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George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

deadspin.com

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Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#21

Post by arethuza »

Ntrails wrote: post #20
arethuza wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my favourites: at the height of the British Empire, a private rises on merit to become Chief of the Imperial General Staff - rising from the lowest rank to the very highest. The equivalent is impossible today. Edit: Correction.

> The equivalent is impossible today. I am not convinced that is true. In many ways the barriers to being an officer are far less pronounced today than they were in the days of the Empire.

It was actually Richard Holmes who made that point I repeated in one of his books - unfortunately I can't remember which one!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holmes_(military_histo...

NB The chap in question:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Robertson,_1st_Bar...

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#22

Post by Numberwang »

baud147258 wrote: post #19
mncharity wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like a fictional world. One idea for teaching history is to emphasize that which you, as a time traveler, would find startlingly strange ("wait, WAT?!?"). A 1700's British officer, traveling with American militia, is utterly boggled... the American officer, he is talking with his men , asking them what they think !?! A WWII American officer,…

> The opulence of Versailles... human excrement is cleaned off hallway floors not once, but twice a day I'm pretty sure they had developed latrines by that time period

nope. shitting on hallway floor was common practice.

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#23

Post by pjc50 »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #5

The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like a fictional world. Can you imagine hearing that some dude is walking really far and going to see an improvised carnival with an entourage of “bodyguards” with whips keeping people away from some guy walking thousands of laps around a track?

> Can you imagine hearing that some dude is walking really far and going to see an improvised carnival with an entourage of “bodyguards” with whips keeping people away from some guy walking thousands of laps around a track?

The right person could absolutely pitch this as a reality TV show.

The culture of the past looks different because the material conditions are different, but what are people really doing here? There's gambling, an ordinary person gaining memetic celebrity, and an audience watching someone struggle with physical endurance. All of those are present in the culture of today as then as in ancient Rome. Just their focus and intensity differs.

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#24

Post by sins »

growlist wrote: post #16
sandspar wrote: post #6

You see people like this sometimes. I met a guy who practically lives on his bike. Like the guy in the article, he's sort of an outcast. Yet when he's not riding, he's walking around with his helmet on his head. It's like he's a tool that can only do one job, but is fantastic at it. I wonder how many luminaries throughout history have been similarly specialized. It seems like a type of beneficial obsession.

We used to celebrate eccentricity in Britain, but these days sadly it's often under attack.

Is that really true?

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#26

Post by russfink »

Stratoscope wrote: post #14
mncharity wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The culture of the past feels so unrelatably foreign that it really feels like a fictional world. One idea for teaching history is to emphasize that which you, as a time traveler, would find startlingly strange ("wait, WAT?!?"). A 1700's British officer, traveling with American militia, is utterly boggled... the American officer, he is talking with his men , asking them what they think !?! A WWII American officer,…

You have described many strange and fantastical worlds. And yet you claim these have actually existed? Surely, you must provide some proof!

Hint - they are the only one that avoids every annual time traveler convention / "landing spot." :-)

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#27

Post by JeremyBanks »

gambiting wrote: post #13
moksly wrote: post #4

That was an interesting read, but man oh man what a harsh life, and, what a dreadful family. Can you even imagine going through even a tiny bit of that without breaking?

This is just an observation more than an opinion - you know how it's common knowledge that women had no power not that long ago and were kept under the boot of men? His wife not only cheated on him, when he found out she arranged to have him arrested and thrown in prison, and then was seeking to imprison him for life. As far as the article says, absolutely nothing has happened to her as a consequence of this.

How dare she have him arrested for domestic abuse..?

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#28

Post by russfink »

gambiting wrote: post #13
moksly wrote: post #4

That was an interesting read, but man oh man what a harsh life, and, what a dreadful family. Can you even imagine going through even a tiny bit of that without breaking?

This is just an observation more than an opinion - you know how it's common knowledge that women had no power not that long ago and were kept under the boot of men? His wife not only cheated on him, when he found out she arranged to have him arrested and thrown in prison, and then was seeking to imprison him for life. As far as the article says, absolutely nothing has happened to her as a consequence of this.

He had SIX KIDS and left his family for months at a time.

Re: George Wilson, The Man Who Walked His Life Away

#30

Post by rjf72 »

winter_blue wrote: post #10

> He would need to escape from poverty and free himself and his children from strangling debt. It seems like so many of the things we take for granted today couldn't be taken for granted to the same degree in the past. Things like being able to declare bankruptcy and erase all your debts, the general liberty/protection provided by the state from having our freedom/autonomy being violated by others, etc.

One interesting distinction is that many of the modern protections that have in many ways shaped modern society, are not protections against other people - but protections against governments themselves. This is a recurring theme in the constitution. For instance the constitution does not grant you the right to free speech. It observes that you, by nature of being a human capable of speaking already inherently have the right to free speech. The constitution simply stops the government from passing laws to take that right away from people.

Most of the bad acts people can commit against other people have been illegal for time immemorial. The revolution that started with the United States was the founders of a nation passing legislation to protect the people from the government itself. Things like debtor's prisons, as you mention, are of course state-driven institutions. There are also things now illegal that we can't even imagine. For instance the third amendment prevents the government from forcing you house soldiers which is so far away as to feel unimaginable. Other things we're constantly reminded of, but they have become so socially ingrained that we take them for granted. For instance protections against unreasonable search and seizure, protections against being forced to testify against yourself.

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