Here is one tidbit that future historians will eat up about the modern world we have inherited and continue to tolerate.We put a man in solitary confinement and then wonder why he has a mental breakdown. We isolate him from other human beings and then we are surprised when he undergoes a mind-altering transformation. And we call that 'corrective' punishment.
It represents our collective insanity.
America put one of the 20th century's most profound, yet still a bit disturbing poets, Ezra Pound, in a cage. After his release, Pound remarked that America is a lunatic asylum. And it still is to this day. How else could a personality like Cheney rise up through the ranks and gain influence in the executive government?
Pound railed against the private bankers behind the Federal Reserve and Bank of England, and supported government issued currency, free of interest and national debt. And that sane monetary system also eliminates the need for an income tax, which means more money for average, hard-working Americans, and less money for filthy, bloodthirsty bankers, who don't pay any income tax. It also means no war. Imagine that?
Late in his life, Pound regretted his anti-semitism that he frequently expressed. Though he was a great mind and a remarkable poet, he was human and humans are prone to ugly forms of prejudice. I am reserving judgment on Pound the complete man, but as a poet, he was an incredible master. He embodied his age and that is the way I try to understand him. Anti-semitism was and still is a pathetic and appalling social, political and cultural phenomena, and doesn't explain the powers of international finance. It reached its peak in Europe with Hitler whose ascendancy interests me for historical reasons. Only fools resort to such small-minded and racist analysis, and in the 20th century political tyrants and poetic masterminds were plagued by this menacing thought.
But simply touting anti-semitism at anyone who criticizes the Israeli state doesn't clear away the crimes it has committed. Sadly, the label has been used for political purposes and in the end undermines rational criticism and gives racists more ammo. Behind all the labels and racist dialogue, we need to remind ourselves that what is at stake are precious human lives. Being consumed with hatred steers us off-course from reaching what MLK prophetically saw as the Promised Land. Which, as I understand it, is entirely metaphorical and has nothing to do with geography. The Kingdom of God is within, as Jung professed in the middle of the century, and Campbell later repeated, after the moon landing. So all this in-fighting and domination for the world's resources is, in the final analysis, stupid. Nothing else explains it. It is stupid. And also, very, very profitable for the very, very few.
