Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Gibbeting: Hoist up Yer Pikes!
In my perusal of The Corner, I stumbled upon a very interesting discussion of the ancient practice of "gibbeting" (ala Oliver Cromwell, who after he died and was buried was exhumed and hung out to dry).
I'm particularly satisfied with the OED's definition [subscription required], which reads:
I like the inclusion of carcass in there. Reinforces the idea of ridicule.
A gibbet, in case you're wondering, is defined as:
The past glories of the English criminal justice system were so much more entertaining than today, weren't they?
Anyway, I like the idea of hanging up a dead persona from the not-too-distant past presented in The Corner so much that I think I'm going to make it a regular feature of MaroonBlog.
This week I'm going to take John Derbyshire's suggestion of Dewey:
Take that you social engineers. We'd much rather be Maroons than robots anyway.
If any reader has a suggestion for who to gibbet next week (or whenever the next mob comes by with their shovels), send it to me with some compelling (and hopefully somewhat funny) reasons, and you may be the one with the honor of carrying a pike with the poor bugger's head on it (also known as a gibbet).
UPDATE: A suggestion from my own mind: the now deceased Ayatollah Khomeini who helped to construct the mullocracy of Iran. At least it fits with the current political struggle in Iran.
I'm particularly satisfied with the OED's definition [subscription required], which reads:
gibbet, v.
2 b. To hang (a carcass) on a gibbet by way of infamous exposure.
I like the inclusion of carcass in there. Reinforces the idea of ridicule.
A gibbet, in case you're wondering, is defined as:
1. Originally synonymous with GALLOWS n., but in later use signifying an upright post with projecting arm from which the bodies of criminals were hung in chains or irons after execution.
The past glories of the English criminal justice system were so much more entertaining than today, weren't they?
Anyway, I like the idea of hanging up a dead persona from the not-too-distant past presented in The Corner so much that I think I'm going to make it a regular feature of MaroonBlog.
This week I'm going to take John Derbyshire's suggestion of Dewey:
Late entrant in my gibbeting-the-dead nominations, one I heartily approve of: "Hi John---We should dig up John Dewey. No single person has managed to do so much damage to our education system as he. To my mind, he started the whole social engineering aspect to education. His whole language approach to reading was, by and large, a disaster - and he knew it. He was ideologically bound to the idea of teaching children to read later, stating 'A child who learns to read too early has an individualized mind, what we want is a more collectivized mind.' Where's the shovel?"
Take that you social engineers. We'd much rather be Maroons than robots anyway.
If any reader has a suggestion for who to gibbet next week (or whenever the next mob comes by with their shovels), send it to me with some compelling (and hopefully somewhat funny) reasons, and you may be the one with the honor of carrying a pike with the poor bugger's head on it (also known as a gibbet).
UPDATE: A suggestion from my own mind: the now deceased Ayatollah Khomeini who helped to construct the mullocracy of Iran. At least it fits with the current political struggle in Iran.
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