The ACTU now has a “Rights at Work Pledge”, which might also be an oath. The difference between a pledge and an oath? An oath, I gather, must have a witness (as in, ‘I swear on the grave of …’ etc). Arguably, the last line of the ACTU’s pledge could qualify it as an oath, as the implication is that the pledge is collectively witnessed. I’d like it to be an oath, given the great and glorious tradition of oath-taking. Quickly diving into some nearby authorities, I learn from Marc Bloch that back in the 11th century the then left – the rising bourgeois; the uppity merchants who lived by commerce in new fang-dangled life-styles called urban communities – drove their priests and nobles nuts by subverting the feudal oath of aid and friendship. You see, the longstanding feudal oath had only been between inferior and superior, making the one subject to the other. The distinctive feature of the communal oath that was introduced by the contemptible commercial urban radical, emerging beneath the noble and churchman with a bad attitude toward stratified society, was that it was an oath sworn between equals. Where you stand, of course, depends on where you sit. Thus, from E P Thompson I further learn how it came to pass a half-a-dozen or so centuries later that the (by this time, all powerful) bourgeoisie themselves went right off the mutual oath, upon discovering that solemn and dreadful versions were being sworn in nocturnal ceremonies to bind workers to kill bad masters. The usual crackdown by the powerful ensued, and so, after enjoying something of a revival in the early 19th century, oath-taking fell into disuse following the government’s reciprocal revival of slumbering sedition laws (and a well known prosecution in 1834). Hence, it’s pleasing to see the oath making a comeback. The ACTU’s pledge is not quite what I’d call awe-inspiring, but it’s not bad either. You can sign it here.
9 Responses to “Go swear”
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Very well, I’m sworn in.
They need not say the fault is ours if blood should stain the wattle!
Moi aussi Monsieur Combet. There are other oaths of a polemical nature but perhaps they are better expressed collectively to his darkness and minions in the appropriate forums/battles to come.
I quite like nocturnal oaths. Ghosts often insist on them. Indeed perhaps those of the martyr’d dead from a certain song. Witness Hamlet:
Umm, I think a little formatting might assist with that one Mark.
My favourite is:
Julius Caesar, II.I 77-81
I dare say, Chris, but sadly I’m too tired and going to sleep. The code doesn’t seem to have come across from the webpage where I grabbed it from the first folio.
Fuck Shakespeare. I’ve always felt the most apposite Elizabethean quote for internet argy-bargy is Kit Marlowe from “The Jew Of Malta”.
“What, dares the villain write in such base terms?
” I did it — and revenge it, if thou dar’st.”
But ultimately, when it comes down to this kind of thing, then you can always depend on Doc Johnson to rise to the occasion.
“Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance, are the writers who take advantage of present incidents or characters which strongly interest the passions and engage universal attention…. To the quick circulation of such productions all the motives of interest and vanity concur; the disputant enlarges his knowledge. the zealot animates his passion, and every man is desirous to inform himself concerning affairs so vehemently agitated and variously represented.
It is, indeed, the fate of controvertists, even when they contend for philosophical or theological truth, to be soon laid aside and slighted. Either the question is decided, and there is no more place for doubt and opposition; or mankind despairs of understanding it, and grow weary of disturbance, content themselves with quiet ignorance, and refuse to be harrassed with labours which they have no hopes of recompensing with knowledge.”
Sound familar?
The header on my Firefox page reads “Go swear at Larvatus Prodeo”
Crap!
I had to read it three times Nabs (would Doc J have survived in the ’sphere? Discuss.); but yes, it captures the ephemeral essence of blogging on controversial current affairs perfectly.