The Bizarre Leading the Blind

Limbaugh had a tirade against studying the Classics, apparently because someone in Occupy Wall Street had a sign indicating she had studied the Classics.

Some people have tried to make sense out of it, but to me that is a waste of time.

An excerpt:

...Try this. Did a lot of research during the break. Karl Marx was a classical studies scholar. Karl Marx, philosopher, political thinker, studied Latin and Greek -- as did Churchill, I found out. Marx received a Ph.D. for a dissertation on ancient Greek philosophy entitled The Difference between the Democratean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature. Now, you'll note nobody hired Marx, so what he had to do was figure out a way to destroy humanity on his own -- and he was able to do it, but nobody hired him. His classical background is reflected in his philosophies. Indeed the term "proletariat," he coined from the Latin word referring to the lowest class of citizen. So Karl Marx was a classical scholar, ancient philosophy and literature....

  http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/11/01/deciphering_the_sad_sack_story_of_a_classical_studies_scholar

"Did a lot of research during the break."?  Isn't that profound? And he was able to come up with Karl Marx, Democritus, and Epicurus.

He seems to have missed the importance of that constellation of figures, all philosophers of some sort of Materialism, Democritus and Epicurus believing that the Universe was composed of "atoms". 
So here we are in the "Atomic Age", and the long traditions in Classical Times seems to slip by our intrepid researcher-during-break-time. The primacy of atomic theory being Classical Greek seems to be a nonce notion.

Later, a caller who send her kids to Catholic High School calls, and he slobbers all over positive about learning Latin, so maybe it is just Greek Classicism he is opposed to.


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