>And yes, people do indeed kill people, but religion and ideology kill far
>more. I think I would stand by my premise, though I'll grant you it is
>uncompromising, and I am quite happy to be tainted by those of us, dead and
>alive, who are irredeemable monsters. The monsters are human too.
Looking at what's happening in Israel at the moment, it's a little
difficult to deny the murderousness of religion. But I wouldn't like to
give up reading George Herbert in protest.
Who was it who mortared in the keystones of arches with human blood?
There is the disturbing fact that when Timur the Lame (or Tamberlaine)
conquered a town, he slaughtered every inhabitant - except the artisans,
who he took back to Samarkand. With this labour, he made Samarkand "the
most beautiful city on earth". After he died, there was a long peace;
his descendents were famous astronomers and so on. Later they invaded
India, and installed the Moghul Empire, which is responsible for some of
the summits of Indian culture.
To think poetry or any other human activity is above it all is, I think,
to be seriously mistaken (why, really, the shock that murderers might
read poetry? so do mothers, brickworkers, saints and social workers...)
What a piece of work is man! But maybe that leads us back to the dilemma
of Sade, where we've already been.
Best
Alison
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