I want to thank everyone as well, working in these areas isn't, for me,
like doing art in a way, but trying to disentangle anguish. I have no idea
how to go anywhere with this, politically; I feel hopeless, and the U.S.
is a convoluted mess of ideologies - not even competing, but isolated from
each other. Argh! (not the right expletive, but I'm not sure what would
be!)
Thank you again, Alan
On Wed, 27 Aug 2014, dave miller wrote:
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.
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