To all the writers at Free Press, please don't stop shining a light on the causes of our societal decay. Though I'm still relatively young, like some of the more accomplished anonymous artists in this article I myself have given up hope. I've found it quite freeing. Sometimes a forest has to burn down to flourish again.
To all the writers at Free Press, please don't stop shining a light on the causes of our societal decay. Though I'm still relatively young, like some of the more accomplished anonymous artists in this article I myself have given up hope. I've found it quite freeing. Sometimes a forest has to burn down to flourish again.
This is a long quote, but one I keep coming back to recently, from The Golden Notebook, an all-time great novel. It felt particularly relevant while reading this article.
"The nightmare takes various forms, comes in sleep, or in wakefulness, and can be pictured most simply like this: There is a blindfolded man standing with his back to a brick wall. He has been tortured nearly to death. Opposite him are six men with their rifles raised ready to shoot, commanded by a seventh, who has his hand raised. When he drops his hand, the shots will ring out, and the prisoner will fall dead. But suddenly there is something unexpected – yet not altogether unexpected, for the seventh has been listening all this while in case it happens. There is an outburst of shouting and fighting in the street outside. The six men look, in query at their officer, the seventh. The officer stands waiting to see how the fighting outside will resolve itself. There is a shout: ‘We have won!’ At which the officer crosses the space to the wall, unties the bound man, and stands in his place. The man, hitherto bound, now binds the other. There is a moment, and this is the moment of horror in the nightmare, when they smile at each other: it is a brief, bitter, accepting smile. They are brothers in the smile. The smile holds a terrible truth that I want to evade. Because it cancels all creative emotion. The officer, the seventh, now stands blindfolded and waiting with his back to the wall. The former prisoner walks to the firing squad who are still standing with their weapons ready. He lifts his hand, then drops it. The shots ring out, and the body by the wall falls twitching. The six soldiers are shaken and sick; now they will go and drink to drown the memory of their murder. But the man who was bound, who is now free, smiles as they stumble away, cursing and hating him, just as they would have cursed and hated the other, now dead. And in this man’s smile at the six innocent soldiers there is a terrible understanding irony. This is the nightmare."
Hmm....why did those six soldiers do what they did? If "the other side" has won, what is the status of those 6 soldiers, who had opposed "the other side" up until this moment? Why don't they defend their original leader? Why does the released man assume he has the right to command those soldiers? Why do the soldiers agree to obey the command of their "new" commander? Etc. Etc. Etc. People who cannot adjust to a change in circumstances by making better decisions, but cling to what appeared to work for them in the past, seem to be a real problem here, it seems to me. Isn't it incumbent on every human being to constantly try to be the best human being possible in each new situation? Did anyone in this fable attempt that?
I like your read on it. The way I've always interpreted this is that the leaders of such movements really don't care about the masses at all. THey will use and abuse them to meet their ends, which are much the same as the "oppressors" they seek to take out.
To all the writers at Free Press, please don't stop shining a light on the causes of our societal decay. Though I'm still relatively young, like some of the more accomplished anonymous artists in this article I myself have given up hope. I've found it quite freeing. Sometimes a forest has to burn down to flourish again.
This is a long quote, but one I keep coming back to recently, from The Golden Notebook, an all-time great novel. It felt particularly relevant while reading this article.
"The nightmare takes various forms, comes in sleep, or in wakefulness, and can be pictured most simply like this: There is a blindfolded man standing with his back to a brick wall. He has been tortured nearly to death. Opposite him are six men with their rifles raised ready to shoot, commanded by a seventh, who has his hand raised. When he drops his hand, the shots will ring out, and the prisoner will fall dead. But suddenly there is something unexpected – yet not altogether unexpected, for the seventh has been listening all this while in case it happens. There is an outburst of shouting and fighting in the street outside. The six men look, in query at their officer, the seventh. The officer stands waiting to see how the fighting outside will resolve itself. There is a shout: ‘We have won!’ At which the officer crosses the space to the wall, unties the bound man, and stands in his place. The man, hitherto bound, now binds the other. There is a moment, and this is the moment of horror in the nightmare, when they smile at each other: it is a brief, bitter, accepting smile. They are brothers in the smile. The smile holds a terrible truth that I want to evade. Because it cancels all creative emotion. The officer, the seventh, now stands blindfolded and waiting with his back to the wall. The former prisoner walks to the firing squad who are still standing with their weapons ready. He lifts his hand, then drops it. The shots ring out, and the body by the wall falls twitching. The six soldiers are shaken and sick; now they will go and drink to drown the memory of their murder. But the man who was bound, who is now free, smiles as they stumble away, cursing and hating him, just as they would have cursed and hated the other, now dead. And in this man’s smile at the six innocent soldiers there is a terrible understanding irony. This is the nightmare."
Hmm....why did those six soldiers do what they did? If "the other side" has won, what is the status of those 6 soldiers, who had opposed "the other side" up until this moment? Why don't they defend their original leader? Why does the released man assume he has the right to command those soldiers? Why do the soldiers agree to obey the command of their "new" commander? Etc. Etc. Etc. People who cannot adjust to a change in circumstances by making better decisions, but cling to what appeared to work for them in the past, seem to be a real problem here, it seems to me. Isn't it incumbent on every human being to constantly try to be the best human being possible in each new situation? Did anyone in this fable attempt that?
I like your read on it. The way I've always interpreted this is that the leaders of such movements really don't care about the masses at all. THey will use and abuse them to meet their ends, which are much the same as the "oppressors" they seek to take out.
That is excellent. Pete Townshend summed it up: "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."