Perhaps it is worth pointing out (on the subject of "symbolism") that the
screams of children everywhere, now,(spoken of so pertinently by Dominic)
express but are not for themselves >symbolic< of dreadful fear of mutilation
& death: they are not yet (while they scream) "the ghosts of themselves"
though perhaps "lifting distressful hands as if to bless"; but there _is_ a
lot of very symbolic gesticulation going on, some of it on this list. I
think heartfelt response would be more appropriate than threatening to dig
an SKK rifle out of the garden to "shoot back" at a few local extremists or
than throwing terms like "crucifixion" around rather wildly, as Robin points
out. Marx himself, of course, wasn't above (or below?) gesticulating
symbolically & frothing at the mouth, poor misunderstood genius. The trouble
is that the gestures, the blarings of the politicians and attendant "media"
are an accompaniment to actual horrors: drums & cymbals,war music that
paradoxically causes forgetting of what is & has been happening. I don't
think that even hoping for a later more peaceful species to replace us, or
reflection on the bad manners of the dinosaurs, should or (better) can
distract us from the pain of living now, though I do understand the symbolic
despair of your words, Erminia. But why do you so easily assume that nobody
has ever achieved "something different" & speak only of failure? This is
close to idolizing History, which "to the defeated/May say Alas but cannot
help or pardon".
best
Martin
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