How red left me speechless

There was this line from Miro...

There was this line from Miro, that went something like...I choose a direction, and when I'm done with it, I go in a completely different direction. I love that.

A particularly acute reader pointed out, with regard to my last rambling post, that it was quite ironic for me, of all people, to be writing about pluralism when I am, in reality, actually unaccepting of differences.

You wonder about this blog and your writing here over the years. Your varied musical tastes (from post-punk to Jordi Savall), the change in your reading habits towards more poetry and fiction, the move to ethics & economics, your fascination with crows, the 'Red Man', the sublime art you've got to see over the years and commented upon, your mistrust of, and indifference to, politics as well as your hatred for fundamentalism...all that, despite the odd rant here and there, and...

Well, of course it could be that all those things are only in one's mind and what really counts is how you live, how you interact with other people: experience is not a set of fleeting impressions or a few stray words; isn't there a fundamental narrowness here? Here, I think the reader is on safer ground. But even then, is that really true?

... 

second thoughts, 'second spaces': 

But what is so surprising? After all, some of the most brutal men to have ever lived on this planet undoubtedly had "fine feelings" when it came to art, music, etc. (i.e the Nazis); and haven't there been poets, writers, and artists who have espoused anti-semitic or racist or fascist views (Ezra Pound)? Closer to home, you see academics who are, supposedly, fantastically well-read and yet, at the end of the day, they're still major league assholes; and what of the self-styled 'religious' who have often, far too often, promoted or supported bigotry, hatred, repression and violence? 

What (or who), then, is a liberal? Perhaps we should put our deep passions to one side after all. The disturbing possibility that poetry or philosophy may not, in the final analysis, be intimately related to goodness. Are there particular features or characteristics of a person, then? If pushed, I'd be inclined to think: maybe. Maybe the ability to find second spaces, to give others (and yourself) second chances, cut them some slack (everyone's got some crookedness somewhere); one should not think everyone else is illiberal. 

One of the great things about this place-despite, or maybe because of, its barbarity-is the desire to get on, to forget. In may ways, at the day-to-day level, there's a certain ease about 'the east', a reluctance to be too confrontational or antagonistic (is this related to a lack of individualism?) For all my love of West, North, there's still something to be said for East; the South, however, continues to piss me off!