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Thread: Are you "CULTURED"? Not me! Take the test.

  1. #1
    Dinger of Hum Chronopolitano's Avatar
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    Cool Are you "CULTURED"? Not me! Take the test.

    I am about 1/8th cultured, and just barely too. ........

    From:
    http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/01/29/anton-chekhov-8-qualities-of-cultured-people/

    What does it mean to be “cultured”?
    That’s precisely the question beloved Russian author
    Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) considers in a letter to his older brother Nikolai, an artist. The missive, written when Anton was 26 and Nikolai 28 and found in Letters of Anton Chekhov to his Family and Friends dispenses a hearty dose of tough love and outlines the eight qualities of cultured people — including honesty, altruism, and good habits.

    Cultured people must, in my opinion, satisfy the following conditions:


    1. They respect human personality, and therefore they are always kind, gentle, polite, and ready to give in to others. They do not make a row because of a hammer or a lost piece of india-rubber; if they live with anyone they do not regard it as a favour and, going away, they do not say “nobody can live with you.” They forgive noise and cold and dried-up meat and witticisms and the presence of strangers in their homes.
    2. They have sympathy not for beggars and cats alone. Their heart aches for what the eye does not see…. They sit up at night in order to help P…., to pay for brothers at the University, and to buy clothes for their mother.
    3. They respect the property of others, and therefor pay their debts.
    4. They are sincere, and dread lying like fire. They don’t lie even in small things. A lie is insulting to the listener and puts him in a lower position in the eyes of the speaker. They do not pose, they behave in the street as they do at home, they do not show off before their humbler comrades. They are not given to babbling and forcing their uninvited confidences on others. Out of respect for other people’s ears they more often keep silent than talk.
    5. They do not disparage themselves to rouse compassion. They do not play on the strings of other people’s hearts so that they may sigh and make much of them. They do not say “I am misunderstood,” or “I have become second-rate,” because all this is striving after cheap effect, is vulgar, stale, false….
    6. They have no shallow vanity. They do not care for such false diamonds as knowing celebrities, shaking hands with the drunken P., [Translator’s Note: Probably Palmin, a minor poet.] listening to the raptures of a stray spectator in a picture show, being renowned in the taverns…. If they do a pennyworth they do not strut about as though they had done a hundred roubles’ worth, and do not brag of having the entry where others are not admitted…. The truly talented always keep in obscurity among the crowd, as far as possible from advertisement…. Even Krylov has said that an empty barrel echoes more loudly than a full one.
    7. If they have a talent they respect it. They sacrifice to it rest, women, wine, vanity…. They are proud of their talent…. Besides, they are fastidious.
    8. They develop the aesthetic feeling in themselves. They cannot go to sleep in their clothes, see cracks full of bugs on the walls, breathe bad air, walk on a floor that has been spat upon, cook their meals over an oil stove. They seek as far as possible to restrain and ennoble the sexual instinct…. What they want in a woman is not a bed-fellow … They do not ask for the cleverness which shows itself in continual lying. They want especially, if they are artists, freshness, elegance, humanity, the capacity for motherhood…. They do not swill vodka at all hours of the day and night, do not sniff at cupboards, for they are not pigs and know they are not. They drink only when they are free, on occasion…. For they wantmens sana in corpore sano [a healthy mind in a healthy body].

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  3. #2
    El bot. geoffbot's Avatar
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    I was hoping a test would determine this as opposed to me having to read any more walls of text today!
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  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Chronopolitano View Post
    I am about 1/8th cultured, and just barely too. ........
    You and me both. Outside of the aesthetic part (which, I must say, is rooted in my vanity), the rest is all a pile of hogwash.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by geoffbot View Post
    I was hoping a test would determine this as opposed to me having to read any more walls of text today!
    Give yourself 1 point for each question you answer with a No.

    If you score less than 2, you can be friends with Tom and me. If not, you can be friends with Jeannie. Ray, and that creepy dude from Friends.

    Do you hate people?
    Do you hate poor people and your brother?
    Do you owe people money?
    Do you lie?
    Do you lie to make yourself look good?
    Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?
    Do you think you are an unskilled waste of space?
    Do you enjoy dressing like a hobo?

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  7. #5
    Bone Collector Bwana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by M. Montaigne View Post
    Give yourself 1 point for each question you answer with a No.

    If you score less than 2, you can be friends with Tom and me. If not, you can be friends with Jeannie. Ray, and that creepy dude from Friends.

    Do you hate people?
    Do you hate poor people and your brother?
    Do you owe people money?
    Do you lie?
    Do you lie to make yourself look good?
    Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?
    Do you think you are an unskilled waste of space?
    Do you enjoy dressing like a hobo?
    I like this test MUCH better...I'm the man

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  9. #6
    Not a Zombie drickster's Avatar
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    what if I lie on some of the responses to make myself look better?

    Quote Originally Posted by M. Montaigne View Post
    Give yourself 1 point for each question you answer with a No.

    If you score less than 2, you can be friends with Tom and me. If not, you can be friends with Jeannie. Ray, and that creepy dude from Friends.

    Do you hate people?
    Do you hate poor people and your brother?
    Do you owe people money?
    Do you lie?
    Do you lie to make yourself look good?
    Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror?
    Do you think you are an unskilled waste of space?
    Do you enjoy dressing like a hobo?

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  11. #7
    El bot. geoffbot's Avatar
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    Give yourself 1 point for each question you answer with a No.

    If you score less than 2, you can be friends with Tom and me. If not, you can be friends with Jeannie. Ray, and that creepy dude from Friends.

    Do you hate people? Yes
    Do you hate poor people and your brother? No
    Do you owe people money? Only the bank
    Do you lie? No
    Do you lie to make yourself look good? No
    Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror? Yes
    Do you think you are an unskilled waste of space? No
    Do you enjoy dressing like a hobo? I wouldn't know
    Last edited by geoffbot; Jan 9, 2015 at 09:10 PM.
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  12. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by drickster View Post
    what if I lie on some of the responses to make myself look better?
    You can be friends with Geoff and Bwana.

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  14. #9
    Dinger of Hum Chronopolitano's Avatar
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    Commentary on Geoffs score:

    Do you hate people? Yes - and it shows!
    Do you hate poor people and your brother? No - You must not have a brother.
    Do you owe people money? Only the bank - Banks are people too.
    Do you lie? No - LIAR!
    Do you lie to make yourself look good? No - Yeah baby, you look plenty good standing up.
    Do you like looking at yourself in the mirror? Yes -
    Do you think you are an unskilled waste of space? No - You can take this question over again.
    Do you enjoy dressing like a hobo? - Lemme answer that for ya. "YES! Like a sexeh hobo! "

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  16. #10
    Not a Zombie drickster's Avatar
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    ummmm.yay?

    Quote Originally Posted by M. Montaigne View Post
    You can be friends with Geoff and Bwana.

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