Some people date the recent decline of England to 2016 but imo it began on 12 March 2015. I've been re-reading Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, and Night Watch, which all seem as relevant now as when written over 20 years ago. Here's Vimes thinking about processions staged by the powers that be.
"There was nothing like the massed ranks of wizardry walking sedately through the city in a spirit of civic amicability to subtly remind the more thoughtful kind of person that it hadn’t always been this way. Look at us, the wizards seemed to be saying. We used to rule this city. Look at our big staffs with the knobs on the end. Any one of these could do some very serious damage in the wrong hands so it’s a good thing, isn’t it, that they’re in the right hands at the moment? Isn’t it nice that we all get along so well?" - Jingo by Terry Pratchett, by jingo
#GNUTerryPratchett #Discworld #satire #reading #books #NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy
"There was nothing like the massed ranks of wizardry walking sedately through the city in a spirit of civic amicability to subtly remind the more thoughtful kind of person that it hadn’t always been this way. Look at us, the wizards seemed to be saying. We used to rule this city. Look at our big staffs with the knobs on the end. Any one of these could do some very serious damage in the wrong hands so it’s a good thing, isn’t it, that they’re in the right hands at the moment? Isn’t it nice that we all get along so well?" - Jingo by Terry Pratchett, by jingo
#GNUTerryPratchett #Discworld #satire #reading #books #NotMyKing #AbolishTheMonarchy
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:
•Yeah have a re read of Carpe Jugulum as well.
Particularly the ideas of Ruling by consent and the reduction of people to things. There's a whole idea about politics and how people get trodden down in a pastiche about vampires. It hits hard when I think about online social media and politics.
https://spectra.video/w/m87y9qeZkd8kTEVSm7QAFN
Esther Payne
2022-09-23 12:00:10
haq
•Carpe Jugulum quote from your vid as text: 'There's no greys, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.'
'It's a lot more complicated than that -'
'No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.'
Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:
•I don't think consent can be given under the threat of a sword, or tradition, especially when you don't know what the consequences of what you gave consent for.
Plus Vlad really is emblematic of the f*boy.
Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:
•Sometimes I do feel that Politicians should have a grounding in Pratchett as well as the classics.
haq
•I didn't think Snuff was up to snuff, which is understandable under the circumstances, but I'm glad we were allowed to have it, and there are a few classic quotables. I don't remember much about Thud, but there's good stuff about politics (and rulers) all the way back through the Watch books.
haq
•"Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'."
#GNUTerryPratchett #books #reading #quotation #quotations