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> From: Peter von Brandenburg <blackhawk@thing.net>
> Date: Fri May 2, 2003 9:15:34 PM America/New_York
> To: Thingist <thingist@bbs.thing.net>
> Subject: [thingist] the River Kwai Paradox
> Reply-To: thingist@bbs.thing.net
>
> All: What is the construct of the System in re to the work done in it?
> I find myself asking this Q lately. What is the value of a pursuit of
> excellence, rigor, beauty, or any of the other traditional targets of a
> life lived meaningfully when these are done in the context of a
> corrupt,
> unjust, &/or evil system? Is the "flowers in the dustbin" model
> applicable? Perhaps Becker's notion of "tactical realities" offers
> some
> hope. Must we make an a priori decision to engage or disengage in re
> this larger political context? Gestures are not enuf (not for me). I
> refuse to consider my work in the context of a concrete empire ruled by
> avaricious religious fanatics who flout the rule of law, grant rights
> to
> corporations yet not individuals, & value us only according to the
> capital we possess or our ability to generate it. Am I prepared to see
> my vote count for nothing, to watch the most vital of all Democracies
> fail? Am I prepared to work in the context of a state of "never-ending
> war"? Am I prepared to allow what was the symbol of our solidarity be
> transmuted into a rampage of military adventurism? Am I prepared to
> watch helplessly as what was a semi-autonomous cultural entity is
> sucked
> up & assimilated by the amoeba of Media/America? If any of you have
> not
> seen "Bridge on the Rive Kwai", rent it. You'll see why I picked it as
> a homily. The plot reduces to the following; prisoners of war are
> asked
> to build a bridge for their captors. Have those of us who author
> culture been functionally transformed into POWs? Do we "whistle while
> we work", just on the principle of the thing? Do we give lip-service
> to
> resistance, gesture emptily & go about our biz? If *effective*
> resistance is possible, to what extent does it warp or even defeat our
> work itself? Do evil times require good thought, or evil thought? Or
> can one bypass the issue entirely?

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www.mteww.com
</t.whid>