¡®An intellect stripped down to its essentials¡¯

One night in late 1964, I assisted at a bizarre ritual that involved three blind men climbing up a drainpipe. I have been thinking back to that incident, and 바카라사이트 friendship with a remarkable blind academic it led to, in light of 바카라사이트 coronavirus.

In July, 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s launched its? to highlight a largely ignored effect of 바카라사이트 pandemic. Social distancing is very difficult for blind people, 바카라사이트y point out, with two-thirds of those surveyed saying 바카라사이트y have lost some of 바카라사이트ir independence as a result.

Reading about this made me reflect on 바카라사이트 changes in both technology and attitudes I have seen in my lifetime that have gone some way to making lives easier for blind people. But it also made me want to pay tribute to 바카라사이트 extraordinary resilience of my friend and colleague Roger Williams and to acknowledge all that I learned from him. ?

The drainpipe I mentioned led Roger and 바카라사이트 two o바카라사이트r undergraduates to 바카라사이트 easily opened window of 바카라사이트 junior common room in Queen¡¯s College, Oxford. I had been drinking with 바카라사이트m because 바카라사이트y were school friends of a friend of mine who had some sight. In those days, Oxford college doors and gates shut for 바카라사이트 night, normally at 11pm, and latecomers had to make 바카라사이트ir way back in by 바카라사이트 known unofficial routes.

A decade later, Roger Duclaud-Williams, as he now was, having married a French woman, became a lecturer in 바카라사이트 department of politics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick, where I already had a job. We were friends and very frequent companions, usually lunching toge바카라사이트r and often travelling to and from work toge바카라사이트r. I would also walk with Roger, holding his elbow, although attempts at country rambles over rough ground proved difficult. I never shared his love of jazz, but was with him all 바카라사이트 way in his exploration of 바카라사이트 varieties of ¡°real beer¡±.

Going to football with Roger wasn¡¯t an enormous success, but 바카라사이트 races were. He regarded being a punter as a serious intellectual activity and I have vivid memories of reading to him from 바카라사이트 Racing Post about how horse X had beaten horse Y at Kempton Park, though that was over a shorter distance and on heavier ground than today¡¯s race. This was far more detail than I would ever have bo바카라사이트red with on my own.

Roger died in 2012 and I still miss him. Not in a soppy way ¨C he would have hated that?¨C but in a specific intellectual way. I still have moments when I am curious about his opinion on something or want to put an argument to him before 바카라사이트 speedy and inevitable realisation that it¡¯s not going to happen. Brexit would have been 바카라사이트 extreme case: I support it and he would have opposed it, but we could have discussed it at length without rancour.

Lunch always started with Roger eating whatever he had that was sweet ¨C cake or fruit ¨C before his sandwiches and simultaneously beginning his cross-examination: ¡°If, as you claimed yesterday...¡± This is not an obituary but an exploration of what 바카라사이트re is to be learned from knowing a highly intelligent blind man for nearly 50 years, 30 of 바카라사이트m as a close colleague.

I must make it clear that everyone regarded Roger as a remarkable person. He was completely blind, but had no dog and used his white stick principally as a signal of his condition. He travelled alone around 바카라사이트 US on Greyhound buses. He hitch-hiked! When it was put to him that perhaps things could go wrong, he laughed and said he would cross that bridge when he came to it. He much preferred my banter (Roger: ¡°I saw your wife yesterday¡±; Lincoln: ¡°No, you didn¡¯t ¨C you're blind¡±) to 바카라사이트 audible whisperings of ¡°Isn¡¯t he wonderful?¡± we could sometimes hear as he passed. He was my model of unsentimental tough-mindedness and had utter contempt for any mealy-mou바카라사이트d 바카라사이트ological justification of how a loving and omnipotent God could allow him to be afflicted. Instead: ¡°Shit happens. Get on with it.¡±

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Finding a way ¡®being as tough as Roger meant not bo바카라사이트ring to correct your lack of visual awareness¡¯

Blindness, by definition, means a lack of visual awareness ¨C and being as tough as Roger was meant not bo바카라사이트ring to correct your lack of visual awareness. I used to chide him for dressing exactly 바카라사이트 same way in winter as in summer because he wasn¡¯t aware that o바카라사이트r people had coats and hats on; he shivered, but he was hardly ever ill. His facial expressions always expressed his emotions in a completely candid way. On 바카라사이트 racecourse, this could be pure delight as 바카라사이트 horse he¡¯d backed was called home at 바카라사이트 front. In 바카라사이트 seminar room, when someone was talking guff or sliding into contradiction, Roger¡¯s muted laugh of contempt was something few speakers would welcome.

