"Never Speaking Ill Of The Dead: Selective Practice?" Topic

Supposedly comes from a Spartan, 500 years before Christ.

The Latin phrase de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est is usually shortened to de mortuis nil nisi bonum or sometimes just nil nisi bonum. It is variously translated as "No one can speak ill of the dead," "Of the dead, speak no evil," or, more literally, "Let nothing be said of the dead but what is good."

This expression is used in modern parlance with two nearly contradictory significances. In legal contexts, it refers to the common law principle that defaming a deceased person is not actionable. In colloquial contexts, it indicates that it is socially inappropriate to say anything negative about a (recently) deceased person.

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I'm going to go with the simply good manners approach.

Absent truly vile persons such as a Manson or Dahmer, it's just as easy to say nothing.

I have no problems speaking ill of the dead, where I spoke ill of them while alive.

Last week, for instance, a political columnist that I found particularly wretched went on to have what I trust was an uncomfortable discussion with St. Peter, followed by directions to the downward elevator.

However, I try my best not to express those feelings in the obituary column. That would be more a condemnation of myself than on the not-so-dearly departed.

I don't spit in church, either.

There's a time and place for everything.

Antony is speaking ironically but in the end he was defending Caesar so much so that the Roman mob burned down the homes of the conspirators and gave Antony a power base to use as Caesar's heir and avenger . I am not going to propose any modern day scenarios as that would be politicaL and as a previos DH denizen I have no desire to return.

The "never speak ill of the dead" tradition here is very foreign to me

Why is it so hard to understand that there are other viewpoints in the world besides your own?
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Tim

Tim,

I don't think it was the idea of another viewpoint that was hard to understand but the viewpoint itself. CC seems to be a very receptive individual. From the sound of his question and the discourse that has taken place here I suspect he is more befuddled and confused by a practice that seems to border on hypocrisy, if not actually being hypocritical itself.

Ok, guys. I've just posted this in the Kennedy obit.
TMP link

Aside from the DH break, I took a couple of days of much needed rest, which gave me a chance to feel like myself again. Severe sleep deprivation, along with other work and family health situations, combined to turn me into something I truly disliked.

So, let me try again . . .

Losing a family member is always difficult, and I am sorry that his family has once again suffered a major loss.

Of course, to a lesser degree, that sense of loss extends to many of his admirers and supporters, and this is neither the time nor the place to deride their expressions of grief.

In short, I apologize for verbalizing here my personal feelings.

Now that I'm feeling a little more "normal", I want everyone to know that I will make a special effort to exercise restraint and not make this, and other similar loses, the time to express them.

Dan