Quotes About Shibboleths

National culture and national self-expression tend to be self-serving and mythologising (all the more acutely so, perhaps, if foreigners proof even better at mythologising than the locals and drive the locals on to ever-greater feats of self-deception). National culture, by definition, is mythologising, self-serving and at the same time, self-mutilating, designed as it is to focus a group identity by creating shibboleths and stereotypes.

Tell the story. Make it real for those who refuse to believe that such a thing can happen/has happened/is happening here. Bring the suffering to the attention of those who wallow in willful ignorance. In short, shatter the illusion of innocence at every turn and attack all the shibboleths the country holds sacred.

Hamilton's besetting fear was that American democracy would be spoiled by demagogues who would mouth populist shibboleths to conceal their despotism.

Wilberforce says that when he was first taken to a play, "it was almost by force." It seems severe and ridiculous to us that what he had imbibed of religion would make him think the theater sinful, but we have to appreciate the circumstances and shibboleths of that era.

discriminate between the principles that improve the quality of prose and the superstitions, fetishes, shibboleths, and initiation ordeals that have been passed down in the traditions of usage. The

Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.

That generation's shibboleths—well, you know. What

He is an intellectual who is unbeholden to the shibboleths of the professoriat and who has a deep appreciation for untutored popular piety.

Our policy is impossible to justify on rational grounds, which is why we've started invoking national security and other shibboleths.