longblackbangs

so I finally got a picture back from that 80's themed party...so in a totally narcissistic manner I'm posting myself in my journal.



"The people of your culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man. They want desperately to perceive a vast gulf between man and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world, just the way Hitler's mythology of Aryan superiority justified his doing whatever he pleased with Europe. But in the end this mythology is not deeply satisfying. The [advanced cultures] are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness.'

'That's true. But what are you getting at?'

Instead of answering my question, Ishmael said, 'Among the [primitive cultures], crime, mental illness, suicide, and drug addiction are great rarities. How does our culture account for this?'

'I'd say it's because...our culture says it's because the [primitive cultures] are just too primitive to have these things.'

'In other words, crimes, mental illness, suicide, and drug addiction are features of an advanced culture.'

'That's right. Nobody says it that way, of course, but that's how it's understood. These things are the price of advanced culture."

D. Quinn - Ishmael