Okay, I literally laughed out loud at your last sentence. But this, exactly:
"I've never known bells make people sorry for their sins, though I have known kindness make them sorry. Think again, gentlemen, think again."
I need a T-shirt that says, "Think again, gentlemen, think again."
Or at least, I *would* need it if I didn't have an unpleasant sense that messages about kindness have been coopted in much the way that messages about civility have. I DO believe in the universal good of kindness (whereas I find civility a kind of empty term), but I DON'T believe in kindness as a panacea, and I see people sometimes talking about being kind in much the same way that I see them offering hopes and prayers. Kindness is good, but it needs substance.
--sorry: totally irrelevant rant that I put myself up to thinking about the hypothetical T-shirt. In the end, I think the T-shirt may be worth it anyway.
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"I've never known bells make people sorry for their sins, though I have known kindness make them sorry. Think again, gentlemen, think again."
I need a T-shirt that says, "Think again, gentlemen, think again."
Or at least, I *would* need it if I didn't have an unpleasant sense that messages about kindness have been coopted in much the way that messages about civility have. I DO believe in the universal good of kindness (whereas I find civility a kind of empty term), but I DON'T believe in kindness as a panacea, and I see people sometimes talking about being kind in much the same way that I see them offering hopes and prayers. Kindness is good, but it needs substance.
--sorry: totally irrelevant rant that I put myself up to thinking about the hypothetical T-shirt. In the end, I think the T-shirt may be worth it anyway.