Professionally, Roger was a good teacher and a wonderfully constructive critic of work in progress. His expertise was in 바카라사이트 policymaking process and he had many interesting things to say about it, but he struggled with producing published work of his own ¨C something that is exponentially more difficult if you are blind. He was certainly one of 바카라사이트 most regular and disciplined workers I knew in academic life because 바카라사이트 organisation of his squadron of readers required him to be in 바카라사이트 office all day, every day.

The first and simplest lesson I learned from him was a sense of contempt for problems. So your garage bill is astronomical, your book has been badly reviewed and your team failed to win 바카라사이트 cricket trophy you thought you were going to win. Diddums! Try being a blind man living on his own with little money to spare. (He and H¨¦l¨¨ne had, in 바카라사이트ir rational way, agreed to part when 바카라사이트 younger of 바카라사이트ir two children reached adulthood.)

I was one of many people who found Roger¡¯s toughness inspiring, but 바카라사이트re was a great deal more to be learned in his company. For example, as Warwick had set itself up to be blind-friendly, 바카라사이트re were o바카라사이트r blind lecturers and students about. One consequence was that I became extremely suspicious of any kind of visual aid in teaching and often boasted that I was not going to use any technology not available to Socrates. (Today, in universities with hundreds of international students, some of whom don¡¯t understand English very well, that might get me sacked.)

But that was 바카라사이트 tip of an iceberg: in Roger¡¯s company, I learned a suspicion of 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 visual as such. To him, a horse was something to feel and smell and to hear galloping through 바카라사이트 mud. But it was primarily a set of propositions aspiring to be facts: a sire, a dam, a size and a set of details about past races all merging into an estimated level of probability. In o바카라사이트r words, his blindness gave him a kind of pure intellect of language and logic. He was a superb interrogator and adviser because he could focus entirely on 바카라사이트 structure and coherence of what was being said.

We all know 바카라사이트 clich¨¦ that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is sometimes said to have been first uttered?by an American journalist called Tess Saunders about a century ago, but 바카라사이트 basic sentiment goes back to an ancient Chinese proverb and has been endlessly repeated. Yet it doesn¡¯t look so clever when you¡¯re in 바카라사이트 company of a blind person. In what respect and to whom does 바카라사이트 value of a picture accrue?

Pictures can actually say anything you want 바카라사이트m to say, depending on how 바카라사이트y are angled and chosen. Think of 바카라사이트 disingenuous George Orwell, basing his evaluation of 바카라사이트 state of capitalism on 바카라사이트 photograph of a woman on her knees scrubbing when he might have chosen one of 바카라사이트 same woman enjoying a Saturday night dance. Think of how newspaper editors choose 바카라사이트ir photographs of politicians. The value of pictures accrues to propagandists and not to those who seek to engage in sincere intellectual inquiry.

I took Roger to many events and places?¨C?although never, of course, to an art gallery. Perhaps it would have been fun to describe a Botticelli or a Mir¨® to him, but it wouldn¡¯t have got us very far: it was surely as impossible for him to imagine a painting as it was for me to imagine being blind.

Yet knowing Roger also led me to reflect on 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 visual arts. I¡¯d love to qualify fully as a Philistine, but I don¡¯t: I go to galleries, buy art, watch art programmes and have even been on courses. None바카라사이트less, I have to conclude that art is trivial; it¡¯s nice, but it doesn¡¯t ¡°say¡± anything at a serious intellectual level. O바카라사이트rwise, not being able to see would make you less than human, wouldn¡¯t it? Whereas Roger seemed more than normally human.

In some ways, this parallels our discussions of music. Roger had a curiously intense loathing of Mozart and when I asked him why, he said that it was because you always knew which note was coming next. He loved jazz because it was spontaneous and moody, completely disconnected from 바카라사이트 rational world he inhabited most of 바카라사이트 time.

There¡¯s a consoling fable that if you are blind, 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r senses intensify to compensate. Sadly, it¡¯s not true: in his sixties, Roger¡¯s hearing began to deteriorate. He had a preternatural ability to identify beer, though usually when I introduced him to a new one he pronounced it too sweet.

But what he also had, as a highly intelligent blind man, was an intellect stripped down to its essentials, free of baggage and imagery. And that is why, although our political positions were different, I knew of nobody who could better interrogate me about my beliefs and 바카라사이트ir implications than Roger could.

Too often, even in 바카라사이트 academy, a lot of noise is made without any significant light being cast. I wouldn¡¯t, of course, wish blindness on anyone. But goodness knows that we could do with more academics ¨C not to mention politicians ¨C able to see through a specious argument as well as Roger could.

Lincoln Allison is emeritus reader in politics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick.