Monday, August 14, 2006

Post-mortem

.. in a manner that emulated Sherman's march through Georgia. Is this gonna happen? Fat chance.

Where have you gone, William Tecumseh?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
(Woo woo woo)
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson
‘Joltin Joe’ has left and gone away?
(Hey hey hey – hey hey hey)
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1 comment:

Arelcao Akleos said...

The current example of Olmert, and I sincerely hope it is an example that ends damn quick, or Israel is fokked, underscores the sheer contingency of "The Historical Process" on the character and choices of individual men [particularly when they land on one of those lever-points where the right(wrong) man and right (wrong) place meet]....In Anglo-Saxon England, Alfred the Great versus Ethelred the Unready. In the USA, Lincoln or F. Roosevelt vs. Johnson or Bush. In the Soviet Union, Stalin vs. Gorbachev, or Peter the Great vs Nicolas. In Portugal, Dao Dinis vs. Sebastiao...[and I'm sure MFT and AI can list many examples from their knowldedge of nation or history].
As for the "Longue Duree", well true enough individual men have less influence. For the brutally simple reason that in that Longue Duree our dear Mr. Faulkner was 100% dead on. Let me remind you of the first paragraph of the second part his The Sound and the Fury.
"When the shadow of the sash appeared on the curtains it was between seven and eight oclock and then I was in time again, hearing the watch. It was Grandfather’s and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it’s rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools."

8/15/2006 4:45 AM

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