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“Do you know where tenderness leads?….to the gas chambers.”
This is one of my favorite quotes, from the book The Thanatos Syndrome by Percy Walker (which I have not yet read). My buddy reminded me of the quote in the past week. But it is a highly functioning truism, one that it seems the most banal and normal today. Especially today. We are going to war with Libya. To “save” the people, “for the virtue of compassion.” Unfortunately, bombs do not do well to distinguish friend or foe, and foe is a hazy definition here to begin with. This is immoral. It will bankrupt us morally and economically. But it will help the political machine, who seem to want to take the spotlight off of the economy at any cost (including silently destroying it). The state has many tools to ensure compliance and assent. War is but one of them, and you can be sure that Obama just gained for himself the hearty cheers of Neo-Conservatives all over the nation… Madness truly is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Why have I heard this particular tale before…?
You say that a good cause makes war holy? I tell you, the good war (i.e. the destruction of your enemy) makes everything holy. All those who rejoice in war for its own sake really pay homage to this philosophy.
-Neitzsche
Please say your prayers tonight. For the civilians, the women and children of Libya. For the soldiers of both armies, who have had the wool pulled over their eyes by the state, who converts feuds between rulers into wars between the underclasses of people. For all of the people who have faith in the state war machine, where dissent in all other times is wrangled into assent for the killing of men very similar in souls to our own. Most of all, for our politicians and leaders, who export more blood and violence to other countries at the cost of truth, economic stability, and the virtue of neutrality when no self defense is needed…
Prayers always,
-kj-
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
– Voltaire
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WALKER PERCY!! READ HIM, READ HIM, READ HIM!!!!
Only read Love in the Ruins. And honestly, I might be too stupid. That guy is DEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
Thanatos is great. . something of a sequel to Ruins, perhaps more accessible in the strict narrative sense. Percy is deep, simply in the sense that his stuff is layered. I've read both Ruins and Thanatos multiple times, and I get something new every time.
I'll pick it up for finals week!
Watch for the priest. He is a modern version of the old desert anchorites.