vividly to sense
world’s precariousness and
the perils ahead

Based on the paragraph:

The subsequent fortnight has, of course, proved a very long time in geopolitics.

The UK has finally elected a grownup government;

France has perhaps temporarily averted the prospect of a far-right administration;

and Trump has dodged that bullet and raced ahead in the polls.

Having Applebaum’s book closely in mind through all those events is vividly to sense the underlying precariousness of our world, the perils immediately ahead.

In the article, Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum: ‘Often, for autocrats, the second time in power is worse’ by Tim Adams in the Guardian on July 21, 2024.

The article is an interview with Anne Applebaum and a review of her latest book, Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.

I could comment on the content in the article but I think it speaks for itself.

I could comment on the context of the article but I won’t.

It is the words used to fill up the content that I want to focus on.

The focus of the interview, Ms. Applebaum, is renown for passages like:

“Nowadays autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services (military, police, paramilitary groups, surveillance), and professional propagandists.“

Just on syllable count alone she wins.

But it is the words of Mr. Adams that I like.

First off, anyone who can get fortnight and even more wonderful how he used it the phrase, The subsequent fortnight , well Boy Howdy, I take my hat off to.

Then there was the use of vividly to sense.

With almost 5 years of high school and college Latin in my brain, the only grammatical error left (in the age of tweets and texts) is the dreaded split infinitive.

As Herman Wouk writes in his novel, The Caine Mutiny, “… note that split infinitive in paragraph three. If you want a letter to sound official, split an infinitive.”

How easy would it have been for Mr. Adam to write, ‘to vividly sense.“

Needless to say I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to read in Wikipedia, “In the 19th century, some linguistic prescriptivists sought to disallow the split infinitive, and the resulting conflict had considerable cultural importance. The construction still renders disagreement, but modern English usage guides have largely dropped the objection to it.

The split infinitive terminology is not widely used in modern linguistics. Some linguists question whether a to-infinitive phrase can meaningfully be called a “full infinitive” and, consequently, whether an infinitive can be “split” at all.”

It makes absolutely no difference in the history of the world or the happenings of today but for me and myself, but vividly to sense made my day.

had I not the right
dislike dislikable man
feeling to this day

“… because it was a portion of the only genius he possessed to make me feel guilty for disliking him. It was a guilt I had no reason to feel — had I not the right to dislike a dislikable man? — and yet I go on unreasonably feeling it to this day. I perceive that even writing about him now, so long after his death, will not diminish my guilt. He has me locked in an embrace that nothing as simple as his death or the passage of time can release me from. It was his gift to gather a person in against his will and then never let go”

From Here at the New Yorker by Brendan Gill, New York, Random House, 1975.

confidence of
ignorant youth seeps away
nothing takes its place

I felt thoroughly grown-up at twenty-one — more grown-up, indeed, than I have ever succeeded in feeling since. The confidence of ignorant youth seeps slowly, slowly away and to our astonishment no confidence of sapient age comes surging in to take its place.

From Here at the New Yorker by Brendan Gill, New York : Random House, 1975.

As Mark Twain is credited with saying “…when I was seventeen, I could hardly stand it to be with my father because he was was so ignorant, and at twenty I noticed that now and then, my father said a sensible thing, but at twenty-five I was simply amazed to discover how my father had improved in the last eight years.”

Sad to mention that according to the Quote Investigator, “… the earliest known attribution to Twain occurs in 1915 and this is rather late because Twain died in 1910. To date, the saying has not been found in Twain’s writings, notebooks, or letters. Quotation experts and Twain scholars are skeptical of the attribution to Twain.”

Me at 21?

Back in 1981?

Just accepted to continue my studies at an institution of higher learning, I doubted there was anything left for me to learn.

My first lecture, I was seated at a long table in a room that looked out a window through the iconic columns of the landmark building on the campus of this institution.

The bell in the bell tower central to central campus was striking the hour.

I had arrived.

15 minutes into my first lecture with 4 pages of notes, my confidence started to leak out all over the floor of the room.

I was comforted by the looks on the faces on the other students, that they too, were feeling it.

Then a goofy thing happened.

Without raising their hand or waiting to be recognized, the student next to me called out to the Professor, “You really think that?”

The Professor paused and then started a 5 minute dialogue with the student and while the student did give in, the student was not at all convinced and the Professor picked up where he left off.

This was something new to me.

What had I got myself into?

Argue with a Professor?

Maybe even BE EXPECTED to argue with a Professor?

I am not sure how I resolved all my thoughts – most likely I just doubled my note taking speed.

I knew I had to get through this first lecture because being Mr. KNOW-IT-ALL, I had set up my class schedule like I was in high school.

I had three more lectures back to back to back that first morning.

And I was 21.

All grown up.

More grown-up!

More grown-up, indeed, than I have ever succeeded in feeling since.

And you know what?

The confidence of ignorant youth seeps slowly, slowly away and to our astonishment no confidence of sapient age comes surging in to take its place.