At 05:39 PM 7/21/98 -0400, John Bird wrote:
>In light of the recent discussion about Mark Twain and his disbelief in
>Shakespeare of Stratford's authorship of the plays, and that as evidence of
>Twain's lack of "deep thought," I was reading Freud today (Interpretation
>of Dreams), and right after a discussion of Hamlet, Freud has a footnote,
>dated 1930, saying he no longer believes in Shakespeare of Stratford's
>authorship.  I'm not defending Twain's position, but pointing out that a
>few intellectual heavyweights shared his view.
>
>BTW, I keep falling asleep while reading Freud, having strange dreams, and
>scaring myself!  Now off on a voyage in a drop of water...ring up the
>Superintendent of Dreams, please!
>##############
>John Bird
>mailto:[log in to unmask]
>"I got a rude!  I bet you ain't never got no rude!"
>
>                                        --Ernest T. Bass
>
>

Citing Freud as a heavyweight?  Egad.

Where's Karl Popper when you need him? :-)

BTW, I did not mean to say that Twain had no deep thoughts; I only meant to
say that he came to them intuitively, not discursively.

In short, he was not a philosopher.

But this did not prevent him from being a wise man (in most instances).  It
is possible for one to be a wise man without being a philosopher.
Sometimes, it's a decided advantage not to be the latter.

For me, though, it's just hard to argue with Twain about anything.  Either
you agree with him or you don't.  At one point, he says, "The Frenchman is
nothing if not pious.  He is not content to be pious all by himself, he
requires his neighbor to be pious also--otherwise he will kill him and make
him so. . . . The Frenchman is a social being, and does not wish to occupy
heaven in solitude--therefore he provides company for himself."

I find this humorous and certainly a unique way of looking at religious
persecution.  But it doesn't really do justice to history, for it was
neither the French, nor the Catholics, nor some later Protestants who were
persecutors or religiously intolerant by nature.  Twain's point is funny and
rather wise, considering it's the French he's talking about :-) but's it's
nonetheless a superficial view.

The real culprit--the real cause of religious persecution and war during the
Reformation and post-Reformation period--was the Establishment principle,
i.e., the notion that the state should enforce the doctrines and liturgy of
an ecclesiastical establishment.  As long as that principle was in effect,
it really didn't matter if you were French, German, English, or Roman
Catholic or Lutheran or Calvinist, you wanted the state to protect your
ecclesiastical establishment and diss all others.  It was only after the
unseemly spectacle of Protestants persecuting Protestants (Anglicans v.
Puritans and Independents, etc.) that the Establishment principle began to
lose its hold on the minds of the majority of religious people.

But Twain's comparison of the French with the Commanche's, with the French
on the losing side of the comparison, can't be beaten for its sheer
entertainment value.

Cordially,

Vern Crisler
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www.geocities.com/Athens/6208