¡Cheat Fiercely, H*rv*rd!

Dear Dr. Bones,

[T]he Harvard philosopher William James ... in 1888, much concerned with cheating, invoked the idea of establishing little honor clubs, kind of like fraternities to keep people honest. The proposition, he recalled, was rather scornfully shut down. He turned to The Crimson in his discomfort, saying: “The impression this episode gave me of the debilitated tone of social responsibility here was startling. By social responsibility I mean the willingness to act for the social ideal, no matter how much obstructive individuals have to suffer ... why it should be so lacking here I do not know.”

I daresay the unjoo-bito, "gentlemen who dwell above the clouds, on the upper slopes of the Great Blue Hill, hard by the Palace of Public T@@Bavision

on Market Street in Bestembrighton 02135 MA," would not see the point of that if Paddy and Eye were to post it to them unexplained. And then, naturally, if we once started it explaining it our way, contempt and hatred would soon replace mere incomprehension. Accordingly, we will spare Their Worships provisionally.


Mister James managed, no doubt inadvertently and atypically, to be a two-hundred and thirty proof H*rv*rd with that one, for ¿What yoke could be easier to bear than othervolks occasionally suffering for their pesky obstructionism a little?

By the way, sir: ¿Do the Muses or you think one would have much FUN in a "little honor club," if such nifty conventicles really existed and one were, unlike Paddy and Eye, qualified to be selected for membership?

Moreover, there is that THE Social Ideal, of Whom Mister James speaks as if She were as universally recognizable as Beacon Hill or the intersection of State and Madison, but whose lineaments are foggy indeed to Eye and Paddy at the distance of ( 2012 - 1888 = ) six score and four years.

The person who scribbled the story for Aunt Nitsy is an innocent victim of Grade Inflation, no doubt, for ¿Who would harshly blame a young [*] dittopan full of mush for never having discovered unassisted that ’legacy’ and ’tradition’ are sneakily different?

(( http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/opinion/ the-long- LEGACY- of-cheating-at-harvard.html ? ref=opinion&pagewanted=print ))

Happy days.
--JHM
_____

[*] "Rebecca Harrington, who graduated from Harvard in 2008, is the author of the novel Penelope.”