Well done Alan for tackling these subjects. I agree artists should not be silent (and that includes me, but am struggling to get my creative act together at present). But you are an inspiration to me - please keep up the great work!
Ana - I had contact with Opus Dei many years ago. I was a student at manchester University and desperately needed somewhere to live. All the student flats and halls had been filled by the time I started looking and the only accommodation the Uni had available was a hall of residence run by the Opus Dei. As a naive 19 year old I was interviewed by a very stern spanish man in a brown cloak, dressed like a monk, who said I could live there but I would have to go to mass at 6am every morning. I was brought up as a catholic so it wasn't too alien to me, and I was unsure at that stage of my life if I believed or not, but I turned them down as i remember having very strange feelings about the whole setup, plus the mass idea was a nightmare. Also I knew I couldn't survive in a place like that, it felt like a monastery. But there were people there I recognised from my course, and I remember their reaction to me was strange like I'd seen them as they really were. I've heard a lot of horror stories about Opus Dei since and can't believe I stupidly found myself in that situation. Your account about being tortured is fascinating - heart breaking - terrifying and very thought provoking. Thanks for sharing something so personal. cheers dave On 27 August 2014 18:57, Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> wrote: > > I will read it and I know all of this and I was also shot at in Israel > years ago and I am horrified by Israel. I do think ISIS is the result of > something else but it is the logic of the war machine, the Israeli war > machine ours, the streets of Ferguson - which could be anywhere in the U.S. > What I'm arguing is that this something else cannot be explained, that > poetics are necessary - and why are artists so silent on this? > This is NOT US against THEM - this is US against ourselves. > > I also feel, having been a somewhat minor member of the left all thru the > 60s in the US etc. etc. that we too easily blame ourselves for EVERYTHING - > we are part of the problem, but so is ISIS. The "also" is important below - > they are more than these children. I've known a lot of children of > concentration camp parents and their reactions are wildly varied (including > in several cases moving to Germany); none of this is simple cause and > affect. > > I was also btw in Israel when Nassir was calling for the Jews to be > drowned in the sea, when my friends were being shot at, when I had a knife > pulled on me in my own dorm room, when an Arab who was my friend was beaten > to an inch of his life and dropped in a gully (beaten by other Arabs). > Violence breeds violence. I'm not trying to analyze the politics of ISIS - > I read about them but I'm not capable of political science - but I am > trying to deal with the poetics/poesis of what's inside each of us. > > Alan > > > On Wed, 27 Aug 2014, Ana Vald?s wrote: > > Alan, read it, please, ISIS is also the children of the terrible war >> againt Irak, a war based on false information and cheap oil. ISIS is the >> children of the drones hitting villagers weddings in Pakistan. No, we don't >> see the drones but the victims see us, all, Westerner, as the ones sending >> the drones. >> >> www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/25/how-brutalized-become-brutal >> >> I was in Gaza some years ago, the same week Rachel Corrie was killed, >> crushed by a bulldozzer send to crush the houses at the border. >> Many small kids ran to the morgue to see her dead body, I wonder how many >> of >> them are in the ranks of Hamas today. >> >> I was myselt tortured for many years ago, I was tortured by fellow >> landsmen >> who believed they needed punish me for not sharing their ideas about many >> things >> >> http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/03/28/torture-works/ >> >> I marched with the women survivors of Srebrenica in the ex-Yugoslavia some >> years ago as well, they want still justice for their dead relatives >> >> We live in a time where Ferguson, Gaza, Montevideo, Srebrenica, carry >> painful memories to share. >> >> Ana >> >> >> On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 2:35 PM, Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >> ISIS NEWFLAG >> >> http://www.alansondheim.org/isisflag.png >> http://www.alansondheim.org/isisflag.mp4 >> >> A new flag for ISIS. A cross turned, kindly bent to let >> the bodies down, perhaps an arm remains, propping the >> rest of the weight. the wounded. Perhaps an X, sign of >> belonging, gratitude to the beautiful clean world. There >> are no animals here. Perhaps an X which itself moves in >> violence, the focus of someone else's dream: it was the >> land and its god which did the dreaming. Perhaps an >> occlusion of solar light, a moment's cooling. But a new >> flag, new allure, new days and new bodies. >> >> The allure of the X as well, a new flat for the taking, >> copyright patent NEWFLAG, new bodies, worlds to conquer. >> New: forms of torture, ransom, violence, pillage. >> New: nations, cleansings, war machines, prisons. >> New: religions new-day dawning, new controls. >> New: cleansed women, children. New: thanks be to God. >> Thanks be to God. HE almighty. Thanks be to God. >> >> Perhaps an X, carved, above or through the eyes. >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> >> >> >> -- >> http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 >> http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ >> http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia >> http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 >> >> >> >> cell Sweden +4670-3213370 >> cell Uruguay +598-99470758 >> >> >> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with >> your >> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always >> long >> to return. >> ? Leonardo da Vinci >> >> >> > == > email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ > web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285 > music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ > current text http://www.alansondheim.org/st.txt > == > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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