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secret--history · 2 months ago

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the whole 'there are not very many Great Causes worth fighting for these days' from Julian scanned as WAY more out of touch than the moon landing thing for me the first time i read tsh

#like to the point of it being actively jarring when i got to him saying that #the secret history #'they landed on the moon??' well okay i guess it's not really their area #and they've been really out of touch with the news since it's also not really their area + they've been #off to the woods/a country house/etc and getting very drunk and killing deer and also people #i don't remember the exact dates re the moonlanding + the events of the book but like.#Sure. that's probably fair or at least kind of understandable #that could Feasably Happen On Accident at least #but julians like 'there isn't much worth fighting for these days' and um.#if you pay attention to literally anything happening in the world at any given moment at all. ever.#....what? literally what do you mean by this?#there have always been So So many Great Causes that people are dying for all the time constantly forever #and even if you've somehow managed to comoletely block out literally every piece of news/political development/etc #that's not really a reason to assume there Aren't. that's a reason to go like. well if there are any Great Causes left today then #I don't know about them. and even if we assume he's defining what makes a cause worth fighting for by classical values #and saying that that means for example that he wouldn't necessarily think of say the civil rights movement or liberatory movements etc #as fitting (which i think is also probably debatable- it comes to mind that the athenians valued (their own) freedom. political engagement #was valued but only the right kind from the right people. etc. what i'm saying is that #no i don't think they actually fit what julian would be thinking of as the classical mind's* idea of a great cause worth dying for #but also you could debate that/frame things differently/etc (*presumably there is a more particular subset of the population he has in mind #than just 'classical' or 'greek' in actuality. like. specifically those from whom we having writing/would have citizenship/etc.))#i'm certain there are plenty of arguments to be made. like plenty of people are fighting for various countries #it's not like wars or empires have stopped existing or other myriad conflicts have stopped existing #also in typing this i've realised he was maybe forshadowing henry's death #and now i need to go look up the exact quote and make another post i guess.#(also disclaimer that i'm aware i've phrased a lot of this clumsily. it is midnight these are the tags of a tumblr post and i am not sober.)#anyway to rephrase my initial point i just think with the moon landing thing that's One major event you missed.#if you're saying that there are No Great Causes Worth Fighting/Dying For (with the understanding that you think those are a thing #that can exist) then i think maybe you managed to skip out on hearing about significantly more #than just the one major event. that's much harder to manage i would think

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