from a list I'm on

[rowanf]

Don't know that I agree but I'm thinking about it.

A Tom Robbins quote

It is futile to work for political solutions to humanity's problems because humanity's problems are not political. Political problems are secondary; philosophical problems are primary. Until philosophical problems are solved, political problems will have to be solved over and over again. To the ethical, political activism is seductive because it seems to offer the possibility that one can improve society without going through the personal ordeal of rearranging one's perceptions and transforming one's self. For the unconscionable, political reactivism is seductive because it seems to protect one's holdings and legitimize one's greed. Men take its political leaders and dominant males too seriously. The dominant males (and political leaders) are beneficial only when the group is actively threatened by predators, and is almost wholly self-serving and dedicated not to liberation but to control. Behind his chest banging and fang display, he is largely a joke, and can be kept in his place (which is that of necessary evil) by disrespect and laughter. If the good drinkers in the beer halls of Munich had taken Hitler a little more lightly when he stood up to rant, had they instead of buying his act, snickered and hooted and pelted him with sausage skins, the Holocaust might have been avoided. As long as there are willing followers, there will be exploitive leaders. And there will be willing followers until humanity reaches that philosophical plateau where it recognizes that its great mission in life has nothing to do with any struggle between classes, races, nations, or ideologies, but is, rather, a personal quest to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain. On that quest, politics is simply a roadblock of stentorian baboons.
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Comments

[vocal1.livejournal.com]

That was very thought-provoking. Thanks for sharing.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading Alexander at the World's End, which is more about people than Alexander. Euxenus is a cynic, a yapping dog, trained by Diogenes, who used to go around giving the pretentious a good monstering (really had it in for Plato and Aristotle). It's a fabulous book because it has the Athenians so exactly right, so infuriating and arrogant they could be English ;-) but one of the key dichotomies in the book is whether democracy and politics are good things or bad things, whether man is perfectable or not, whether we really can sort everything out by all sitting down and trying to be nice. Euxenus believes that man is a political animal in the same way that man is any number of other unpleasant things and that while putting two or three people together produces politics in the same way as old apples go mouldy, you shouldn't *encourage* it.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

Sounds fascinating. Does the book itself tell a good story? Perhaps I should pick up a copy.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

it's an excellent book; one of those 'what do you do with your life when you don't know what to do' lives but his choices ricochet him off the movers and shakers of the age. Plus Tom Holt has the ancient Atheniants right to an infuriating and endearing tau (or iota more like). Far better than even the best of his 'funny' books.