Was drawn to this by Tom (Tomclark.blogspot.com). The sheer desperation and hopelessness etched on people's faces is staggering. It does make you wonder if our time here on this planet is over and if it is whether that's necessarily such a bad thing.
Yes, no more Bach and no more possibility of a Bach but if there is a balance, a weighing up, then you have to wonder. If you needed any convincing the twentieth century, with its astounding levels of violence and stupidity, is there for all to see.
Is there any space left to be human, simply human?
This, you think to yourself, is just the beginning if climate change really kicks in. Probably won't be around to see it but the scramble is on. It is not for no reason that many of the depictions of the post-apocalyptic scenario depict an elite fenced off in their little islands of comfort and security; the wretched of the earth are kept at bay, dying to get in. Why are utopias islands, fantasy islands? The modern day version, I suppose, is Ibiza, where you can escape any responsibility. The body, finally, free of guilt. And yet, at the same time, what we don't see, what we don't want to see, is Icarus, scrambling in the water, drowning..just another meaningless death.
What can scandalize us today except our own inhumanity?
Zadie Smith: find your beach! That perfect moment of tranquility, far from the madding crowd, inner enlightenment, untarnished by the vista of human suffering or any recognition of your causal part in it. Lone Rangers, Robinson Crusoes: me against the world, against nature. As the Americans are wont to say-and this perfectly encapsulates a lot of our sensibilities: fuck you!
If there was time for metaphors this would be it: here we are, adrift, all at sea, reduced to the basic thoughts of survival. Whether we're all in the same boat or not is a question that offers no solace whatsoever. There's some threadbare notion of family, human solidarity left, but by and large you're at the mercy of human capriciousness and the great random beast we call chance or nature.
But there is no more time. This, to me, seems to be the most pertinent fact, something we're not thinking seriously enough about (Scheffler's wonderful Afterlife gets it right in so many ways). We're living in a time of singularity. The old idea of modernism- linear progress and all that jazz- has exhausted itself. 24/7 is what it's all about. Run down the clocks or make them face the wall (Endgame?). It's later than we think.
No-one believes it is happening now
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet,
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes
No other end of the world will there be
No other end of the world will there be.
---Milosz.
2 comments:
"...make you wonder if our time here on this planet is over and if it is whether that's necessarily such a bad thing.
"Is there any space left to be human, simply human?"
Necessary and pertinent questions, certainly apropos here.
Immediate gut response, yes, our time -- that is, the time of our "civilization" -- is done and dusted. Much of that failure was our fault, and to this extent the outcome must be considered, if unfortunate, also just.
What cannot be considered in any way just is the extermination of peoples who have never been allowed into our wonderful civilization.
In respect to those peoples, as I see the matter, only shame can apply. Whatever it is we have made was never made for them -- though of course they not we will be in the front line when it comes to suffering the consequences.
Plus ça change...
Tom,
largely agree with what you say but I think it's a case of not even being considered to be human here, rather than being allowed into civilisation. So, yes, exclusion-but at what level.
Shame, yes, except we're talking about the shameless here.
Thanks for dropping in.
Best,
K.
Post a Comment