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The Answer
Then what is the answer?- Not to be deluded by dreams.
To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence,
and their tyrants come, many times before.
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose
the least ugly faction; these evils are essential.
To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for evil; and not be duped
By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will
not be fulfilled.
To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand
Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars
and his history… for contemplation or in fact…
Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness,
the greatest beauty is
Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
of the universe. Love that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken.
— Robinson Jeffers
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BING!
To some Mencken comes off as jaded. To me, he sounds like a guy who kept his eyes and ears open and was taking notes. In consideration of the posted quote, I would add that, so long as the glove is velvet, millions upon millions of people are quite fine with some dictator ruling over them. Socialism could never have survived beyond its nascence were this not so.
Now for a little thought experiment: Imagine anyone of those debating malignant charlatans wearing not a velvet glove, but rather, a gauntlet while grasping a morning star.
And the flip side is, 95% of the people would rather be ruled than rule.
One guy does not have his hand raised. Is that significant in the context here? Or is this just an odd-man-out game?
SloJo is lagging too. NPR says “Every hand shot up!”