Whatever I know, I read it in fiction. I am a big ignoramus regarding actual news.
Someone said, there are only two classes, the exploiter & the exploited. Really? Do we - You & I, not live to disprove that? That we neither exploit, not get exploited? That we are rational, reasonable?
In "Aztec Autumn", I read about how women were "spoils of war" (& also later in Iliad), how certain kinds of rape were a sin, but not rape of the women of the conquered land by the victorious army. Also, how a woman was "sacrificed" for "good luck" in a hunt. Reading this kind of fiction turns the insides out, as in vomit. Of course, compare nausea, to rape. Conclusion - I am living in the best of times. These things had disillusioned me as to the nature of war, & the ethics of military.
In "American Gods", I read about how a God was created. Amazingly disturbing. It's not for the faint-hearted "self-improvement reader". The book was also awesome in the aspect that nothing is sacrosanct. The unravelling is complete. Neil Gaiman confirms my understanding that "Gods" esp. in the plural, are simply super-powered beings, impulsive in the extreme, cruel beyond human capacity, & super-viced in every human vice.
Now "Confessions of the Fox". It's a really anti-capitalism novel, & surprisingly (for me), calls for abolition of prisons. Yes, the events narrated all are innocent people being thrown into prison on absurd pretexts, hated by the elite simply for being poor, paraded, lampooned, broken, starved, abused in every way, & being treated "not as human", at least by modern sensibilities, all in the name of law! Disturbs us, brings us a tear & a low-grade headache. But should the procedure of law itself be done away with? Go back to the times ... times of what? The trussed-up sacrifice? The murdered-child God?
But we are not living in those times, right? Is that true? In my time, on my watch, is it guaranteed that nobody is being broken like that?
"Confessions of the Fox" also put to my mind the "must have been" process through which medical ignorance turned into a body of medical knowledge. What perversions must have been through the minds of the "humans" who actually accumulated it. God made man in his image, & man made devil in his image. I would also quote from Kartar Singh Duggal, but ... how anti-national can one be? You know we are the great Indians, right? The tricolour has displayed in Dubai. Our military is descended from the Gods. They only protect & save, never harass nor oppress. & our ancient physicians ... well! they knew everything already. They never needed to experiment on live humans. They had knowledge divine.
So, I revel in being a great Indian of the great India. I shrink in horror in the shared guilt of 17500 generations of being the plague of the planet. I can' decide which era was innocent enough for me. I can't be natural enough - the dilemma of the environment-friendly in the bathroom - use more water, or use more paper? - to be truly natural is to die of disease & rot into the earth, but I personally crave a sanitary house, a huge library of fiction, & sunrises. Out of this self-conflict of being good to the earth & being comfortable in my skin, I want to not exist, to never have existed.
Someone said, there are only two classes, the exploiter & the exploited. Really? Do we - You & I, not live to disprove that? That we neither exploit, not get exploited? That we are rational, reasonable?
In "Aztec Autumn", I read about how women were "spoils of war" (& also later in Iliad), how certain kinds of rape were a sin, but not rape of the women of the conquered land by the victorious army. Also, how a woman was "sacrificed" for "good luck" in a hunt. Reading this kind of fiction turns the insides out, as in vomit. Of course, compare nausea, to rape. Conclusion - I am living in the best of times. These things had disillusioned me as to the nature of war, & the ethics of military.
In "American Gods", I read about how a God was created. Amazingly disturbing. It's not for the faint-hearted "self-improvement reader". The book was also awesome in the aspect that nothing is sacrosanct. The unravelling is complete. Neil Gaiman confirms my understanding that "Gods" esp. in the plural, are simply super-powered beings, impulsive in the extreme, cruel beyond human capacity, & super-viced in every human vice.
Now "Confessions of the Fox". It's a really anti-capitalism novel, & surprisingly (for me), calls for abolition of prisons. Yes, the events narrated all are innocent people being thrown into prison on absurd pretexts, hated by the elite simply for being poor, paraded, lampooned, broken, starved, abused in every way, & being treated "not as human", at least by modern sensibilities, all in the name of law! Disturbs us, brings us a tear & a low-grade headache. But should the procedure of law itself be done away with? Go back to the times ... times of what? The trussed-up sacrifice? The murdered-child God?
But we are not living in those times, right? Is that true? In my time, on my watch, is it guaranteed that nobody is being broken like that?
"Confessions of the Fox" also put to my mind the "must have been" process through which medical ignorance turned into a body of medical knowledge. What perversions must have been through the minds of the "humans" who actually accumulated it. God made man in his image, & man made devil in his image. I would also quote from Kartar Singh Duggal, but ... how anti-national can one be? You know we are the great Indians, right? The tricolour has displayed in Dubai. Our military is descended from the Gods. They only protect & save, never harass nor oppress. & our ancient physicians ... well! they knew everything already. They never needed to experiment on live humans. They had knowledge divine.
So, I revel in being a great Indian of the great India. I shrink in horror in the shared guilt of 17500 generations of being the plague of the planet. I can' decide which era was innocent enough for me. I can't be natural enough - the dilemma of the environment-friendly in the bathroom - use more water, or use more paper? - to be truly natural is to die of disease & rot into the earth, but I personally crave a sanitary house, a huge library of fiction, & sunrises. Out of this self-conflict of being good to the earth & being comfortable in my skin, I want to not exist, to never have existed.
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