State of the Union Sampling
As planned I met with friends Tuesday evening for philosophy discussion. We considered the words of Seneca on the subject of friendship. The subject was apropos in our own time of political gridlock, when words seem to make little difference. Feeling is confused with thinking. Feelings are shifting sand, nothing upon which to forge a consensus.
While driving home I caught a few of the final minutes of the President’s speech. It was an emotionless, labored reading from the teleprompter. From his statement that “Americans are dreamers too,” I had the thought that he is willing to condemn 700,000 young adults to deportation, “the dreamers” —if lawmakers who oppose this cruel act are unwilling to pay the ransom price that he has in mind. This will be under the guise of protecting the dreams of “real Americans,” his base. Go figure. I have said before that language is bent to breaking lately. We are in a hall of mirrors. Who are the dreamers?
I instinctively turned to my standard resource of wisdom and sanity, the song-smithing of Bruce Springsteen. Once again I was swept away, touched at a deep level by the tune and words of Jungleland. It is a sad story, not one that ends well. But then so with the great story’s of human struggle. There are no heroes, just human beings who display the struggle between the inner darkness, and the light of our better selves as we face intractable circumstances.
We are all the Magic Rat with the barefoot girl taking a stab at romance.
Tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand
Down in Jungleland…..The Rat’s own dream guns him down
As shots echo down them hallways in the night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light
Outside the street’s on fire
In a real death waltz
Between what’s flesh and what’s fantasy.And the poets down here
Don’t write nothing at all
They just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night
They reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand
But they wind up wounded
Not even dead
Tonight in Jungleland……
I love this opera-like Rock tune. It is a Homeric-like rendition of us, at this time and place.
Here is a youtube video that juxtaposes clips from Westside Story with the performance by Springsteen of his song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoHhXH77EwA
2 thoughts on “State of the Union Sampling”
This is no criticism, Jerry; just observation. But two paragraphs after writing “Feeling is confused with thinking. Feelings are shifting sand, nothing upon which to forge a consensus,” you wrote that your “standard resource of wisdom and sanity” is “song-smithing of Bruce Springsteen [that] swept [you] away, touched at a deep level.”
Are you saying that you, as well, try to make sense of upsetting thoughts by flooding yourself with feeling? What aspect of your idea am I failing to grasp that prevents the second claim from undercutting your initial argument?
Nancy, my point about feelings/emotion is when those states are mistaken for thought, misunderstanding, failed communication results. Feelings change like the weather. Policy and legislation cannot be based upon feelings. Emotion has an important role in our lives and has to be taken into account. My resort to Springsteen’s music is my attempt to understand what I was feeling. Thought is a different act of bringing language to bear on the circumstances of life, so that in concert with others appropriate policy and actions can be devised.
When it comes to politics, I want to know what you think, — not how you feel.