaging terms to which Disraeli responded:
- Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
See https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli#1830s. Probably apocryphal.
For use in Phase 2.
The upside of being fired by creeps who don't view you as enough of a hard left lemming serf, is not having to be a hard left lemming serf beholden to creeps. That is all I would have to say to the young lady no longer working for some cretinous literary agency led by creeps. https://twitter.com/lynnchu/status/1355891353977319425
"Do not take it amiss that I thus warn you; if I thought I did not, it would be as much an insult to your virility as this warning is to your chastity."
For use in Phase 2. Twitter: Someone should do a study of how often Faculty Senate leaders "go over to the Dark Side" and become college administrators--- Deans, Vice Provosts, Vice Presidents, and other kinds of deanlets and presidentlets. It makes me think of Thomas Wentworth, M.P., who became Lord Strafford after he switched from being the King's biggest opponent to being his biggest supporter. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5157&context=uclrev Later Parliament voted to execute him. The King signed the bill of attainder, because he needed Parliament to vote him a bigger budget. Let this be a lesson to all those who curry favor with the powerful. (To be sure, the King lost his head too, eight years later.)
When I was in the Bloomington Faculty Council I often thought of Parliament in the 1600's and 1700's. There was the Court Party and the Loyal Opposition, and the mass of members who didn't really care much and were only there out of duty as local gentry but wanted to stay out of trouble. The mass of members always voted with the Court Party, which held all the leadership positions.
I was in the tiny Loyal Opposition, which never won any votes, but was useful because we'd make good suggestions sometimes that the Court Party willingly adopted. Or, rather, once I did get a majority against a Court Party motion, but it so shocked the President to lose a vote that he seemed at a loss as to what do next. (I think they altered it motion slightly and got it passed at the next sitting.)
My real moment of glory was when I got a "private bill" passed. I wanted a resolution in support of the university's alums and national guard student employees fighting in Iraq. I asked the President, and he was dubious. I asked him who would be the member most hostile to such an idea, and he named English professor Jocelyn Marsh. I went to her, and together we crafted a nice resolution acceptable to anti-war people that passed without opposition.
"Epater les wokesoisie"
Why not be condescending? Professors are always having trouble with college administrators who because they have a big salary, and a fancy title like "Provost and Vice President", think they are better than mere scholars.
"I've always said the most useful part of game theory is just describing Players, Actions, and Payoffs. Now I'm wondering whether it might be just the idea of putting yourself in someone else's place. I was just talking with people today about a situation where most observers don't know them personally but do know someone on on the other side, so they'll be blamed whether they deserve it or not."
For use in Phase 2.
"Bubblehead: A member of the Liberal Establishment who is trapped within the New York Times echo chamber, unable to conceive that people in other times and places could disagree with him unless they were evil, unable to read Limbaugh, Churchill, Plato, or a calculus text without mental anguish."
For use in Phase 2.
We who are canaries in the coal mine should perhaps "sing like a canary".
