Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Elio,
You asked. I thought about this for a bit and didn't want to reply too soon. This is my answer:
How do you cope with biased journalists, bigoted politicians, dismissive educators, and the scurrilous activists that want you to fail and encourage society to have nothing to do with you because of your beliefs?
Your question brought to mind something I had read and could not forget. I will tell you how. You go in knowing that these frustrated SOBs are totally against you and everything that you believe in and stand for, and you are not going to let them get rid of you.
What they have is called hate. That is why they pillory you. Their artists, their jurists, their lawyers, their teachers, and the politics of their so-called doctors of democracy, the whole of their phony, smooth-spoken community cannot rest until people who think like you are driven from your place on the planet.
Every one of them finds themselves stricken with that malady that cannot be cured by doctors. They pass that sickness happily down to their children, and their children are none the wiser for the evil their families, friends, and leaders do to them. If I may paraphrase Alexander Pope, these painted children of dirt, that stinks and stings, have it in for you, but they do not know any better. They were taught to hate you. You must teach your children not to hate them. Stand up and call them to account. Under no circumstances be afraid to accuse their leadership, however you may find them, of being insulting to the point of being criminal.
Don't try to be an activist. Instead, be the poet as you wish. The word activist has begun to smell of the arrogance of those who make a claim for it. I assure you, that you will arrive at a better opinion of yourself by striving to be the poet that you really want to be. I take a dim view of the hypocrisy of activism. Either be an activist or be a poet, one cannot be both. The first always strives to presume upon society, while the latter owns a heart.
When they shout vai al diavolo to you, do not make a comeback with se vai al diavolo. That is what energizes them. The bunnies inside their heads runs on the dead batteries of insult. In any case be determined to make your stand. The flames will flare up for a time, but like all fires your patience will pay off with a steady heat in return. At some future time that no one can predict, their own children will become ashamed of them and denounce them to their faces or over their graves for their disgrace. Only then will the quieter flames of peace begin to glow, at least with the more reasonable among them, and in spite of their present ignorance.
arrivederci!
Dom Giovanni
Elio,
You asked. I thought about this for a bit and didn't want to reply too soon. This is my answer:
How do you cope with biased journalists, bigoted politicians, dismissive educators, and the scurrilous activists that want you to fail and encourage society to have nothing to do with you because of your beliefs?
Your question brought to mind something I had read and could not forget. I will tell you how. You go in knowing that these frustrated SOBs are totally against you and everything that you believe in and stand for, and you are not going to let them get rid of you.
What they have is called hate. That is why they pillory you. Their artists, their jurists, their lawyers, their teachers, and the politics of their so-called doctors of democracy, the whole of their phony, smooth-spoken community cannot rest until people who think like you are driven from your place on the planet.
Every one of them finds themselves stricken with that malady that cannot be cured by doctors. They pass that sickness happily down to their children, and their children are none the wiser for the evil their families, friends, and leaders do to them. If I may paraphrase Alexander Pope, these painted children of dirt, that stinks and stings, have it in for you, but they do not know any better. They were taught to hate you. You must teach your children not to hate them. Stand up and call them to account. Under no circumstances be afraid to accuse their leadership, however you may find them, of being insulting to the point of being criminal.
Don't try to be an activist. Instead, be the poet as you wish. The word activist has begun to smell of the arrogance of those who make a claim for it. I assure you, that you will arrive at a better opinion of yourself by striving to be the poet that you really want to be. I take a dim view of the hypocrisy of activism. Either be an activist or be a poet, one cannot be both. The first always strives to presume upon society, while the latter owns a heart.
When they shout vai al diavolo to you, do not make a comeback with se vai al diavolo. That is what energizes them. The bunnies inside their heads runs on the dead batteries of insult. In any case be determined to make your stand. The flames will flare up for a time, but like all fires your patience will pay off with a steady heat in return. At some future time that no one can predict, their own children will become ashamed of them and denounce them to their faces or over their graves for their disgrace. Only then will the quieter flames of peace begin to glow, at least with the more reasonable among them, and in spite of their present ignorance.
arrivederci!
Dom Giovanni
posted by Irish Poet Dom Giovanni | 8:55 PM
<< Home