Dave’s observation about my war on the costume fetish did what I read comments for, to maker me think. A free person is paranoid about anything that separates the people from Government. Nothing does that like a uniform.
My fate is to be decided by twelve of my peers and a god. I can do without the god, thank you.
What the hell is a judge doing in DRESS? This is a guy who is deciding life and death and he is dressing like a Superhero! NOBODY in a court of law should think of himself as more than a man.
And it is the nature of the human animal that what he wears affects his judgment. In European countries which were totalitarian and theocratic throughout their histories, there are only judges in their robes and little hats. The JURY is a purely Anglo-Saxon artifact. It was probably an expression of Britain’s loss of faith in its own people when judges and lawyers put on wigs.
Free people have a different relationship with those who govern them, one inn which costumes have no role. Try to imagine how the Founding Fathers would have reacted to Presidential Robes.
The Commander in Chief has no uniform.
In the fifteenth century most monarchs tried hard to keep all arms in the hands of nobles and soldiers. As with the jury system, England was a WILD exception. It is the only country I know of that ever punished PEASANTS for NOT having weapons!
It wasn’t much of a punishment, but after Crecy England’s military might depended on the longbow. That n turn depended on one’s having a longbow and practicing with it. It takes time and effort, and as more and more forms of amusement came along, fewer and fewer English peasants stuck to it.
A bowling lane has ten pins today because “nine pins” became so popular it was taking the peasants away from archery practice. They added a pin to make it legal.
But behind that little story is a bigger one. The kind and Parliament were actually trying to FORCE peasants to own and become expert with a weapon that killed armored knights. This was not the kind of thinking that was any more usual then than it is in Europe or blue states today.
What did the kings and the nobles really depend on in England? They lived and died by POLITICS. As I said, politics is life. The depended on their own popularity so completely that they tried to FORCE the people to have weapons that could kill them.
For obvious reasons you’ll have to wait a long time before any Mommy Professor mentions this historical oddity.
#1 by Dave on 01/23/2010 - 11:11 am
I notice the strong correlation between members of public employee unions and their penchant for wearing badges and insignia.
Immediately upon donning them, they become unreasonable people.
I am very skeptical of that finely manicured suburban home proudly flying a huge American flag. Living within is a grandly pensioned member of a public employee union with a profound BELIEF in America. It is no accident that this particular home owner thinks John Kennedy was a saint. Kennedy’s administration legalized the labor union that supplied him with unearned benefits fit for a king.
It is only natural that the coloreds want a piece of this action. If this action were not available, race relations would be very different.
The founding fathers would have shuttered at this in a society that taxes away 40 percent of all incomes.
This is not freedom.
#2 by shari on 01/23/2010 - 11:34 am
“The commander in chief has no uniform.” Except when he puts one on to stand on a flight deck,with a huge banner behind him saying MISSION ACOMPLISHED. Clown is a very precise term. But it’s not funny,yet.
#3 by BGLass on 01/23/2010 - 12:48 pm
Generally speaking, costumes are interesting to think about, so thank you for this topic. Yesterday, I went to a place full of Ivy League graduates wearing really dirty outfits from the trash. But you would never NOT KNOW they went to Ivy League (IL for short and no pun intended) schools. It’s all in accessories. The expense and quality of the nose rings, shoes and eyeglass frames. I remember awhile back, when memos came down about “business casual.” No matter how many suits one had, you had to wear business casual on a particular day. Business casual wasn’t casual, but cost more than any suit, and everyone had to fork over big bucks to buy the new casual look. There was even a whole month to get prepared for it. Also, to ease in the salary crunches that followed. I guess that’s why the EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES at all. That’s the ultimate. Wigs and dresses— are really absurd but no one calls judge-priests on this and therein lies the real evidence of authority. One of life’s great debates is whether to work on getting an ever larger wardrobe, or to just say screw it, and go around naked.