{Clogs to Clogs}[12th July 1987]

[Redbook4:38-39][19870712:1000f]{Clogs to Clogs}[12^th July 1987]

19870712.1000

[continued]

I cannot remember whether I have noted before the niceness of the expression “Clogs to clogs in three generations” – except that in the examples I have seen, it is five generations** including both pairs of clogs. And yes, of course it fits the Outer Circle:

			Poverty
			(5th* Generation 1st*)
	Sloth	→	ATTRACTION	→↓	Pride
	→	Simplification		Ordination	→↓
(4th*)	REVOLUTION		☼		ACTION	(2nd*)
Envy	↑←	Fragmentation		Complication	←	Avarice
	Gluttony	↑←	DISTRACTION	←	Lechery
			(3rd*)
			Anger

*: [The notes below are with the Ordinal numbers in the ms. In the ms, the Principles are connected by curving clockwise arrows.]

(1^st): Poverty.

(2^nd): Makes Money. (Learns to live on the money.)

(3^rd): (Forgets how to make money.) Lives on the Money. (Learns how to waste money.)

(4^th): Wastes Money. (Forgets how to live on the money.)

(5^th): Poverty.

Note how nicely the mediaeval hierarchy of Vices (from p13) fits this.*** I suppose Pride and Anger might be swapped: they are not always easily distinguishable. This Pride is that of the self-made man**** (or self-making man) who believes, with self-fulfilling prophecy, that in his own terms he can do anything. Avarice is the spur to build his wealth.

The first complication of such men is frequently lechery; the next generation are frequently born into it.# They live on the accumulated capital, increasing nothing of material wealth, distracted by their wealth into the generally superficial activities which will fritter it away: this is how the fragmentation of the family estate begins. They are in literature as in life frequently choleric in temperament because they have not had to learn the need for patience. They share Gluttony with their children: not just for food, but in appetite for many pleasures.

But it is their children who first begin to feel the pinch, which is how Envy arises: of their parents, who lived on the capital and dissipated it; of their contemporaries who all seem to be doing so much better materially; and of their children (as I know to my cost), who seem to have all the benefits of a new start. But the one thing they do generally have in common with their children is that terrible Sloth which does {(often)} seem to be bred in the bone, although in fact it can be overthrown.

And the children are back where their great-great-grandparents began, able to start a new dynasty on the Outer Circle – or a new life on the Inner? It is perhaps easier for them than for others.

As with all such analyses, the boundaries are unlikely to be as clear in life as in concept. And the pattern is not inevitable as it is described.

*[See note above, immediately below diagram.]

**(or, historically, as many as 9?)

***(Note how neatly the Vices also describe the 7 stages of business employment (to which the Principles were applied in Book [=Vol] II &/or III.) {Were they?}

[└]Not in all the cases I have seen or heard of! <880825>

****and his father?

#[Generalise, why don't you? <20160623>]

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