Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
"All heroes should have their own circle of hell very close to the traitors."
Come on, Jerry! I'll bet you have plenty of intellectual/artistic heroes. A hero is someone who appears to have god-like qualities, of intellect, or feeling, or creativity. How can you withhold the label from someone like Tolstoy, or Freud, or Schweitzer or Picasso -- whatever the shortcomings of their personalities might be?
BW
On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 11:10 AM, martin wrote:
> I still remember amy's smile when she hosted willy nelson. Don't you
> have any heroes?
>
> martin
No.
People I admire yes. Heroes no.
Línjì Yìxuán, (9th Century CE) a Zen Buddhist master once said: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha." The idea is that all personality cults and charismatic movements defeat free thought.
The phenomena of "cult of personality" (charisma, the star system, irrational authority) is something that we should fight against, though I think to a certain extent such personality cults are part of what it means to be human. Heroism itself is a special form of the cult of personality and the striving for dominance.
All heroes should have their own circle of hell very close to the traitors.
Jerry
>
> On May 9, 2008, at 2:19 AM, Jerry Monaco wrote:
>
> > When I ask how KVH became so star-struck it is a serious question.
> > I am
> > really curious about the social phenomena of "charisma" and idol
> > worship.
> > So if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
> >
> > Maybe liberals should reintroduce Dionysian cult rituals to
> > inoculate them
> > from this kind of idolatry.
>
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>
-- 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/ ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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