But the truth is that if division and violence define war, the world has always been at war and always will be; if man is waiting for universal peace in order to establish his existence validly; he will wait indefinitely: there will never be any other future. …Our hold on the future is limited;…
Someone who knows me well took me to task this week on account of my contempt for capitalism. His complaint paraphrased, – “Do you mean to say the guy operating the corner grocery down the street is an avaricious, exploiting….etc.” He and I were not in a situation to discuss the matter at length,…
Writing about the death of someone I did not know, I took a short walk in the snowfall to think. There’s a purity about snow. I remembered white symbolizes death in Japan. Purity is erasure, a blank slate. Death is erasure of the filigreed world, that Baroque montage of shape, color and sound, the…
She was thirty years old. Several days ago report of a suicide on my iphone feed caught my attention. The age of the individual prompted me to read further. She was a North Carolinian, my home state. Chosen Miss America 2019, she was a civil attorney who did free legal work for people unjustly…
Some additional thoughts on capitalism… I remember a time when capitalism did not seem so rapacious, as destructive in its general effect upon the social circle within my awareness. Perhaps as a young adult in my twenties, I was simply ignorant, blind to suffering of others, particularly citizens of color. Yes, I was ignorant…
The specifically human form of aggression, violence, is closely connected to the awareness of death, which is exclusively human. The economy of violence is ruled by the logic of accumulation. The more violence you exert, the more powerful you feel. Accumulated killing power [Tötungsgewalt] produces a feeling of growth, force, power, [Macht] — of…
Nihilistic pessimismand rationalistic optimismfail in their effort to juggle awaythe bitter truth of sacrifice:they also eliminate all reasons for wanting it. Someone told a young invalid who wept because she had to leave her home, her occupations, and her whole past life, “Get cured. The rest has no importance.” “But if nothing has any…
A child’s face is so moving, it is not that the child is more movingor that [she] has more of a right to happiness than the others:it is that [she] is the living affirmation of human transcendence;[she] is on the watch, she is an eager hand held out to the world,[she] is a hope,…
American history has been about guns. Ask any indigenous American. Ask any Republican for that matter… Yesterday I watched an old Western movie entitled, Last Train From Gun Hill, staring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. The plot as you can guess is about outlaws and gun-play. The “good guy,” the one wearing the star…
I am not a fan of Heavy Metal music. That would be an understatement. If offered free tickets I would not attend a concert. However I have friends who are fans of Heavy Metal. There’s something about a song, or a band, or a composer that resonates with a chord in one’s own soul. …
