[lit-ideas] Re: Where politics hits the grass
- From: Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 08:02:37 -0800 (PST)
That is sooo relevant.
--- On Fri, 11/7/08, Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Where politics hits the grass
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, November 7, 2008, 3:58 PM
Your religious background is Russian Orthodox, isn't it.
On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Andy <mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was referring to the denial that pharma, climate change etc. are problems..
That's Phil's territory mostly. I don't think you ever denied anything. And
as far as beauty goes, that's in nature. Humans destroy beauty. Cities have
their own beauty of a sort, sooty and grimy and polluted though it is, and
unlike nature, landfills fill up but never become an avenue for new life. They
have to be contained like the criminals of the universe that they are and
sometimes they leach out anyway. And like prisons, we're running out room
to put them.
Human joy, not to mention end all and be all, takes the form of money unless
you can supply other examples of the joy and beauty of human existence. I
know, I know, motherhood, as if animals aren't mothers and as if human mothers
aren't incredibly destructive half or even most of the time. If nothing else,
if mothering were so important, mothers would appreciate the role of fathers
and stable two-parent relationships, but those all but don't enter into the
equation of reproduction anymore, if they ever did. So much for that beatified
activity called mothering.
And as far as small steps not solving anything, many civilizations have
collapsed over the millennia. Ours is in extreme danger of the same, and small
steps are not going to solve it. It's like if you were hanging over a cliff
and the rope were fraying and someone were pulling you up one inch at a time,
you'd think that small steps just weren't doing it. We need massive rethinking
and it is not going to happen. So, until that rope breaks we'll content
ourselves with small steps, since, after all, it can't happen to us.
--- On Fri, 11/7/08, Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Where politics hits the grass
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, November 7, 2008, 2:19 PM
Denying is different from acknowledging both the problems and that there are
small steps that can and are be taken towards solving them. Granted, the steps
will not solve everything. But they can make some, perhaps many, things
better. Bad stuff ain't never gonna go away no way no how. You seem to want
all or nothing -- turning your back on positive gains and steps because they
won't eradicate all wrongs is pretty self and other defeating.
You seem to suggest that I am in denial of profound problems, pain,
difficulties, and evils in human existence.
I hope that you are not in denial of the beauty and joy there is in human
existence.
Whether the joy and beauty is sufficient to justify human existence in the face
of the pain and evils is another question entirely.
--
Julie Krueger
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