Prosthetic Paradise(2) Enfetishment&MS (fwd)

[jporter]

>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.

Yes. Ideas can be striking. I'm not sure la enlightenment has the wattage
to do the job, though, especially in this sepulchral domain.

j.