Gibbon quote of the day. May 17.

It will be a struggle to limit myself to one per day, but today’s is a gem. Gibbon is referring to the degeneracy of Roman letters in the Antonine period, utterly derivative of early Greek learning:

“The name of Poet was almost forgotten; that of Orator was usurped by the sophists. A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste.”

from the Gallery of Jerks

He expresses great enthusiasm for an idea and pleads for your support. You find the idea interesting, try to help as much as you can, and eventually really warm to it. Then he pulls the rug out by suddenly declaring in public that it’s a bad idea and will never work.

I know two different people who do this as a regular means of human interaction, both male, ages about 40 and about 60. It’s a petty control mechanism along the lines of Lucy Van Pelt pretending to play football and then pulling away the ball.

I’m not sure what’s so great about controlling people. It’s a big mysterious universe, and we’re all equally adrift in it. I don’t much see the point of outmaneuvering somebody unless there are concrete stakes involved that have some intrinsic value.