Around the sun leaving a bright trail behind. For more than
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| Everything was going to plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be very saleable once the repair is done. I like the bit of old green velvet on the top. I shall leave that -yes, very saleable." "I'll buy it," I said. "What d'ye mean? You've just sold it to me," he said. "Yes I know, but I've changed my mind. As a matter of fact, it is just what I'm looking for - I've got its pair at home. I'll give you 27 quid for it." "You must be crazy," he said. Then suddenly the penny dropped and he smiled and said, "I know what you want. You want me to mend your chair, don't you?" "You're plumb fight," I said.
"And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, 'Would you mend this chair for me?' Would you have repaired it?" "No, I wouldn't have done it," he said, "We don't do repairs - not enough money in it and too much of a nuisance. However, I'll mend this chair for you - shall we say a fiver?" He was a very nice man and thought the whole episode rather funny. page 222
ALEXANDER THE GREAT In 334 B.C., with an army of 35,000 men, Alexander crossed into Asia Minor. In addition to soldiers, The former student of Aristotle brought along scientists to study plant and animal life and to chart the terrain. After capturing the coast of Asia Minor, Alexander marched into Syria and defeated the Persian army at the battle of Issus. Rather than pursuing the fleeing Persian king, Darius III, Alexander stayed with his master plan, which included the capture of coastal ports in order to crush the Persian navy. He captured Tyre, thought to be an impregnable city, and advanced into Egypt. Grateful to Alexander for having liberated them from Persian rule, the Egyptians made him pharaoh. Alexander appointed officials to administer the country and founded a new city, Alexandria. Having destroyed or captured the Persian fleet, Alexander moved into Mesopotamia in pursuit of Darius in 331 B.C. The Macedonians defeated the numerically superior Persians at Gaugamela, just east of the Tigris River, but Darius escaped. After stopovers at Babylon and at Persepolis, which he burned in revenge for Xerxes' destruction of Athens more than 150 years earlier, Alexander resumed the chase. When he finally caught up with Darius, the Persian king was already dead, killed by Persian conspirators. Alexander relentlessly pushed deeper into Asia, crossing from Afghanistan into north India, where he defeated the king of Pontus in a costly battle. When Alexander announced plans to push deeper into India, his troops, exhausted and far from home in a strange land, resisted. Yielding to their wishes, Alexander returned to Babylon in 324 B.C. In these campaigns, Alexander proved himself to be a superb strategist and leader of men. Winning every battle, Alexander's army had carved an empire that stretched from Greece to India. Future conquerors, including Caesar and Napoleon, would read of Alexander's career with fascination and longing. 104
THE MIDDLE AGES IN EUROPE In the late Middle Ages, Latin Christendom was afflicted with severe economic problems. The earlier increases in agricultural production did not continue. Limited use of fertilizers and limited knowledge of conservation exhausted the topsoil. As more grazing lands were convened to the cultivation of cereals, animal husbandry decreased, causing a serious shortage of manure needed for arable land. Intermittent bouts of prolonged heavy rains and frost also hampered agriculture. From 1301 to 1314, there was a general shortage of food, and from 1315 to 1317, famine struck Europe. Throughout the century, starvation and malnutrition were widespread. Other economic problems abounded. A silver shortage, caused by technical problems in sinking deeper shafts in the mines, led to the debasement of coins and spiraling inflation, which hurt the feudal nobility in particular. Prices for manufactured luxury goods, which the nobility craved, rose rapidly. At the same time, the dues that the nobility collected from peasants diminished. To replace their revenues, lords and knights turned to plunder and warfare. Compounding the economic crisis was the Black Death, or bubonic plague. This disease was carried by the fleas on brown rats, and probably first struck Mongolia in 1331-32. From there it crossed into Russia. Carried back from Black Sea ports, the plague reached Sicily in 1347. Spreading swiftly throughout much of Europe, the plague attacked an already declining and undernourished population. The first crisis lasted Until 1351, and other serious outbreaks occurred in later decades. The crowded cities and towns had the highest mortalities. Perhaps twenty million people - about One-quarter to one-third of the European population - perished in the worst human disaster in recorded history. Deprived of many of their intellectual and spiritual leaders, the panic-stricken masses drifted into immorality and hysteria. Frenzied forms of religious life and Superstitious practices became popular. Flagellants marched from region to region beating each other with sticks and whips in a page 225 desperate effort to please God, who they believed had cursed them with the plague. In addition to flagellation and superstition, black magic, witchcraft, and sexual immorality found eager Supporters. Dress became increasingly ostentatious and bizarre. Art forms concentrated on morbid scenes of decaying flesh, dances of death, and the torments of Hell. Sometimes this hysteria was directed against the Jews, who were accused of causing the plague by poisoning the wells. Terrible massacres of Jews occurred despite the pleas of the papacy. 105 PARENTAL AUTHORITY Disillusionment with one's parents, however good and adequate they may be both as parents and as individuals, is to some degree inevitable. Most children have 4 very high ideal of their parents that can hardly stand up to realistic evaluation unless the parents themselves have been unsafisfactory1 Parents would be greatly surprised and deeply touched if they realised how much belief their children usually have in their character and infallibility, and how much this faith means to a child. If parents were prepared for this adolescent reaction, and realised that it was a sign that the child was growing up and developing valuable powers of observation and independent judgement, they would not be very hurt, so they would not drive the child into opposition by resenting and resisting it. The adolescent, with his passion for sincerity, always respects a parent who admits that he is wrong, or ignorant, or even that he has been unfair or unjust. What the child cannot forgive is the parents' refusal to admit these charges if the child knows them to be true. Victorian parents believed that they kept their dignity by retreating behind an unreasoning authoritarian attitude; in fact, they did nothing of the kind, but children were then too cowed to let them know how they really felt. Today, we tend to go to the other extreme, but, on the whole, this is a healthier attitude both for the child and the parent. It is always wiser and safer to face up to reality, however painful it may be at the moment.
