"There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect" his writing really is beautiful. There are a number of these lines throughout the essay where he really does have a way with words. I really enjoyed reading this and may seek out more Chesterton.
I love the idea of all trades having a coat of arms, and the beauty this could bring. Reminds me of being in old European towns, like Mont St Michel in France, where every store has their coat of arms hanging above the door. I don't think the town would look as beautiful without them.
Yea, Chesterton is a great writer. I plan to do more of his essays in the future.
It definitely adds to the beauty of a place! And there's something about this style that isn't replicated by modern logos - somehow a main street full of Subway, Target, and Woolworths logos doesn't have the same impact.
I found this essay fascinating, and it really resonated with me. Especially this line:
"They did not say, as they should have done, to the common citizen, 'You are as good as the Duke of Norfolk,' but used that meaner democratic formula, 'The Duke of Norfolk is no better than you are.'”
Some ideas take effort to accept, but that one just feels _true_. It's difficult to imagine what today's world would look like if we'd taken the other path. Also, maybe this is part of the appeal of fantasy worlds? Plenty of heraldry to go around there.
Such a good line. I think this was one of Chesterton's strengths as a thinker - the use of paradox, and being able to flip ideas on their head, so to speak. And yea, this feels very true to me too. If we tried to raise ourselves up as high as we could, instead of lowering ourselves to the lowest common denominator, I think this would have such a positive impact on us all.
Interesting point about fantasy. That's definitely something that appeals to me in fantasy, but I know others who feel it's all a bit cheesy. I suspect this is the consequence of an oversaturation of irony in our culture - medieval cultures were sincere in their belief and commitment to this stuff, but to us cynical moderns, a sincere commitment to anything is dismissed as naive LARPing.
I definitely need to read more Chesterton. And I agree about irony, I think a lot of people who don't like fantasy etc. instinctively feel that it's silly. Personally, I love the sincerity.
Honestly very tempted now to try and get a family crest designed.
Loved the piece. Chesterton's lines are thought provoking indeed. Could it be that the instinct behind heraldry resurfaced in the form of tattoos? I know they're not the same but I wonder if there's some connection..
Interesting idea, I think certain tattoos could be. The key seems to be that the image is unique and evocative of certain emotions - a person should be able to see the tattoo and know (even feel), without seeing the person's face, that it represents them.
The Digitisation of society, along with the internet, has within it the potential for a renewal of a kind of unifying of personal public reputation with a singular well-known selection of images and ideas and a notable name, which birthed heraldry in the dark age honour cultures.
Speaking from personal experience, writing in a micro-culture for some time, know to maybe a few thousand people, the power of sustained personal reputation runs deep and is a subject of many conflicts.
The position of 'semi-fame' or 'micro-fame' enjoyed by many bloggers and small creators
The ability of 'the system' to record someones informal conduct for very long periods of time, and arguments and conflicts over that ("we dug up this five year old tweet" etc)
The codification of more standard formal information in a directly accessible form; things like Linkedin, Wikipedia pages, other accessible professional or semi-professional records.
All of this accountable, per-person, and accessible worldwide, by a community of 'everyone'.
Digital society and its evaporation of the concealing power of the general mass, the the exposure of the life, attitude and record of any individual to the gaze of the whole, at any time, creates a kind of 'new personalness', seperate to the pervious condition of personal distinction in everyday life, but broad invisibility amongst the mass, for almost everyone except celebrities.
This creates a new form of 'honour culture' where the matrix of personal reputation, a sustained record of behaviour and attitudes and a distinct public-facing personality, along with reputational conflicts over the same, already forms the social and emotional substrate for a personal heraldry.
Its not impossible, or difficult, to imagine a movement where this mass of personal information is 'locked' together under a personal brand or image, a symbol that goes with you wherever you go and which represents you. In fact, though I am an unusual case, I have a 'brand' or image of this kind, which represents me on every social media, is on every blog post and comment, is the symbol of my business, goes on my products, which shows up on various other occasions and which is essentially a stand-in for my personality and reputation wherever it is seen. I am not sure if it quite counts as 'Heraldry', but its probably as close as you are getting in the modern world.
Brief question that I think might highlight what I am talking about; If you had a child, would you try to give them a name distinct enough that it would be easily 'googleable' i.e. that it would cause them to stand out over their entire life, at least enough that it would 'collect reputation'? Or would you want them to have a more anonymous name so that they could simply disappear into the mass, hidden from wide public view and known only by organic face to face relationships?
Or treat it as a scale, from hyper-super-individuality to 'John Smith', and once you have thought about it, ask yourself why you chose that particular point on the scale.
Interesting point. Traditionally, noble families had symbols that represented the family as a whole, and then individuals within the family would create their own personal crest using these symbols. So it was both a shared and individualised thing.
I think you're right that notable individuals online could develop something similar, a 'personal brand' united under a unique and powerful image, and it sounds like what you've done is take ownership of this. Better to develop your own brand, with your own heraldry, then to leave it up to social media, other online personalities, and governments to choose your identity for you. It's reaching a point where we don't really have the choice *not* to have a digital identity, so we might as well take control of it ourselves.
Heraldry is not all dead in Australia - here's the lovely Red Lion Tavern located in rural New South Wales, which I've had the pleasure to visit a couple of times in my travels... https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Red-Lion-Tavern-100088080880872/
"There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect" his writing really is beautiful. There are a number of these lines throughout the essay where he really does have a way with words. I really enjoyed reading this and may seek out more Chesterton.
