[SOC] Euro crisis explaned

[Paul Fulbrook]

I am afraid I had to look it up - I am not really much wiser for it... Still 
it passed the time while I was waiting for the dentist's injection to wear 
off!

A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in 
verse, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its 
morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a 
prophecy of society's imminent downfall.

The word is an eponym, named after the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, and comes 
from Biblical works attributed to him, the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of 
Lamentations. The Book of Jeremiah prophesies the coming downfall of the 
Kingdom of Judah, and asserts that this is because its rulers have broken 
the covenant with the Lord.

The Lamentations, similarly, lament the fall of the kingdom of Judah after 
the conquest prophesied by Jeremiah has occurred:


How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become 
as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the 
provinces, how is she become tributary!
 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all 
her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt 
treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great 
servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her 
persecutors overtook her between the straits.
 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her 
gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is 
in bitterness.[1]

Generally, the term jeremiad is applied to moralistic texts that denounce a 
society for its wickedness, and prophesy its downfall. The jeremiad was a 
favorite literary device of the Puritans especially in sermons like "Sinners 
in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards.[2] Authors from Gildas to 
Robert Bork have had this label hung on their works. Extending that 
tradition in a reflective vein is the autobiographical work of freed 
American slave Frederick Douglass, who lamented the moral corruption that 
slavery wrought on America - from both a Jeffersonian and Christian 
tradition. In contemporary usage, it is frequently pejorative, meant to 
suggest that the tone of the text is excessively pessimistic and 
overwrought.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Coslo" <mjc5 at psu.edu>
To: "Second Class Operators' Club" <soc at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [SOC] Euro crisis explaned


>
> On Dec 11, 2011, at 11:12 AM, Radio K0HB wrote:
>
>> I thought we settled it a couple of weeks ago.
>>
>> Political jeremiads do not belong on the SOC reflector.
>
>
>
> And here I thought it was economic discussion.
>
> It's a sad, sad day when we can't make fun of economists and bean 
> counters...... 8^(
>
> - 73 de Mike N3LI -
>
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