No One Dared
…we understand our situation
as one of high tragedy,
alone in a silent universe,
without intrinsic meaning,
condemned to create value.But at a later moment,
the same doctrine, by its own inherent bent,
yields a flattened world,
in which there aren’t very meaningful choices
because there aren’t any crucial issues.
The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor, The Slide to Subjectivism p. 68
Our flattened world! What of a world that I and others cannot (will not) recognize as “world”? Without a sky-god for and to whom one dedicates a life, or constructs a cathedral, or civilizes simple folk by moral example, by the glamor of market success, etc., etc.. This flattened world, without center is without stakes, a landscape of nothing identified as a compelling purpose.
The vertigo, absence of orientation gives the phrase “lost in space” a down to earth meaning.
Two guys seated next to me converse on and on about last night’s playoff game between the Knicks and the Spurs in Madison Square Garden. Incessant yammering! The biggest comeback in NBA history writes the New York Times. “It’s been a long time coming,” said one fan. “This is what New York dreamed of.”
Keep dreaming while inflation ravages everyone and looks to become much worse! Yet another “circus” of mis-direction.
I absolutely do not care, as all of this seems a “pissing into the wind”. Is “this” the unbearable truth I have to live with?
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
* header image – Shibuya, Tokyo (Andrew Curry, 2016)
2 thoughts on “No One Dared”
Paul Simon was and still is a genius when it comes to digging into our collective psyches. Our friend Michael responded to one of recents posts using Simon’s lyrics from America. From that same song but a different verse I’m posting them here:
Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America
Is that not what we are all feeling and are we not all looking for some version of America?
I agree. We are accustomed to passive observation, believing a tale we’ve been told somehow will come true. It hasn’t. America is what we manage to make of ourselves here and now. The future emanates from the present. Let’s speak with one another to say “enough” of playing the spectator. Shall we do the work of continuing to engage, to build bridges until what is possible becomes more clear. Or not.
Thank you for a reply that resonates.