Ironicwarcriminal posted:

well considering that when Victorians ran England it was a massive empire and now it's a pile of debt and pebbled-dashed dreams i'd say the headline is correct.

People all over the world love and respect British culture like the X-Factor

tpaine posted:

wacka chick wacka

BRICK SQUAD

littlegreenpills posted:

also raw intelligence probably had more survival value back then instead of resistance to epidemic diseases

As ideas and feelings succeeded one another, and heart and head were brought into play, men continued to lay aside their original wildness; their private connections became every day more intimate as their limits extended. They accustomed themselves to assemble before their huts round a large tree; singing and dancing, the true offspring of love and leisure, became the amusement, or rather the occupation, of men and women thus assembled together with nothing else to do. Each one began to consider the rest, and to wish to be considered in turn; and thus a value came to be attached to public esteem. Whoever sang or danced best, whoever was the handsomest, the strongest, the most dexterous, or the most eloquent, came to be of most consideration; and this was the first step towards inequality, and at the same time towards vice. From these first distinctions arose on the one side vanity and contempt and on the other shame and envy: and the fermentation caused by these new leavens ended by producing combinations fatal to innocence and happiness.

wasted posted:

littlegreenpills posted:

also raw intelligence probably had more survival value back then instead of resistance to epidemic diseases

As ideas and feelings succeeded one another, and heart and head were brought into play, men continued to lay aside their original wildness; their private connections became every day more intimate as their limits extended. They accustomed themselves to assemble before their huts round a large tree; singing and dancing, the true offspring of love and leisure, became the amusement, or rather the occupation, of men and women thus assembled together with nothing else to do. Each one began to consider the rest, and to wish to be considered in turn; and thus a value came to be attached to public esteem. Whoever sang or danced best, whoever was the handsomest, the strongest, the most dexterous, or the most eloquent, came to be of most consideration; and this was the first step towards inequality, and at the same time towards vice. From these first distinctions arose on the one side vanity and contempt and on the other shame and envy: and the fermentation caused by these new leavens ended by producing combinations fatal to innocence and happiness.

Note that leisure is not the sole reserve of mankind. Many tropical birds can frivole away as much of their time as they please at the lek, certainly the vices this passage blames on "ideas and feelings" are shared by all species subject to sexual selection.