Keith Hudson wrote:
>
[snip]
> The lofty sentiments of Robert Kennedy came from someone who was supported
> by family wealth of dubious origin and who could afford the best research
> assistants and speech writers. We're hearing much the same spin-doctor
> stuff from Tony Blair, William Hague and other politicians (also financed
> by Party "donations" of very dubious origins and motivations) during the
> run-up to our general election. Most of our electorate are heartily fed up
> with it. As we say in our quaint way over here: "Fine words butter no
> parsnips".
[snip]
But that's why we need Pearl Harbors and such! (In
WWI, the communists found out that "the proletariat" was
really composed of Germans and Brits and so forth, and
that the myth-of-blood was still thicker than
any social or economic critique.)
So that the electorate will cease having such petty peacetime
thoughts and the men line up to enlist faster than
they could ever be drafted, and the women get all
teary about their sons and husbands going forth to
slay the enemy-du-jour.
--
Almost every day, I get a little excited when
I head someone make some kind of
statement that strikes me as containing a bit of truth
about (to adduce the title of Elias Canetti's
excellent book:) "crowds and power" -- but then when I
take them seriously and propose really doing away with
the cvrowds and the power, suddenly they turn on me
and express their concern that there is something seriously
wrong with me, or at least that I am improper and impolite.
Parmenides got it right: The mass of men is two-headed,
thinking what-is is not and what-is-not is, at the same time.
Actually, it's ever worse, although his phrase "two headed"
is still wonderfully evocative: The mass of men simultaneously hold
contrary beliefs and at the same time don't really "hold" any
beliefs, since they are acting out the "positive
social unconscious of permissions, which is not the Freudian
unconscious, and which is one of the greatest danger
in our time." (--Alain Resnais film "Mon Oncle d'Amerique")
Example of the positive social
unconscious of permissions: In any competition,
there is a winner and there are
losers. Everybody "consciously" tries to
win. But the spirit of
competition grows stronger no matter who wins or loses.
Only when nobody shows up for the competition because
they have decided they's rather live cooperatively instead,can
there be a possibility of stopping the spread of the
semiotic virus "competition".
Language is a virus from outer space.
(--William S. Burroughs)
+\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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