In article <4giscl$gsm@newsbf02.news.aol.com> oldtime1@aol.com (Oldtime1) writes:
There won't be much oldtime content in this; Gordon Banks has led us to a >contemplation of moral relativism. So if ideas beyond tunes, tunings and >players turns you off, please don't bother reading this. Gordon holds
that to be anything other than a moral relativist is to be "smugly >self-rightous in hind-sight." So one can't condemn the outrages of the >past because most folks either approved or sat on their tootie and let it >happen. Therefore, we have to assume that if we'd been there we'd have >been just as venal, complaisant or cowardly. But Gordon, among the
readers of this newsgroup is Rob, who spent several months in a
Mississippi jail in 1963 because he believed everybody should be allowed
to vote. I don't care to celebrate the chickenhearted and your philosophy >seems devoid of values. Would you have us assume that if we'd been in a >place where infantcide was practiced, we'd at least have tortured a >teenager? I also got into a little trouble in the civil rights years for >work I still think was okay. If that sounds smugly self-rightous, so be >it. Gordon, how does a moral relativist make his contribution? Joe
Wilson
Joe, you make several mistakes in your rant. First, don't assume that
when I throw out something to make people think about the smug self- righteousness of their position (which you amply demonstrate here), that
from that little snippet you can put me in your little cubby-hole. I
am not a moral relativist. I am a skeptic. I am skeptical of the notion that we are superior to our ancestors. Rather than condemning them, you should be grateful that certain superstitions have been overcome, if only temporarily. If Rob is the kind of man who acts on his moral beliefs,
bravo for him. There have been such characters throughout history, however. It isn't a modern phenomenon.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks N3JXP |"Caminante, no hay camino. http://www.pitt.edu/~gebanks | Se hace camino, al andar." -Antonio Machado ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see this is an old thread, but VERY interesting to me. I am doing research on the history of jazz violin or fiddle, and have been fascinated as a fiddle player, that there are so few jazz violinists, especially since the early beginnings of jazzthere were MANY violinists playing jazz. But by the 30's and certainly the forties and fifties the violin was seen as not belonging in jazz. I wonder if Henry Ford's support for fiddle contests and square dance weren't seen as a antidote for his apparent
I hear some anecdotal evidence here that he was racist is at least some of his attitudes. Did that include racist attitudes to Jazz as Black music as well? If any of the original respondents are out there, I'd love to hear your comments on this...
On Friday, March 1, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Gordon Banks wrote:
In article <4giscl$gsm@newsbf02.news.aol.com> oldtime1@aol.com (Oldtime1) writes:
There won't be much oldtime content in this; Gordon Banks has led us to a >contemplation of moral relativism. So if ideas beyond tunes, tunings and >players turns you off, please don't bother reading this. Gordon holds >that to be anything other than a moral relativist is to be "smugly >self-rightous in hind-sight." So one can't condemn the outrages of the >past because most folks either approved or sat on their tootie and let it >happen. Therefore, we have to assume that if we'd been there we'd have >been just as venal, complaisant or cowardly. But Gordon, among the >readers of this newsgroup is Rob, who spent several months in a >Mississippi jail in 1963 because he believed everybody should be allowed >to vote. I don't care to celebrate the chickenhearted and your philosophy >seems devoid of values. Would you have us assume that if we'd been in a >place where infantcide was practiced, we'd at least have tortured a >teenager? I also got into a little trouble in the civil rights years for >work I still think was okay. If that sounds smugly self-rightous, so be >it. Gordon, how does a moral relativist make his contribution? Joe >Wilson
Joe, you make several mistakes in your rant. First, don't assume that
when I throw out something to make people think about the smug self- righteousness of their position (which you amply demonstrate here), that from that little snippet you can put me in your little cubby-hole. I
am not a moral relativist. I am a skeptic. I am skeptical of the notion that we are superior to our ancestors. Rather than condemning them, you should be grateful that certain superstitions have been overcome, if only temporarily. If Rob is the kind of man who acts on his moral beliefs, bravo for him. There have been such characters throughout history, however.
It isn't a modern phenomenon.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Banks N3JXP |"Caminante, no hay camino. http://www.pitt.edu/~gebanks | Se hace camino, al andar." -Antonio Machado ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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