#facing it

[sacredwhores]

"The future has become uninhabitable. Such hopelessness can arise, I think, only from an inability to face the present, to live in the present, to live as a responsible being among other beings in this sacred world here and now, which is all we have, and all we need, to found our hope upon."

Ursula K. Le Guin, Facing It

[howifeltabouthim]

Have to face it I'm finally an addict

Margaret Atwood, from Power Politics

[protoslacker]

If I were to distill Judt's points into a few key ideas, it is that "history matters"; that oppressors and tyrants are invariably interested in concealing their culpability, while "innocent citizens" are likewise inclined to minimize their own involvement in the crimes of their governments; and that bad myths give rise eventually to bad politics -- more conflict, more tyranny, more violence. So the work of honest history is crucial to humanity's ability to achieve a better future. Is there a lesson for us in the United States? There is indeed. We must confront the difficult realities of racism, nationalism, bigotry, and authoritarianism that have simmered throughout the decades and centuries in the United States, and that have broken into a boil under the Trump presidency. Tony Judt is right here: the myths of one decade become the action principles of the next.

Dan Little at Understanding Society. Tony Judt on memory and myth in the twentieth century

[killowave]

[nowayzinedine]

On the face of it all.

[hpdailyquoty]

[traumaanddissociation]

Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it. –Joseph Conrad #josephconrad https://www.facebook.com/TraumaAndDissociation/photos/a.357820054319427.1073741828.357814604319972/1050610135040412/?type=3