Straw Dogs - John Gray Flashcards
Pithy - (of language or style) terse and vigorously expressive.
Epigram - a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.
Aphorism - a pithy observation which contains a general truth.
Distilled - by which the essential meaning or most important aspects have been extracted.
The book counsels only humility.
It is recommended as a hectoring attack on man-centred thinking.
“Should the truth about the world exist, it’s bound to be non-human.”
It subverts all contemporary vanities and advocates contemplation rather than action.
Humans have an almost unlimited gift for self-delusion.
It forces us to the face the mirror and see ourselves as we are. It shows us what it would be like to live without the distraction of consolations.
Blistering eccentricity = highly unconventional
Mirage - an unrealistic hope or wish that cannot be achieved e.g. His idea of love was a mirage.
Chimera - a thing which is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve.
“the economic sovereignty you claim to defend is a chimera”
synonyms: illusion, fantasy, delusion, dream, fancy, figment of the imagination, will-o’-the-wisp, phantom, mirage;
Terry Eagleton review:
Full-blooded apocalyptic nihilist
Virulent misanthropy.
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.
Nihilism - the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
“We must just accept that progress is a myth, freedom a fantasy, selfhood a delusion, morality a kind of sickness, justice a mere matter of custom and illusion our natural condition.”
Grouse - grumble, complain
“This is a tragic condition, but not a nihilistic one. But Gray does not want to hear of human value, which would wreck his sensationalist case. He wants to hear that human beings are garbage, plague and poison, a rapacious species that is “not obviously worth preserving”.”
