Beckett in Germany

[Paul Mackin]

It's a holdover from that pesky second commandment to love. Love thy
neighbor as thy self (even if you can't stand the sight of him). The
modern world simply can't rid itself of the idea, though as always it may
be honored more in the breach than in the observance. The Romans had no
such hangup.


			P.

On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Richard Romeo wrote:

> and note the particularly
> > > entropic concerns of both SB and TRP), with a profound sympathy,
> > > empathy, even, for, indeed, the excluded, the passsed over, the
> > > preterite ...
> >
> >------------------
> something that's been on my mind:  have we gone too far, is there too much 
> sympathy for the insane, the excluded, the folks on the margins--seems to me 
> sometimes that we've lost the folks in the middle somewhere--either we pine 
> for or denigrate the rich, the intellectual heavyweight, the secure or we do 
> the same for the folks who live rotting lives, people who live in subways, 
> the homeless, the preachers on the street corners, etc.
> 
> The culture, in some way, and I'm not sure I can prove this, seems to exalt 
> such "otherness" now, the excluded or folks who stand out in some way, where 
> now we seem to live in a world of 100 people living in 100 seperate 
> communities. Are there too many fingers pointing to find your otherness? 
> Sure, it makes sense, with what institutions and governments have wrought in 
> the past century, but hasn't the idea of putting such outcasts or beautiful 
> losers or the damned on a pedestal a bit tired by now?
> 
> Do we make things worse by perpetually feeling the pain of the 
> "downtrodden"--is it another form of insult? Is it just as bad as those who 
> live their lives through the glow of celebrity and the elect?
> 
> 
> Maybe I'm just getting old
> Rich
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