Prosthetic Paradise(2) Enfetishment&MS (fwd)

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Joseph Porter wrote:

> Was it memory that kicked in after you bit, or just the ability to compare
> your new attitude with an ideal. Some might say idealism was the worm in
> that apple.

Idealism or utopianism, in the sense of positing some previously
existing visionary perfection to which all subsequent developments are
compared, always unfavorably naturally. 

> But, I say, are Auschwitz, the Gulag and Hiroshima...not to mention those
> materialized souls, really so terrifying? Are they more or less terrifying
> than, say, the irreversible car accident , or any other pseudo-random
> event? 

Having one's dead ancestors lurking about strikes me as quite terrifying
as well, so I must say  Vive la enlightenment in spite of its worts.

			P.