James, if you have forgotten it, we live on the same planet, and we won't be here without it, but you sometimes, on certain matters, sound like . . . A Brother from Another Planet. :->
> Quite apart from what the science says, the sociology says that political
> movements need to believe in some kind of impending disaster, a Heideggerian
> being-towards-death, to undergird their imperatives.
Here's a poem for you, on the theme of impending doom and revolution, by one of the most celebrated modern Iranian poets, Forough Farrokhzad (1935-1967), who, by the way, was very pretty:
The Wind Will Carry Us Away
by Forough Farrokhzad
In my brief night, alas,
The wind is about to meet the leaves,
In my brief night
There is fear of ruin.
Listen!
Do you hear the dark wind whispering?
I look upon this bliss with alien eyes
I am addicted to my sorrow
Listen!
Do you hear the dark wind whispering?
Now something is happening in the night
The moon is red and agitated
And the roof may collapse at any moment.
The clouds have gathered
Like a crowd of mourners
Awaiting the birth of rain.
A moment
And then, nothing.
Beyond this window
The night trembles
And the earth
Will no longer turn.
Beyond this window
A stranger worries
About you and me.
Oh you, in green,
Lay your hands -- like a burning memory -- in my hands.
And trust your lips that are warm with life
To the loving caresses of my lips.
The wind will carry us away,
The wind will carry us away.
You might think that people who exalt such a melancholic spirit can't be very good at revolution, but the Iranians pulled off two and a half revolutions in one century -- the first and last classical revolutions in the South, in fact. Why? That is perhaps because only the night of proper mourning can prepare the dawn of revolution.
On 3/14/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> Be Generous and Grateful. Instead of wasting money on surplus goods give it
> away as "sadaqah" (charity) to the poor. Thank God for what you ahve and
> remember, making sure you do not cause harm when using his gifts is showing
> gratefulness to God."
>
> [WS:] This is where our ways part, comrades. I think subsidies on
> consumption are not only a waste of resources, but also proliferation of
> structural inequalities. My preferred use of the extra resources is
> investment in fixed and human capital, or better yet, not letting excess
> resources accumulate in private hands but instead being administers by
> public institutions for public benefit.
>
> Fuck charity and Robin-Hoodism. Invest.
Moderate consumption, moderate structural inequalities, a lot of investment in fixed and human capital, but little charity and Robin-Hoodism. That sounds very familiar. Why, it's Japan. :-> -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>