WHAT HAS TO BE DONE WHEN NOTHING CAN BE DONE. Dystopia has to be faced and dissolved by irony. If paranoia “knows well”— we need a method of ignorance. The spectrum of the possible is much larger than the range of probability. Irony is the excess of language that opens the door to the…
A visit to Cave Hill cemetery forces a dislocation in time. My sense of being “in the flow” stutters, stops. The watch on my wrist “keeps time” and my cell time display functions. But in the presence of the dead, and with statues of angels standing watch —life itself strikes me as palpably temporary. …
If I could send a message to everyone who does not blindly follow Donald Trump and the Republican Party…………………this would be it. Take courage my friends. Keep working it. That is, — the one special life that you have been given.
We Americans entertain the notion that we are unlike other peoples. It’s a seductive thought. The American system of governance is emulated, our society is knit together by fascination with sporting events, our economy is a Capitalistic paradise, etc. One could go on and on about American Exceptionalism. The myth has worn very…
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction. –Albert Einstein The photo of a anonymous woman sitting on a curb in the aftermath of one of many random killings in a…
I’ll not forget my first visit to a drag strip. Drag strips are often in out of the way places. By definition it was and is an “outlaw” activity. I was a high school sophomore. I lied to my father about my intentions, in order to gain permission to go with Eddie to the…
I am seated before a screen, letters, words, sentences appearing by magic, as fingers press buttons. The words, arranged in grammatical structure convey the meaning within my mind, and serendipitiously to your mind, if you should discover and read the post. The symbols on the screen are evanescent, held in being by retinal persistence. …
This morning I read more from Virilio’s book, Lost Dimension, published in 1984. I read a few pages and came upon this section. These words left me existentially numb. For now I can read no further. Basically, if the early sciences were sciences of the earth, of matter and of physical sciences, sciences of…
“global village”
now becomes disturbing.
Instantaneous military presence,
pure speed,
exhaustion of the world,
geocide.
The twilight of places…
What about the rhythms of daily life,
the cosmic rhythms?
Speed paralyzes us.
Go faster, but where?
Everything is moving,
but nothing is changing.
It still takes a child 20 years to develop,
and 3 hours to digest a meal,
—but there is no future.
Each time speed of movement increases,
control and traceability increase the same amount.
We are now submerged
by ubiquitous commerce,
the spectacle,
repetition and shock.
Public space crumbles,
is replaced by networks of communication.
The counterpoint of the worst,
of peril,
is the imperative of rescue,
the shelter that saves,
the church as a ark and refuge
It is not a question of denying progress
but dealing with it’s negativity.
There is no substance without accident
and no accident without substance.
(taken from LOST DIMENSION originally published in 1984)
If you have visited this blog to any extent you are aware that I am taken with the work of Paul Virilio. It seems to me that his work can be a lifeline of understanding, and perhaps a entre to applying CPR in the context of disintegration of institutions here in the West
What do you do when you can’t sleep? Too much caffeine maybe? Or is it the picture of the kid that haunts me? I’ve been thinking of him since this past Wednesday when I glimpsed his picture in the NY Times. The boy lives in Aleppo. He was pulled bleeding but alive from the…
