Ruins Of Our Time
The beautiful monster
vomits a stream of watches
clocks jewels knives silver
coins & copper blood
The well of time & trouble
whiskey bottles perfume
razor blades beads
liquid insects hammers
& thin nails the feet of
birds eagle feathers & claws
machine parts chrome
teeth hair shards of
pottery & skulls the ruins
of our time the debris by
a lake the gleaming
beer cans & rust & sable
menstrual fur
Dance naked on broken
bones feet bleed & stain
glass cuts cover your mind
& the dry end of vacuum
boat while the people
drop lines in still pools
& pull ancient trout
— Excerpt, The Lords and The New Creatures, by Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971)
To what end the ‘world’ exists, to what end ‘mankind’ exists, ought not to concern us at all for the moment except as objects of humor: for the presumptuousness of the little human worm is the funniest thing at present on the world’s stage; on the other hand, do ask yourself why you, the individual, exist, and if you can get no other answer try for once to justify the meaning of your existence as it were a posteriori by setting before yourself an aim, a goal, a ‘to this end’, an exalted and noble ‘to this end’ . Perish in pursuit of this and only this – I know of no better aim of life than that of perishing, animae magnae prodigus, in pursuit of the great and the impossible. If, on the other hand, the doctrines of sovereign becoming, of the fluidity of all concepts, types and species, of the lack of any cardinal distinction between man and animal – doctrines which I consider true but deadly – are thrust upon the people for another generation with the rage for instruction that has by now become normal, no one should be surprised if the people perishes of petty egoism, ossification and greed, falls apart and ceases to be a people; in its place systems of individualist egoism, brotherhoods for the rapacious exploitation of the non-brothers,……..
― excerpt, Untimely Meditations by Friedrich Nietzsche
We underestimate the violence of the time in which we live, of post industrial capitalism, of growing resource scarcity and climate disaster. We underestimate, or instinctively deny causes that can only be ameliorated by swift, radical alteration of the first-world life style.