TWO VIEWS OF DIVORCE The increasing divorce rate can be seen as a 'product of conflict between the changing economic system and its social and ideological superstructure (notably the family)'. In advanced capitalist industrial societies, there is an increasing demand for cheap female wage labour. Wives are encouraged to take up paid employment not only because there is a demand for their services, but also because the capitalist controlled media has raised 'material aspirations' which regulate the demand for desirable goods. These material aspirations can only be satisfied by both spouses working as wage earners. However, conflict results from the contradiction between female wage labour and the normative expectations which surround married life. 'Working wives’ are still expected to be primarily responsible for housework and raising children. In addition, they are still expected, to some degree, to play a subservient role to the male head of the household~ These normative expectations contradict the wife's role as a wage earner since she is now sharing the economic burden with her husband. Conflict between the spouses can result from this contradiction, and conflict can lead to marital breakdown. While laws and procedures regulating divorce were altered, the divorce rate tended to increase quickly and since each new piece of legislation made divorce more readily available, the rate rose rapidly for a time before leveling off. Today there is one divorce in Britain for every three marriages. (In the USA the rate is one in two.) Many people have suggested that the higher divorce rates reflect an underlying increase in marital instability; the problem with this argument is that we have no way of knowing how many page 228
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SUCCESS In our culture, success in itself implies no superior virtue. A book is not necessarily a superior one because it makes the best seller lists. Most books that achieve this distinction appeal to the mass market and are generally supported by extensive publicity. While success in the business world may require a high degree of business acumen, this quality has never before been considered a personal virtue. Today it is the achievement that counts, not the personal qualities of the individual. Sometimes success is achieved by qualities that are anything but virtuous. Until his downfall, Hitler was considered a success by a great many people throughout the world. Of course, success may attend the individual with superior abilities; however, what is acknowledged is not the personal virtue of the individual but his achievement. The actual accomplishment is often relatively unimportant. The author of six good books may be less of a success than the writer of one best seller. What does count is the recognition. Without recognition one cannot be considered a public success. To achieve success means to rise above the crowd, to stand out from the mass of people and be recognized as an individual. For the writer, it means that what he says or writes is now regarded as important. “He counts" is the way one successful author was described. Before his success, he didn't 'count1 Although what he wrote before his success may have had greater value than his subsequent work. Through success he had become important. We see this all the time. As soon as a person becomes successful, he is listened to with respect. Since he has 'made it,' his words may tell the rest of us who are still struggling the secret of his good fortune. The successful person is important to all who wish to be successful.
JAPANESE FREEDOM To secure their political authority and to preserve peace, the Tokugawa shoguns isolated Japan from the rest of the world in 1639. Christianity was banned. Except for some Chinese and a small Dutch contingent, who lived closely supervised lives in Nagasaki harbour, all foreigners were expelled from Japan. Not only were Christian books barred but also any book, even a Chinese translation, dealing with any Western subject. The Japanese were forbidden on pain of death to leave their homeland. Vessels were restricted in size so that they could be used only in coastal trade and not in overseas commerce. 109 THE HEALING POWER OF BELIEF For the past two years, I have been studying cancer survivors at UCLA, trying to find out why it is that some people respond much better to their treatment than do others. At first, I thought that some patients did well because their illnesses were not as severe as the illnesses of others. On closer scrutiny, however, I discovered that severity of the illness was only one of a number of factors that accounted for the difference between those who get well and those who don't. The patients I am talking about here received, upon diagnosis, whatever therapy - medication, radiation, surgery - their individual cases demanded. Yet, the response to such treatments was hardly uniform. Some patients fared much better in their therapies than others. What was it, then, that was different? Was there any one thing that all survivors had in common? Yes. I have found that the major characteristics of these survivors were very similar. Among the similarities are: They all had a strong will to live. They were not panicky about their illness. They had confidence in their ability to persevere. Despite all the forecasts to the contrary, they believed they could make it. They were capable of joyous response. They were convinced that their treatment would work. Yüklə 2,03 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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