Saul Bellow: Dangling Man (1944)

“There was a time when people were in the habit of addressing themselves frequently and felt no shame at making a record of their inward transactions. But to keep a journal nowadays is considered a kind of self-indulgence, a weakness, and in poor taste. For this is an era of hardboiled-dom. Today, the code of the athlete, of the tough boy - an American inheritance, I belive, from the English gentl

eman - that curious mixture of striving, asceticism and rigor, the origins of which some trace back to Alexander the Great - is stronger than ever. Do you have feelings? There are correct and incorrect ways of indicating them. Do you have an inner life? It is nobody’s business but your own. Do you have emotions? Strangle them. To a degree, everyone obeys this code. …”

Dickens satirizes Utilitarianism in Hard Times

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!' (Chap. I.)

'Why, my dear Louisa,' said Mr. Gradgrind, completely recovered by this time, 'I would advise you (since you ask me) to consider this question, as you have been accustomed to consider every other question, simply as one of tangible Fact. The ignorant and the giddy may embarrass such subjects with irrelevant fancies, and other absurdities that have no existence, properly viewed - really no existence - but it is no compliment to you to say, that you know better. Now, what are the Facts of this case? You are, we will say in round numbers, twenty years of age; Mr. Bounderby is, we will say in round numbers, fifty. There is some disparity in your respective years, but in your means and positions there is none; on the contrary, there is a great suitability. Then the question arises, Is this one disparity sufficient to operate as a bar to such a marriage? In considering this question, it is not unimportant to take into account the statistics of marriage, so far as they have yet been obtained, in England and Wales. I find, on reference to the figures, that a large proportion of these marriages are contracted between parties of very unequal ages, and that the elder of these contracting parties is, in rather more than three-fourths of these instances, the bridegroom. It is remarkable as showing the wide prevalence of this law, that among the natives of the British possessions in India, also in a considerable part of China, and among the Calmucks of Tartary, the best means of computation yet furnished us by travellers, yield similar results. The disparity I have mentioned, therefore, almost ceases to be disparity, and (virtually) all but disappears.' (Chap. XV.)

Charles Dickens satiritza el liberalisme britànic a la novel·la Oliver Twist / Dickens satirizes British liberalism in Oliver Twist

"Que quan l'Aranya i el seu digne amic mestre Bates es van afegir a la multitud que perseguia Oliver, com a conseqüència de la transferència il·legal de la propietat personal de Brownlow, com ja s'ha descrit, van obrar impulsats per una consideració envers ells mateixos molt lloable i escaient, ja que la llibertat del subdit i la llibertat de l'individu es troben entre els principals i més grans motius d'orgull de l'anglès de cor; per la qual cosa, gairebé no em cal demanar al lector que observi que aquesta acció hauria de tendir a exaltar-los davant l'opinió de tots els homes públics i patriòtics, en gairebé el mateix grau en què aquesta viva prova del seu afany per la seva pròpia conservació i seguretat corrobora i confirma el petit codi de lleis que certs filòsfos profunds i assenyats han proclamat com la font principal de tots els fets i accions de la mare Natura; i és que aquests filòsofs han reduït molt saviament la conducta d'aquesta bona senyora a una qüestió de màximes i teories, i han eliminat completament, gràcies a un elogi pur i bell de la seva exaltada saviesa i intel·ligència, qualsevol consideració relativa al cor, als impulsos o als sentiments generosos, perquè aquestes matèries són del tot indignes d'una dama que, tal com es reconeix universalment, està molt per sobre de les nombroses flaqueses i debilitats del seu sexe. 

"Si jo volgués cap més prova de la natura estrictament filosòfica de la conducta d'aquests joves en la seva delicada situació, la trobaria de seguida en el fet -també consignat en la part precedent d'aquesta narració- que ells van abandonar la persecució quan l'atenció general es va fixar sobre Oliver i van fer cap a casa immediatament per la drecera més curta. Perquè encara que jo no pretenc afirmar que sigui la pràctica usual dels savis renomenats i erudits escurçar el camí per arribar a una gran conclusió -ja que el seu procediment més aviat és allargar la distància per diversos circumloquis i vacilacions discursives, com aquells en què els embriacs es mostren propensos a caure sota la pressió d'una fluència d'idees massa poderosa-, tanmateix sí que vull dir, i ho dic clarament, que és una pràctica invariable en molts filòsofs, en aplicar les seves teories, palesar una gran prudència i previsió, prevenint-se contra tota possible contingència que sigui probable que els afecti. Així, per un gran bé podeu fer un petit mal, i podeu posar tots els mitjans que el fi perseguit justifiqui, deixant que la magnitud del bé o del mal, o fins i tot la distinció entre tots dos, quedi enterament a càrrec del filòsof interessat, perquè l'estableixi i la determini amb el seu clar, comprensiu i imparcial judici del seu propi cas particular." (Oliver Twist, Cap. XII.)

"That when the Dodger, and his accomplished friend Master Bates, joined in the hue-and-cry which was raised at Oliver's heels, in consequence of their executing an illegal conveyance of Mr. Brownlow's personal property, as has been already described, they were actuated by a very laudable and becoming regard for themselves; and forasmuch as the freedom of the subject and the liberty of the individual are among the first and proudest boasts of a true-hearted Englishman, so, I need hardly beg the reader to observe, that this action should tend to exalt them in the opinion of all public and patriotic men, in almost as great a degree as this strong proof of their anxiety for their own preservation and safety goes to corroborate and confirm the little code of laws which certain profound and sound-judging philosophers have laid down as the main-springs of all Nature's deeds and actions: the said philosophers very wisely reducing the good lady's proceedings to matters of maxim and theory: and, by a very neat and pretty compliment to her exalted wisdom and understanding, putting entirely out of sight any considerations of heart, or generous impulse and feeling. For, these are matters totally beneath a female who is acknowledged by universal admission to be far above the numerous little foibles and weaknesses of her sex.

"If I wanted any further proof of the strictly philosophical nature of the conduct of these young gentlemen in their very delicate predicament, I should at once find it in the fact (also recorded in a foregoing part of this narrative), of their quitting the pursuit, when the general attention was fixed upon Oliver; and making immediately for their home by the shortest possible cut. Although I do not mean to assert that it is usually the practice of renowned and learned sages, to shorten the road to any great conclusion (their course indeed being rather to lengthen the distance, by various circumlocations and discursive staggerings, like unto those in which drunken men under the pressure of a too mighty flow of ideas, are prone to indulge); still, I do mean to say, and do say distinctly, that it is the invariable practice of many mighty philosophers, in carrying out their theories, to evince great wisdom and foresight in providing against every possible contingency which can be supposed at all likely to affect themselves. Thus, to do a great right, you may do a little wrong; and you may take any means which the end to be attained, will justify; the amount of the right, or the amount of the wrong, or indeed the distinction between the two, being left entirely to the philosopher concerned, to be settled and determined by his clear, comprehensive, and impartial view of his own particular case." (Oliver Twist, chap. XII.)