You can either try to change the world or you can try to change yourself. They work in opposite directions.
What use the constant, bitter, conceptual critiques of our society, economy, polity...to rail against the dying of the sun? The state engendered by these preoccupations is itself deadly. I am in this field of confusion, where ignorant armies clash by night. My task is to save myself and those I love who are willing to come with me. This task requires self knowledge, a keen wit and the ability to suffer without complaint. There is no point in wishing the world were different. No point in noting its deviltry...unless it is to use this knowledge to help save my little band of fellow refugees as we cross the waterless desert.
What does it mean to save myself? It means to retain my humaness, compassion, sense of humor, friendship with God.
So a little yes here. I believe in the end it comes down to knowledge yes, and working to make change is very important. In my life i decided saving myself required political resistance work even though I had significant problems with the work process. So idid start with SANE/Freeze. I wanted disarmament. I accepted that they had limited vision. Then in San Francisco I worked to stop Contra Aid, later to help people with Utopian dreams go to Nicaragua as volunteers teaching a skill, then getting Salvadorans out of torture chambers, and last trying to stop the Gulf War. Then I became a PI Paralegal. Plaintiff. Then five years into the work I broke both arms and decided keyboarding bad. After that catastrophe followed catastrophe. Still, glad I did what I did.
You can either try to change the world or you can try to change yourself. They work in opposite directions.
What use the constant, bitter, conceptual critiques of our society, economy, polity...to rail against the dying of the sun? The state engendered by these preoccupations is itself deadly. I am in this field of confusion, where ignorant armies clash by night. My task is to save myself and those I love who are willing to come with me. This task requires self knowledge, a keen wit and the ability to suffer without complaint. There is no point in wishing the world were different. No point in noting its deviltry...unless it is to use this knowledge to help save my little band of fellow refugees as we cross the waterless desert.
What does it mean to save myself? It means to retain my humaness, compassion, sense of humor, friendship with God.
So a little yes here. I believe in the end it comes down to knowledge yes, and working to make change is very important. In my life i decided saving myself required political resistance work even though I had significant problems with the work process. So idid start with SANE/Freeze. I wanted disarmament. I accepted that they had limited vision. Then in San Francisco I worked to stop Contra Aid, later to help people with Utopian dreams go to Nicaragua as volunteers teaching a skill, then getting Salvadorans out of torture chambers, and last trying to stop the Gulf War. Then I became a PI Paralegal. Plaintiff. Then five years into the work I broke both arms and decided keyboarding bad. After that catastrophe followed catastrophe. Still, glad I did what I did.