On 6/14/07, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> My handle comes from a poem of Brecht's, An die
> Nachgeborenen, To Those Born Later.
>
> Here's the poem in translation:
>
> I
>
> Truly, I live in dark times!
> The innocuous word is fatuous. A smooth brow
> Denotes insensitivity. If someone is laughing
> It only means, that he hasn't yet
> Heard the dreadful news.
>
> What sort of times are these, when
> To talk about trees is almost a crime,
> Because it is simultaneously silence about so many
> atrocities!
> Someone placidly crossing the street
> Is certainly not available for his friend
> Who is in need?
>
> It is true : I do earn my living.
> But believe me: that is the merest accident. Nothing
> That I do gives me the right, to be stuffing myself
> full.
> I have been spared by accident. (If my luck runs out,
> I'm finished.)
>
> They say to me: eat and drink! Be happy that you have!
> But how can I eat and drink, when
> Every bite that I eat is ripped from the mouth of a
> starving man, and
> My glass of water is being denied to one dying of
> thirst?
> And yet I eat, and I drink.
>
> I would love to be wise as well.
> You can find what is wise in the old books:
> To hold yourself aloof from the strife of the world,
> and to spend
> Your brief time without fear;
> Also, to get by without violence,
> To repay evil with good,
> To relinquish desires, rather than fulfilling them,
> These are all considered wise.
> Of all this I am incapable:
> Truly, I live in dark times!
>
> II
>
> I came to the cities in the Age of Disorder
> When hunger was rampant.
> I came among mankind in the Age of Turmoil
> And I railed against it.
> That is how my days were spent
> That were given to me on earth.
>
> I ate my food between battles
> I lied down to sleep among the murderers
> I attended diffidently to love
> And looked upon nature with impatience.
> That is how my days were spent
> That were given to me on earth.
>
> In my day, the streets led to the swamp.
> My language betrayed me to the butcher.
> There was little I could do. But the powerful
> Sat more comfortably without me, so I hoped.
> That is how my days were spent
> That were given to me on earth.
>
> The forces were weak. The goal
> Was distant, remote.
> It was plainly visible, even if I
> Could never reach it.
> That is how my days were spent
> That were given to me on earth.
>
> III
>
> You, who will spring up from the flood
> In which we have drowned
> Think,
> When you speak of our shortcomings,
> Also of the dark times
> That you have been spared.
>
> We, who had to change countries more often
> Than our shoes, walked in despair amid the class
> struggle,
> When we saw only injustice, but no indignation.
>
> And yet we do know:
> Even hatred of baseness
> Contorts the features.
> Even wrath against injustice
> Makes the voice hoarse. Ah, we
> Who wanted to prepare the ground for friendship
> Were ourselves unable to be friendly.
>
> But you, if the world has come so far
> That each person is now a helper to his fellows
> Think of us
> With forbearance.
>
>
> --- ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
>
> > On 14 Jun, 2007, at 12:45 PM, Blackmail wrote:
> > ...
> > ...
> >
> >
> > Many list members have quite curious names or
> > addresses, some
> > motivated by a need for privacy, but all of them it
> > seems are chosen
> > to reflect something about themselves, their
> > thoughts, etc. I am
> > starting this thread out of curiousity -- if you
> > have an id that is
> > non-obviously named, what is the story behind it?
> >
> > What does "blackmail.is.my.life" mean? Sounds
> > alarming, but it turns
> > out to also be the name of a Japanese movie (thank
> > you Google)? Is
> > that the reference? What about others?
> >
> > In case you care:
> >
> > My own domain "platosbeard.org" is a reference to
> > the term Plato's
> > Beard, which I believe was first used by the
> > mathematician and
> > philosopher W.V.O.Quine in reference to the question
> > of "What
> > exists?" -- Platonism (especially in math)
> > permitting all sorts of
> > entities -- the beard -- that, as Quine held, would
> > often dull the
> > parsimonious aim of Occam's razor.
> >
> > The reason I use this name is two-fold: on the one
> > hand I am an anti-
> > Platonist and am happy to highlight its excesses and
> > pretensions. On
> > the other hand, "reality" is much like a tangled and
> > untamed web, and
> > Occam's razor can help make sense of it, but cannot
> > help explain it.
> > Etc. Etc. "Conquest of Abundance" as the title of
> > philosopher
> > Feyerabend's last book goes.
> >
> > --ravi
> >
> > ___________________________________
> >
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
> Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.
> Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
> http://sims.yahoo.com/
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/