I love the idea of all trades having a coat of arms, and the beauty this could bring. Reminds me of being in old European towns, like Mont St Michel in France, where every store has their coat of arms hanging above the door. I don't think the town would look as beautiful without them.
Yea, Chesterton is a great writer. I plan to do more of his essays in the future.
It definitely adds to the beauty of a place! And there's something about this style that isn't replicated by modern logos - somehow a main street full of Subway, Target, and Woolworths logos doesn't have the same impact.
I found this essay fascinating, and it really resonated with me. Especially this line:
"They did not say, as they should have done, to the common citizen, 'You are as good as the Duke of Norfolk,' but used that meaner democratic formula, 'The Duke of Norfolk is no better than you are.'”
Some ideas take effort to accept, but that one just feels _true_. It's difficult to imagine what today's world would look like if we'd taken the other path. Also, maybe this is part of the appeal of fantasy worlds? Plenty of heraldry to go around there.
Such a good line. I think this was one of Chesterton's strengths as a thinker - the use of paradox, and being able to flip ideas on their head, so to speak. And yea, this feels very true to me too. If we tried to raise ourselves up as high as we could, instead of lowering ourselves to the lowest common denominator, I think this would have such a positive impact on us all.
Interesting point about fantasy. That's definitely something that appeals to me in fantasy, but I know others who feel it's all a bit cheesy. I suspect this is the consequence of an oversaturation of irony in our culture - medieval cultures were sincere in their belief and commitment to this stuff, but to us cynical moderns, a sincere commitment to anything is dismissed as naive LARPing.
I definitely need to read more Chesterton. And I agree about irony, I think a lot of people who don't like fantasy etc. instinctively feel that it's silly. Personally, I love the sincerity.
Honestly very tempted now to try and get a family crest designed.
Go for it! Who knows, some day you might be remembered as the founder of the Noble House of Kenyon.
Loved the piece. Chesterton's lines are thought provoking indeed. Could it be that the instinct behind heraldry resurfaced in the form of tattoos? I know they're not the same but I wonder if there's some connection..
Interesting idea, I think certain tattoos could be. The key seems to be that the image is unique and evocative of certain emotions - a person should be able to see the tattoo and know (even feel), without seeing the person's face, that it represents them.
(Quick typo note: “Lion Rampart” should be “Lion Rampant,” “rampant” being a heraldry term.)
Good catch, thanks - I'll fix that now
The Digitisation of society, along with the internet, has within it the potential for a renewal of a kind of unifying of personal public reputation with a singular well-known selection of images and ideas and a notable name, which birthed heraldry in the dark age honour cultures.
Speaking from personal experience, writing in a micro-culture for some time, know to maybe a few thousand people, the power of sustained personal reputation runs deep and is a subject of many conflicts.
The position of 'semi-fame' or 'micro-fame' enjoyed by many bloggers and small creators
The ability of 'the system' to record someones informal conduct for very long periods of time, and arguments and conflicts over that ("we dug up this five year old tweet" etc)
The codification of more standard formal information in a directly accessible form; things like Linkedin, Wikipedia pages, other accessible professional or semi-professional records.
All of this accountable, per-person, and accessible worldwide, by a community of 'everyone'.
Digital society and its evaporation of the concealing power of the general mass, the the exposure of the life, attitude and record of any individual to the gaze of the whole, at any time, creates a kind of 'new personalness', seperate to the pervious condition of personal distinction in everyday life, but broad invisibility amongst the mass, for almost everyone except celebrities.
This creates a new form of 'honour culture' where the matrix of personal reputation, a sustained record of behaviour and attitudes and a distinct public-facing personality, along with reputational conflicts over the same, already forms the social and emotional substrate for a personal heraldry.
Its not impossible, or difficult, to imagine a movement where this mass of personal information is 'locked' together under a personal brand or image, a symbol that goes with you wherever you go and which represents you. In fact, though I am an unusual case, I have a 'brand' or image of this kind, which represents me on every social media, is on every blog post and comment, is the symbol of my business, goes on my products, which shows up on various other occasions and which is essentially a stand-in for my personality and reputation wherever it is seen. I am not sure if it quite counts as 'Heraldry', but its probably as close as you are getting in the modern world.
Brief question that I think might highlight what I am talking about; If you had a child, would you try to give them a name distinct enough that it would be easily 'googleable' i.e. that it would cause them to stand out over their entire life, at least enough that it would 'collect reputation'? Or would you want them to have a more anonymous name so that they could simply disappear into the mass, hidden from wide public view and known only by organic face to face relationships?
Or treat it as a scale, from hyper-super-individuality to 'John Smith', and once you have thought about it, ask yourself why you chose that particular point on the scale.
Interesting point. Traditionally, noble families had symbols that represented the family as a whole, and then individuals within the family would create their own personal crest using these symbols. So it was both a shared and individualised thing.
I think you're right that notable individuals online could develop something similar, a 'personal brand' united under a unique and powerful image, and it sounds like what you've done is take ownership of this. Better to develop your own brand, with your own heraldry, then to leave it up to social media, other online personalities, and governments to choose your identity for you. It's reaching a point where we don't really have the choice *not* to have a digital identity, so we might as well take control of it ourselves.