I see no reason to confuse spirituality with terror. Having reached a certain point of despair/narcissism, death is far easier than life; but spirituality is never about choosing the easier path. "Man's Fate" always struck me as a lie from beginning to end. Lessing's "Good Terrorist" seemed a more honest look at the phenomena and Conrad's "Secret Agent" also provides a good anatomy -- particularly of the "intellectual" component of terrorism and of the way in which it inevitably undermines the possibility of working class consciousness. At bottom, terrorism is an intellectual fantasy of turning oneself into a weapon without suffering the degradation of doing lower class work.
Joanna Bujes
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In the top of that post, I said I thought terrorism was a form of spirituality. So, then it seems to me the intellectual component, which is a kind of pragmatic form of spirituality, is very close to saying about the same thing, that terrorism is a form of spirituality. From my perspective spirituality is an intellectual fantasy---fantasy unchained so to speak.
Man's Fate wasn't a very good description of the explicit political positions of the forces involved and in that sense it was a lie of omission. But I don't think that really was its intention, that is an explication of the political arena. It is perhaps a lie or delusion to consider or try to understand revolution through the medium of the psychological novel.
In any event, MF is constructed around a series of people in relation to one another from various strata in a society in the process of revolution. The narrative was an examination of their internal confrontations with themselves as they are caught up in events that are spinning out of control; events that have temporarily collapsed the corrupt and oppressive system that both supported and defined them. Most of the characters fail in their intended projects to keep themselves afloat or redefine themselves in a new way. Some fail to maintain their privileges and freedom to do and act as they please and some fail to keep hold of the brief taste of their freedom of action and commitment. A couple manage to rescue something which they never considered before. This of course just scratches the surface---MF is pretty complex.
I was reminded of this novel, because I saw a video clip the other night of some Palestinian teenagers or kids in their early twenties talking about their failed attempts at suicide bombing. They were smiling and quiet. I was just flipping through channels and have no idea who did these tapes or what the conditions were. They could have been Israeli police interrogators video taping them, I don't know. It was the smiling that caught my attention. It also reminded me of the classical depiction of Buddha.
I realize, or I think I realize that you want to keep a certain goodness in reserve for spiritual thought. I don't really disagree with this notion. But there is also a very, very dark side to spirituality. That is, it is not in principle a goodness through and through. I also don't think that considering these forms of spiritual thought to be insanity or madness actually accounts for them, or manages to accomplish a certain reprieve for spirituality in general.
Chuck Grimes