{"id":2682,"date":"2008-02-29T02:15:11","date_gmt":"2008-02-29T09:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2682"},"modified":"2008-02-29T00:11:36","modified_gmt":"2008-02-29T07:11:36","slug":"words-never-fail-we-hear-them-we-read-them-they-enter-into-the-mind-and-become-part-of-us-for-as-long-as-we-shall-live-who-speaks-reason-to-his-fellow-men-bestows-it-upon-them-who-mouths-inanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2682\/words-never-fail-we-hear-them-we-read-them-they-enter-into-the-mind-and-become-part-of-us-for-as-long-as-we-shall-live-who-speaks-reason-to-his-fellow-men-bestows-it-upon-them-who-mouths-inanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Words never fail. We hear them, we read them; they enter into the mind and become part of us for as long as we shall live. Who speaks reason to his fellow men bestows it upon them. Who mouths inanity disorders thought for all who listen. There must be some minimum allowable dose of inanity beyond which the mind cannot remain reasonable. Irrationality, like buried chemical waste, sooner or later must seep into all the tissues of thought."},"content":{"rendered":"

From Less Than Words Can Say<\/i><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

by Richard Mitchell, The Underground Grammarian<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

A colleague sent me a questionnaire. It was about my goals in teaching, and it asked me to assign values to a number of beautiful and inspiring goals. I was told that the goals were pretty widely shared by professors all around the country.<\/p>\n

Many years earlier I had returned a similar questionnaire, because the man who sent it had promised, in writing, to “analize” my “input.” That seemed appropriate, so I put it in. But he didn’t do as he had promised, and I had lost all interest in questionnaires.<\/p>\n

This one intrigued me, however, because it was lofty. It spoke of a basic appreciation of the liberal arts, a critical evaluation of society, emotional development, creative capacities, students’ self-understanding, moral character, interpersonal relations and group participation, and general insight into the knowledge of a discipline. Unexceptionable goals, every one. Yet it seemed to me, on reflection, that they were none of my damned business. It seemed possible, even likely, that some of those things might flow from the study of language and literature, which is<\/i> my damned business, but they also might not. Some very well-read people lack moral character and show no creative capacities at all, to say nothing of self-understanding or a basic appreciation of the liberal arts. So, instead of answering the questionnaire, I paid attention to its language; and I began by asking myself how “interpersonal relations” were different from “relations.” Surely, I thought, our relations with domestic animals and edible plants were not at issue here; why specify them as “interpersonal”? And how else can we “participate” but in groups? I couldn’t answer.<\/p>\n

I asked further how a “basic” appreciation was to be distinguished from some other kind of appreciation. I recalled that some of my colleagues were in the business of teaching<\/i> appreciation. It seemed all too possible that they would have specialized their labors, some of them teaching elementary appreciation and others intermediate appreciation, leaving to the most exalted members of the department the senior seminars in advanced appreciation, but even that didn’t help with Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Less Than Words Can Say by Richard Mitchell, The Underground Grammarian A colleague sent me a questionnaire. It was about my goals in teaching, and it asked me to assign values to a number of beautiful and inspiring goals. I was told that the goals were pretty widely shared by professors all around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,29,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-egoism-in-action","8":"category-group-therapy","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-real-estate","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":309,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/309\/riffing-on-poetry\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":0},"title":"Riffing on poetry . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this as a speech many years ago. The little boy mentioned here towers over me by now... Riffing on poetry... My son Cameron is being confirmed this Easter. One of his jobs before then is to memorize the Nicene Creed, which is the shortest statement of Catholic doctrine.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2931,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2931\/the-anatomy-of-a-realtor-less-transaction\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":1},"title":"The Anatomy Of A Realtor-Less Transaction","author":"Barry Cunningham","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last couple of months we have spoken to hundreds of agents who when asked, most can not easily articulate what they do in a transaction. Yet worse, justifying why they receive 6% commission on the transaction is even harder to define. More often than not their answers have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Will realtors be needed in the near future?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.realestateradiousa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/butler.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13188,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/13188\/the-goal-of-achieving-goals\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":2},"title":"The Goal of Achieving…Goals","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"September 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\"But a deed cannot be both wise and unintended.\" Greg Swann Substitute goal for deed, and it's still a profoundly affecting thought. In the context of Greg's post, one could reasonably assume deed could be construed as goal. The thrust of the post talks about the tactic of exposing your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3022,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3022\/soaring-to-success-the-low-tech-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":3},"title":"Soaring to Success the Low-Tech Way","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you even had an afternoon off (yeah right!), looked forward to some quiet reading time and been overwhelmed by the shelves full of\u00a0thick novels,\u00a0success books and\u00a0hi-tech, how-to manuals? All you wanted was a light read and a glass of wine.\u00a0\u00a0BloodhoundBlog is sometimes a bit like that shelf.\u00a0\u00a0So much hi-tech\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1592,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1592\/shackpricescom-a-tear-down-innovative-map-search-portal-reconstructed-as-estatelycom\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":4},"title":"ShackPrices.com a tear-down? Innovative map-search portal reconstructed as Estately.com","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The most-innovative little map-search in Seattle, ShackPrices.com, today relaunches as Estately.com, a name perhaps more fitting for a town where you can still get a decent fixer for less than a million dollars. The site is also launching its monetization model with this release: A fee-based referral system for users\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":786,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/786\/inside-the-box-yes-no-and-maybe\/","url_meta":{"origin":2682,"position":5},"title":"Inside The Box – YES, NO and MAYBE","author":"Russell Shaw","date":"December 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford In an email, Adam wrote: Russell- I never got a chance to thank you for the Star Wars \"Duel in the Desert.\" I attended the event and very much appreciated your insight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}