slander

[sardith]

I need some help from my some of you this morning. I read this quote and would like to know if I agree with it, but I am flummoxed by its usage of the word 'slander'.
Can anyone help me out here?

“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.” ~Gustave Flaubert, French writer, (1821-1880)~

Sardith

[Dr. Goodword]

I think Flaubert is saying that things are better today than they were in years past. We tend to think the present is worsening. This is connected to the sense we have that the language is sliding down the drain. That worry has been around for 500 years and we treat it much better today than we have in the past.

[sardith]

Thank you Doc,

That helps clear it up for me, since at first I thought he was going in a completely different direction with his thought, but I knew that something was skewed in my brain.

It just shows me how perspective is tilted by one word being out of balance...but I would guess you run into that every day.

Nice talking with you. Hope the grandkids are doing well.

Susan Ardith Lee

[Slava]

I believe this is the actual French, Notre ignorance de l'histoire nous fait calomnier notre temps.

If it had been translated as "...makes us calumniate our times." would you find that clearer?

[sardith]

You know, Slava,

I'm not sure that calumniate would have helped. I was thinking about that other saying about being 'ignorant of history',...you know the one...about being 'doomed to repeat it', and I think that my brain got stuck! It's as though when that saying hit me, I couldn't think 'around it' and thus couldn't figure out HOW slander made sense at all. Thanks to Dr. Goodword for knocking my brains out of neutral.

Is this a symptom of getting older, or is it just because it is Friday? Or maybe a full moon?!

Thanks guys,
Sardith