Curiosity

[darth_cabal]

I've been stricken with the plague, and curled up on the couch just long enough to watch the VP debate last night before tumbling into bed, so forgive me if this question has already come up.

Poll IDGII keep seeing the phrase attributed to Ronald Reagan, and I'm not sure whether people actually think that it came from him or if they're specifically

Comments

A++ GOLD STAR ANSWER

[darth_cabal]

Strangely enough, my history classes in Illinois focused on Lincoln and the Civil War. Oh states, so predictable in your priorities!

[marzipan_mouse]

Oh damn, that voodoo doll was meant to give you herpes, not the plague!! I think it's time for me to turn in my teasing comb and go back to high school...
;)

[darth_cabal]

:O

TREACHERY!

[julian_black]

John Winthrop used it to describe the Puritan colony at Massachusetts Bay, but he took the phrase from the Sermon on the Mount--I'm too lazy to look it up, but the original line is something like, "A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Winthrop saw the founding of a colony under Puritan ideals as a great experiment that the whole world would be watching, and taking note of its success or failure. So in other words he was telling them, "Don't fuck up."

[darth_cabal]

YOU'RE BEING WATCHED! O.O

[raven_feathers]

wasn't reagan's quote more something like "a shining city on the hill"? which does make it a slightly different quote. i'm being pedantic, i suppose?

the wiki page for "city upon a hill" is interesting. if you look at reagan's speech, he specifically references winthrop. so anyone who thinks it came directly from reagan has never heard or seen the whole speech. interesting to note that kennedy also included it in a speech.

[darth_cabal]

True! Of course, if we want to get really pedantic, the biblical passage references light, so I'm still not sure a description of the city as "shining" is transformative.

I just googled "city upon a hill + Reagan" and found a bunch of pages that edited the reference to Winthrop out of the quote, so now my curiosity has shifted from whether or not people KNOW that the phrase didn't originate with him to why people would truncate the quote in that way.

[darth_cabal]

Oh, I know where it comes from!

It appears every year in US history classes, from back when we're toddlers to high school, which is why I was amazed to hear Palin credit Reagan. I mean, Reagan did expand upon the idea, so I could understand crediting him if one were referring to the more detailed vision that he described, but Palin only referred to the basic idea of the city on a hill, so I can't help thinking that crediting Reagan was either a staggering display of ignorance or a cynical political ploy--an attempt to associate herself with Reagan, who is practically revered as a savior in conservative evangelical circles.

[darth_cabal]

Intriguing. I wonder who added it and who deleted it!