What does this chunk of language mean?

Guest   Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:09 am GMT
Those who have power and influence often have much to be optimistic about, to be programmed to lift up their eyes to the hills — of which Davos has plenty — and see more prosperity coming their way.
I am confused by this chunk of language "to be programmed to lift up their eyes to the hills". What does it mean? Any figurative meaning there?
HE   Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:40 am GMT
"Any figurative meaning there?"

Yes indeed.

Check out the Bible - Psalm 121.
DX   Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:40 am GMT
It means the elite can escape the full effects of any recession, and so they are have good reason to be optimistic. They are hardwired to see the future positively - which is why they promote mass immigration and things like that - cheap labour means more money for them, and they can escape the higher crime rates and other negative effects by means of their money.
Guest   Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:49 am GMT
Still not clear, even literally
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:22 pm GMT
Those people fortunate enough to possess power and influence are naturally more likely to be optimistic about any future turn of events simply because they are the most likely to ensure that whatever happens will be to their own benefit! That's how things usually pan out is it not? And if money is involved, then the old adage will always hold sway - most of the readies goes to those who already have plenty! :-)

To lift your eyes up to the hills in this sense basically means to be positive in outlook and to look on the bright side, and as I've explained, the powerful elite are inclined to this mentality - "programmed to it".

I wonder what sort of season they're having over in Davos? The ski slopes of Scotland are doing really well for snow, while it seems that Southern England is "roasting" in unseasonal January warmth.

Talking of "chunk of Language"......I think a past master expert of very convoluted "chunks of language" was W S Gilbert, the lyricist in the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. This is displayed by an equally brilliant Major General from the "Pirates of Penzance" who has, of necessity, to sing and clearly enunciate all the words at a rate of about 1000mph. The repetitive choruses have been deleted. I think this musical lyric from that G & S opera must be one of the most difficult to pronounce perfectly at such a rapid speed in the entire English Language:

I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical

I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous

I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore

Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General

In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin"
When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at
And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat"

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee

For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern Major-General

But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern Major-General