T.S. Eliot (being dumb) on damnation

“[T]he possibility of damnation is so immense a relief in a world of electoral reform, plebiscites, sex reform and dress reform, that damnation itself is an immediate form of salvation — of salvation from the ennui of modern life, because it at last gives some significance to living.”

What a dumb thing to say. I understand that long arguments about the details dress code, or laboring over the fine points of something like electoral reform, is boring, bureaucratic, and square. I get the appeal of saying that that sort of thing is so boring, bureaucratic, and square that even eternal torture is preferable to it. But actually, no, Tom, it is not.

And I also think “reform,” in 1930 when Eliot is writing this, is strongly associated with do-gooders, or ladies, or do-gooder men who by virtue of their do-goodery are considered by Eliot to be faintly ladylike.

Well but no. Reform is boring, bureaucratic, square, and important. It is work for both men and women to do. If you live a a safe life where the road doesn’t crack under your car and you eat lunch without shitting your guts out and you get to decide what to wear to work and you don’t have to wonder whether the bank still has your money, thank a reformer.