Canto VII Inertia Quotes

After spending some time wander-moping, Pound decides to just put his cards on the table and to call out the people he thinks are responsible for the crumminess of the modern world. Basically, he feels like the biggest problem with people is inertia, meaning that modern people are simply stuck in their ways, uninterested in really hearing new ideas or doing anything that takes them out of their routines. This commitment to never changing sucks the life out of these people, and anything they say just ends up being "a shell of speech."

According to Pound, modern people suffering from inertia barely have the motivation to sit up under their own power. To help convey this lack of energy or enthusiasm, Pound describes these people as being propped between chairs and table, like old men who can't even sit up straight without someone else coming in and moving them.

According to Canto VII, there is a special commitment to beauty and newness that should exist inside each and every one of us. When this force is absent, though, we just turn into shells of the people we could have been, and we are "moved by no inner being."