tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post3214837932995819067..comments2023-10-12T19:23:36.129-04:00Comments on Boxing The Compass: The Elusive Gentleman - PART IIYankee-Whisky-Papahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700869447555261057noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-26130994872093764122012-03-02T01:13:28.742-05:002012-03-02T01:13:28.742-05:00Haven't checked in on the blog since you lent ...Haven't checked in on the blog since you lent us a bed on our recent visit to Boston, YWP. That comment I sometimes make about the gentleman taking ownership or at least stewardship of the places and people around him comes from my professional side, as a historian. Up until about the 19th century, the only definite requirement for being a "gentleman" was that you didn't work, i.e. rather than being sullied by employment you lived off of the proceeds of your familial estate, generally agricultural land-rent. It was only in the 19th century with the decline of titled aristocracy that the term was liberated to apply only to the better aspects of polite behavior associated with the upper classes, and eventually also with more general virtues. But we should remember that this kind of behavior (and the worse side of the same coin that we've dropped from the term) originated in a group whose duty was to administer and promote the stability of a land-based society and economy. A sense of ownership combined with a duty to the future and an idea of oneself as a small part of a long lineage is very much tied in with this. <br /><br />Over about 200 years we've learned to set aside some of the bad aspects of the old way, but inside concepts like "the gentleman", we preserve the kernel of what was worth inheriting from the ancien regime. But let us not forget the history lest we find that in wanting to be gentleman, we are also accidentally bringing back some of the bad side of the thing: snobbery, entitlement, toadyism, social exclusion for self-promotion, estimation of background over personal character, and an assumption that decency is tied to our own political preferences. Today, the lineage of which a gentleman is part is not one of birth, but a cultural heritage that we can all choose or learn to live up to, and I think we can all agree that this is as it should be. <br /><br />And by the way to any other commenters, clothes and other trappings are not unnecessary parts of being a gentleman, they are the proof that this is a not a set of rules, but a cultural inheritance with a wide and deep implication for many aspects of our lives. Being steeped in it serves to make it richer, just like anything else worth pursuing.Plumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-72573321237844079082012-02-28T09:50:43.407-05:002012-02-28T09:50:43.407-05:00@Anon 11:36: Nah. I tried to follow that from the...@Anon 11:36: Nah. I tried to follow that from the time I learned it, and wound up a lefty civilian. Or maybe you think I failed. Anyway, they're vessels that produce good (I hope), not uniformity.JKGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13569861165454532541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-3563534811305063902012-02-28T02:36:34.415-05:002012-02-28T02:36:34.415-05:00A gentleman is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friend...A gentleman is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. <br /><br />He is also always prepared and is strives to be physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. <br /><br />Or perhaps this is just a blueprint to become a conservative military man.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-14292111045417122862012-02-27T17:00:18.032-05:002012-02-27T17:00:18.032-05:00YWP....if one has to proclaim that one is somethin...YWP....if one has to proclaim that one is something, then one isn't that thing!<br /><br />A gentleman will do the right thing, even when nobody can see/hear him, because it's the right thing to do or say and not to impress anyone.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-76810186507441429422012-02-27T15:57:22.872-05:002012-02-27T15:57:22.872-05:00BRAVO!!! This is the best explanation for our tim...BRAVO!!! This is the best explanation for our times that I've ever read anywhere. Thank you.Greenfieldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4119187433618815256.post-42027183888788130612012-02-27T12:50:38.411-05:002012-02-27T12:50:38.411-05:00YWP, I've enjoyed this entire exchange, both P...YWP, I've enjoyed this entire exchange, both Parts I and II, and very much like where you've landed (especially the dig at the dandy movement which to me should end at hobbyism). <br /><br />My only other observation is that no one mentioned Polonius' advice to his son, or Aristotle's concept of the 'golden mean' which he suggested was very difficult to achieve but learned over time. Either would seem classic definitions of a standard that only a true gentleman, once at maturity, could approximate. <br /><br />JPAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com