Pat Clinton: ‘The Class of ’65’ and ‘Reductio Ad Absurdum’
The Class of ’65
I never dared be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old.
—R. Frost
In the end we lived lives not unlike our parents
Brought children into a world we held at arms-length.
Drifted from job to job avoiding the sedentary,
Or climbed the career ladder, rickety with uncertainty.
Hung portraits of our parents above the hearth
And wondered what would happen to our side of earth.
Extolled the virtues of hard work
And thrift and for what it was worth
Disdained anything not commensurate with
The radical ideals of our youth.
In short we became as conservative as any previous generation
Though somewhat more politicized as a result of education.
Pat Clinton
Reductio Ad Absurdum
shrinking your purview
to a tight vision of your inching shoes.
—Richard Wilbur
God didn’t make man in his own image,
Man reduced the ineffable to a human scale and size,
To make it comprehensible in a puerile age,
And to anthropomorphize.
And the scientist today does the same
With that incomprehensible immensity;
“Shrinking the Universe to the size of a pea.”
So that reason can grasp it again.
Pat Clinton
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins