Teeny-Bit-Racist Brown Conservatives Channel Boy Scouts Circa 1776
It's not easy being a Republican at Brown these days. Dessert-tossing anarchists and child pornographers abound. Brigades of Speedo-clad men roam the campus with impunity. Residence hall kitchens, once reserved for late-night snacking and polite conversation about Reagan's legacy, are pioneered for unspeakable X-rated acts. Surely, then, it was only a matter of time before the small but now very angry cabal that is the Brown conservative movement took to the Internets with something like this.
Proudly awarding “demerits” to their liberal enemies for their recent debauchery (and, of course, “merits” to themselves), a spunky group of traditionalists calling themselves the Nathanael Greene Society make it clear that they have had enough. On the Web site, the mysterious group writes (in verse!) about the campus’ loss of “Faith” and “Reason” (capitalizing plenty of nouns along the way) and goes batshit over opinion columns in the Brown Daily Herald and other outrages no one else quite, um, noticed.
Taking few hints from political correctness, the society (named for the dashing Revolutionary War general pictured above) even bestows the “Order of Robert Mugabe” (this already can’t be good, right?) on a black columnist for the BDH. Clever, indeed.
The secret e-society does have some sense of humor (those seeking pecuniary grants form NGS must compose rhymed couplets), but whoever is behind the site apparently wants to remain anonymous, going so far as to register the domain name through a special "private registration" company -- whose existence indicates that, apparently, that's something you can do.
Click through the site, and find out why a pro-choice activist gets a demerit named for Adolf Eichmann, and serial plagiarist and hero Zachary Townsend is likened to Rasputin.
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July 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I know for a fact that one of the “merited” individuals is passionately involved in throwing naked parties, and thinks God is a rather unfunny joke. He’s also an intellectual titan and an awesome human being, so really doesn’t deserve to have his reputation smeared by the NG site…
July 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Mission of the group aside, their Latin motto shows a terrible knowledge of that beautiful language.
They have “Pro Deo et Patria et Universitate in illo ordine.”
Literally, this translates as “In replacement of God and Country and the whole [in that order?].”
It is a clumsy attempt to translate an English phrase into Latin. Let me count the errors:
–Latin does not capitalize nouns.
–”Pro” in Latin has “a notion of replacement or substitution” (cf. Lewis, Short, s.v. pro) and surely this society does not wish to replace God or country.
–There is no word for “university” in Latin (contrary to popular belief, Julius Caesar did not go to Princeton)
–”In” shows a spatial relation; concepts cannot have a spatial relationship.
–Finally, the “in illo ordine” is wholly Anglicized; it would have made absolutely no sense to a Roman.
The better Latin phrase, of my own composition, would be “Et dei et patris et scholae gratia–ex ordine.” “Ex ordine” is an attested Latin phrase (e.g. Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 64, § 143) and the rest of the syntax is far more classical. I have taken liberties with the dash, but as Latin had no punctuation whatsoever perhaps it might be excused.
(A member of that group reading this may feel free to replace their motto with my own–with my permission.)
July 7th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Firstly, did anyone else think that this little quasi-fraternity seemed rather awesome. Maybe it was just me. It all seemed rather ironic to me, and I am not sure how the whole enterprise could be read as straight and serious. Secondly, the esteemed classicist has a very poor understanding of Latinas a developed language. While it is true that in my time, Latin had no capitalization or a word for university, the pagans who took over our language certainly developed one. Also, the using ‘pro’ for ‘for’ is a common usage. Think only of “Pro Ecclesia Dei” on the St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia. Also “in” can show a spatial relationship. Depending on the case it can mean in or on, or into or onto. I won’t even comment on your last point. I’ve taken Latin only three weeks now, but long enough to know that you are mostly full of shit. I guess I should be saying “Welcome to the Ivy League!”
July 7th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
The original Latin motto is pretty retarded. For God, country, and lastly, the universe?
July 7th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
That’s quite a website - I wonder if it’s mostly alumni or current students?
An Order of Ronald Reagan to Tully for defending the Cause. My heart goes out to Brown conservatives … perhaps they should be begrudged a racist demerit or two. great post
July 7th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
@Tully: I will ignore your ad hominem attacks, and point you toward what will be an invaluable reference if you continue your study of Latin past three weeks: Lewis and Short’s Latin Dictionary. Please look up “pro” and “in.”
The “Pro” in “Pro Ecclesia Dei” actually does mean “In place of,” with that notion of replacement. St Paul’s Chapel was built (relatively) recently to serve as a church, but notice that it is not a church: it is instead a chapel–hence the inscription. The chapel takes the place of a church of God; it is not one. If you can find me a classically attested example where “pro” is used in the sense that it was used in that inscription, I will apologize both to you and to the society, but I think you will have to look hard.
Thank you for restating my point about “in.” It indicates spatial relations, as I, and you, have now both said. In, on, into, and onto are all terms of spatial relation.
What gives Latin its feeling of grandeur (the very reason that mottos are put in Latin) is the fact that it is dead (or static/unchanging, if you prefer). To modernize it, or try to do so, is to miss the point. It was the language of Rome. Works have been continuously written in Latin since the fall of Rome, but frankly, no one would be learning Latin if those later works were all that had been written in it.
@Everyone else: apologies for getting into a Latin language argument here, but after being called “full of shit” but someone who has been studying Latin for all of three weeks, I felt it was warranted.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Tully:
Man up and take the hit. You got nailed, and it probably feels shitty, but take it honorably and apologize for your demagoguery.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
@classicist
Well done Sir!
July 8th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I take your explanation on the use of Pro and In, but I still must heartily disagree on your static understanding of Latin. I would contend that if not for the later works, namely those written by the Church, no one would both reading the works of the Romans. To say that Latin is unchanging and to take late Republic Latin as the totality of the language is to ignore its long history. I bet you pronounce your v as a w anyway.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
@classicist:
I take my hat off to you, sir. Please keep the Latin language arguments coming. Their wit makes up for the dearth of comments on this blog.
@Tully:
Take jazzarini’s advice on this one. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
fine. i was wrong. this once. don’t expect it to happen again. ever.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Why does everyone assume that these guys are conservatives? Ever since these merits came out, I have heard people talking about this whiny conservative organization of which nobody knows the members. But after visiting their website and perusing their materials, I see nothing indicating that they are a bunch of republican blowhards. I agree with most of what they stand for, but i don’t think that they stand for anything blatantly “conservative” so far as I can tell.
Also, while you point out that the Mugabe award went to the black BDH columnist, you neglected to mention the more hilarious award given to a dean and a professor. The Nathan B. Forest award (founder of the Ku Klux Klan) was given to Dean K, as she is known, who is also black, and Evelyn Hu-deHart who I just googled–she’s Asian.