Latin lovers and the losers

Recently I had the (mis?)fortune of coming across an article on Aeon Magazine, which questions if the human progress has come to a halt. The writer laments that nothing ground-breaking has happened in technology for the past 40 odd years. Actually this in no way news to me. Long time ago in my student years I came across Kary Mullis (PCR man) ranting just that - “the so called war on cancer has been a damp squib''. Ah, true. And so are all the anti-psychotic drugs, and whatnot people are told to lo and behold. In those student days of mine, there was big talk on being forever young (New Scientist cover story), forages of artificial intelligence, elixir just around the corner of local fish & chips, ad infinitum. Put it this way, its all bunk. I could say that, because having attended a funeral AND a birthday in span of less than one Earth revolution one just gets around to reflect on life, universe, and everything. 42 of course is the answer – whereupon 44 is the approximate answer – like the kid who wrote 665.9 as the approximate number of the beast...

Then again, I am not at all surprised with where we have gotten to – considering the state of education among youth today. Maybe it's the way people see things whence they are over the hill – whole history is a series of complaints in a nut-shell. If you are interested, Plato lamented “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise..........”; while Cicero also did the same – if my stupid teachers at school got around to teach me right. Well, it's nothing new is it? Coming around (getting around?) Simon Jenkins was on London Times justifying baby-Killer Blair's educational reforms. Exactly what are those reforms? They were taking away math and science from the kids, Blair & his crony David Blunkett. Silly man was not content with his own blindness but sought to blind the youth of his day as well. Mr Jenkins (sounds like a sheep sh......r to me) says he was compelled to study Trigonometry and Latin and whatnot at his public school – but none of those had ever been useful in his life – ever. True. Who the hell said it was all for use? For love of Jove, school education is not a corporate training programme intended to squeeze last bit of usefulness (productivity) out of kids. Idiot. 

As much as I myself lament HIS youth at an English public school without toilet doors, I can equally sympathise with current youth who are deprived of classical education. Maybe Plato foresaw this – whence he said “they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers” - who wants to respect teachers who can't teach crap in the first place (and the parents who can't afford public schools!). Lets take a recent example here – just to give you all an idea of what youth today are like. I was asked to help out a friend's young daughter recently. She is such a vivacious lass with a name to match – charming name that is, alas, for all that potential, the kid could not comprehend a modicum of Latin – not a phrase, not a word, not a even an abbreviation. Never mind French or Sanskrit or any other civilised language. Nothing. I once came across in a book (The Dam Busters, I think) about a pilot in WWII whom the British air control was desperately trying to communicate with – but the writer says “He appeared to speak no known human language”. Thought that was an exaggeration – till I met this kid! 

Put it this way, this girl is surely a lucky one. Because if Plato, or for that matter anyone else from that side of history before the advent of holy computers, got around to meeting her they'd sure wring her lovely neck in desperation. You can leave Latin out of this - but Sanskrit? Surely they are exposed to that language around here, and it's not speaking dead languages I am on about in here. You don't have to be a cunning linguist (ha ha I got you) to see the point. 

If we go on like this, we will have no future left. Utile dulci will become our motto – because there is no tomorrow, Memento mori shall be our religion because there is no cure for diseases, and that verse on some books can be read as Domi Mina Nus Tia Illu Mia!!!

Now go decipher this – it is on Sir Christopher Wren's tomb: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" 

PS You can Google for that, which is better than knowing Latin sometimes.