{"id":19565,"date":"2015-04-14T14:41:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=19565"},"modified":"2015-04-14T14:41:43","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T20:41:43","slug":"t-s-eliot-on-the-so-called-islamic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/t-s-eliot-on-the-so-called-islamic-state.html","title":{"rendered":"T. S. Eliot on the so-called &#8220;Islamic State&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19566\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19566\" style=\"width: 277px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/640px-Shedu-Lamassu_from_the_palace_of_Tukulti-Ninurta_I_Vorderasiatisches_Museum_Berlin_cropped.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19566\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/640px-Shedu-Lamassu_from_the_palace_of_Tukulti-Ninurta_I_Vorderasiatisches_Museum_Berlin_cropped-277x300.jpg\" alt=\"Neo-Assyrian art\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19566\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Irreplaceable.<br>(Click to enlarge. Press button to destroy.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In his 1943 essay <em>Notes toward a Definition of Culture<\/em>, which was eventually published in book form in 1948 (and which has been a favorite of mine since I first read it back in my teens), T. S. Eliot wasn\u2019t actually discussing ISIS. \u00a0But, taken out of context and with their recent demolitions in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/03\/they-dont-just-massacre-people.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Mosul<\/a> and at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/isis-continues-to-destroy-the-cultural-heritage-of-the-middle-east.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Nimrud<\/a> in mind, the last few lines of this passage certainly fit them with uncanny perfection:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">For there is no doubt that in our headlong rush to educate everybody, we are lowering our standards, and more and more abandoning the study of those subjects by which the essentials of our culture \u2014 of that part of it which is transmissible by education \u2014 are transmitted; <strong>destroying our ancient edifices to make ready the ground upon which the barbarian nomads of the future will encamp in their mechanized caravans.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 In his 1943 essay Notes toward a Definition of Culture, which was eventually published in book form in 1948 (and which has been a favorite of mine since I first read it back in my teens), T. S. Eliot wasn\u2019t actually discussing ISIS. \u00a0But, taken out of context and with their recent demolitions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>T. S. 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