guitarbuddha -> RE: Music Theory: Why? (Jan. 31 2015 21:44:09)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BarkellWH quote:
Fire when ready Gridley! Another gem, Stephen, no doubt picked up from your multi-faceted life of travel, anthropology, reading, music and God knows what else. This line resonates with me because I served at the American Embassy in Manila, Philippines as a junior Foreign Service Officer at the beginning of my career, and I had read and studied about Philippine history, the Spanish-American War, and the American colonial experience in the Philippines. At the Battle of Manila Bay, on May 1, 1898, Charles V. Gridley was the captain of the "Olympia," Admiral George Dewey's flagship leading the American fleet. Admiral Dewey gave his famous order, "You may fire when you are ready Gridley," and the battle was joined, leading to the destruction of the Spanish fleet and the capture of Manila. After the Philippine insurrection was put down, the Philippines became an American colony, then in 1935 a commonwealth, and finally on July 4, 1946, the Philippines gained its independence. But Captain Charles Gridley will forever be remembered in American naval history for the famous order issued by Admiral Dewey, much as Rear Admiral David Farragut is remembered for running the mines at the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. Lashed to the rigging of his flagship, he is said to have ordered, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." (In those days, mines were called torpedoes.) Bill Irony as a device for rebuttal has as one of it's principle merits (or temptations) the effect of freeing it's practitioners from any responsibility to declare their intent or indeed any linear logical pathway. Such a practitioner may thus feel themselves emancipated from the traditional expectation that references should be readily applicable to the core topic of a discussion. The result is that free association becomes as intimidatingly arcane and 'relevant' a tool for the layman as expertise is to the practitioner. This can make any attempt at rebuttal seem uninformed or pointless. Although I find this, as a rhetorical, gambit DEPLORABLE I note to my shame that I have often used it. D.
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