Thursday, September 30, 2004
In Passing
Each day has begun to look a crisis. The tantalising void beckons...
Each day has begun to look a crisis. The tantalising void beckons...
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Death of A Salesman
Reading Arthur Miller for the first time. It is a little difficult to remain unmoved by the character sketch which emerges from the conversations.
Reading Arthur Miller for the first time. It is a little difficult to remain unmoved by the character sketch which emerges from the conversations.
Friday, September 24, 2004
Slipstream
Well the lush separation unfolds you --
and the products of wealth
push you along on the bow wave
of the spiritless undying selves.
And you press on God's waiter your last dime --
as he hands you the bill.
And you spin in the slipstream --
timeless -- unreasoning --
paddle right out of the mess.
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Well the lush separation unfolds you --
and the products of wealth
push you along on the bow wave
of the spiritless undying selves.
And you press on God's waiter your last dime --
as he hands you the bill.
And you spin in the slipstream --
timeless -- unreasoning --
paddle right out of the mess.
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, Aqualung
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Unclaimed
To make love with a stranger is the best.
There is no riddle and there is no test. --
To lie and love, not aching to make sense
Of this night in the mesh of reference.
To touch, unclaimed by fear of imminent day,
And understand, as only strangers may.
To feel the beat of foreign heart to heart
Preferring neither to prolong nor part.
To rest within the unknown arms and know
That this is all there is; that this is so.
Vikram Seth
In no uncertain sense have I sought estrangement thus far ... and a dialectic rages.
To make love with a stranger is the best.
There is no riddle and there is no test. --
To lie and love, not aching to make sense
Of this night in the mesh of reference.
To touch, unclaimed by fear of imminent day,
And understand, as only strangers may.
To feel the beat of foreign heart to heart
Preferring neither to prolong nor part.
To rest within the unknown arms and know
That this is all there is; that this is so.
Vikram Seth
In no uncertain sense have I sought estrangement thus far ... and a dialectic rages.
Futurist
Reading Russell in his Unpopular Essays has been interesting. He makes a fairly decent historian when he debunks philosophical and other forms of intellectual rot though the ages, in An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish. However, he proves to be a rather curious futurist with rather simplistic beliefs about the way events will/should unfold themselves, in The Future of Mankind. I found this particular excerpt, written during the period of the Cold War, particularly satisfying to my sense of irony :-
The first step - and it is one which is now not very difficult - is to persuade the United States and the British Commonwealth of the absolute necessity for a military unification of the world. The gevernments of the English-speaking nations whould then offer to all other nations the option of entering into a firm Alliance, involving a pooling of military resources and mutual defence against aggression. In the case of hesitant nations, such as Italy, great inducements, economic and military, should be held out to produce their co-operation.
At a certain stage, when the Alliance had acquired sufficient strength, any Great Power still refusing to join should be threatened with outlawry, and, if recalcitrant, should be regarded as a public enemy. The resulting war, if it occurred fairly soon, would probably leave the economic and political structure of the United States intact, and would enable the victorious Alliance to establish a monopoly of armed force, and therefore to make peace secure. But perhaps, if the Alliance were sufficiently powerful, war would not be necessary, and the reluctant Powers would prefer to enter it as equals rather than, after a terrible war, submit to it as vanquished enemies. If this were to happen, the world might emerge from its present dangers without another great war. I do not see hope of such a happy issue by any other method...
The first step - and it is one which is now not very difficult - is to persuade the United States and the British Commonwealth of the absolute necessity for a military unification of the world. The gevernments of the English-speaking nations whould then offer to all other nations the option of entering into a firm Alliance, involving a pooling of military resources and mutual defence against aggression. In the case of hesitant nations, such as Italy, great inducements, economic and military, should be held out to produce their co-operation.
At a certain stage, when the Alliance had acquired sufficient strength, any Great Power still refusing to join should be threatened with outlawry, and, if recalcitrant, should be regarded as a public enemy. The resulting war, if it occurred fairly soon, would probably leave the economic and political structure of the United States intact, and would enable the victorious Alliance to establish a monopoly of armed force, and therefore to make peace secure. But perhaps, if the Alliance were sufficiently powerful, war would not be necessary, and the reluctant Powers would prefer to enter it as equals rather than, after a terrible war, submit to it as vanquished enemies. If this were to happen, the world might emerge from its present dangers without another great war. I do not see hope of such a happy issue by any other method...
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Unpopular Essays
Bertrand Russell, On Being Modern-minded, 1950
The modern-minded man , although he believes profoundly in the wisdom of his period, must be presumed to be very modest about his personal powers. His highest hope is to think first about what is to be thought, to say what is about to be said, and to feel what is going to be felt; he has no wish to think better thoughts than his neighbours, to say things showing more insight, or to have emotions which are not those of some fashionable group, but only to be slightly ahead of the other in point of time. Quite deliberately he suppresses what is individual in himself for the sake of the admiration of the herd. A mentally solitary life, such as that of Copernicus, or Spinoza, or Milton after the Restoration, seems pointless according to modern standards...Why should an individual set himself up as an independent judge?Is it not clear that wisdom resides in the blood of the Nordic race or, alternatively, in the proletariat? And in any case what is the use of an eccentric opinion, which can never hope to conquer the great agencies of publicity?
Bertrand Russell, On Being Modern-minded, 1950
Just Read
The hospitalisation gave me an opportunity to finish reading Crime and Punishment. It had been suspended early last year...
The hospitalisation gave me an opportunity to finish reading Crime and Punishment. It had been suspended early last year...
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Question
Wonder if its pathological apathy or philosophical indifference...?
Maybe Both.
Wonder if its pathological apathy or philosophical indifference...?
Maybe Both.
