The Challenge
The challenge is to stay positive and avoid bitterness. We have criminals running the country, but it isn't the first time and, sadly, it is unlikely to be the last.
A year ago, over the Memorial Day weekend, a friend of mine who lives in greenwich village called me to tell me that he happened to be near "Ground Zero" and saw lots of military, mostly marines, engaged in drills around the site. He heard a drill sargeant shouting to his troops: "You are all deploying to Iraq, so take a good look around here. The first shots of the war you are going to fight were fired here." Since Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, that would qualify as a bold-faced lie. Tacitus remarks somewhere in his histories that the most effective tactic to pursue when caught in a surreptitious criminal act is to proceed with audacity. The people in the Pentagon are corrupt, not stupid. In the war colleges, they are reading Tacitus.
Exile is an honorable disposition. The great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, relates the story of Paconius Agrippinus whose motto was "I am not a hindrance to myself." He was tried in the Senate under Nero on the ground that he had inherited his father's hatred of the head of the Roman state. He was tried in absentia. You have to love the absolute craven vulgarity of the whole thing. Anyway, he learned of his trial second-hand. His response: "I hope it may turn out well; but it is the fifth hour." The fifth hour was his usual time to work out at the gymnasium and then go to the baths. He then invited his informant to join him. After his exercise, a messenger came to tell him that he had been condemned. "To banishment or death?" was his query. "To banishment." "And what of my property?" "It has not been taken from you." "Let us go to Aricia, then, and dine."
Though I long to see the Gang of Four crucified upside down, I will not be a hindrance to myself. I just returned from the gymnasium. In another hour or so, I shall dine.
But I am also looking for ways to actively confront the darkness. So I just joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Check them out.
A year ago, over the Memorial Day weekend, a friend of mine who lives in greenwich village called me to tell me that he happened to be near "Ground Zero" and saw lots of military, mostly marines, engaged in drills around the site. He heard a drill sargeant shouting to his troops: "You are all deploying to Iraq, so take a good look around here. The first shots of the war you are going to fight were fired here." Since Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, that would qualify as a bold-faced lie. Tacitus remarks somewhere in his histories that the most effective tactic to pursue when caught in a surreptitious criminal act is to proceed with audacity. The people in the Pentagon are corrupt, not stupid. In the war colleges, they are reading Tacitus.
Exile is an honorable disposition. The great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, relates the story of Paconius Agrippinus whose motto was "I am not a hindrance to myself." He was tried in the Senate under Nero on the ground that he had inherited his father's hatred of the head of the Roman state. He was tried in absentia. You have to love the absolute craven vulgarity of the whole thing. Anyway, he learned of his trial second-hand. His response: "I hope it may turn out well; but it is the fifth hour." The fifth hour was his usual time to work out at the gymnasium and then go to the baths. He then invited his informant to join him. After his exercise, a messenger came to tell him that he had been condemned. "To banishment or death?" was his query. "To banishment." "And what of my property?" "It has not been taken from you." "Let us go to Aricia, then, and dine."
Though I long to see the Gang of Four crucified upside down, I will not be a hindrance to myself. I just returned from the gymnasium. In another hour or so, I shall dine.
But I am also looking for ways to actively confront the darkness. So I just joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Check them out.
posted by Sidi Hamid Benengeli | 1:35 PM
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