Comments on: To the Person Sitting in Darkness

To the Person Sitting in Darkness

homunculus — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:15:36 -0800

"The Blessings-of-Civilization Trust, wisely and cautiously administered, is a Daisy. There is more money in it, more territory, more sovereignty, and other kinds of emolument, than there is in any other game that is played. But Christendom has been playing it badly of late years, and must certainly suffer by it, in my opinion. She has been so eager to get every stake that appeared on the green cloth, that the People who Sit in Darkness have noticed it – they have noticed it, and have begun to show alarm. They have become suspicious of the Blessings of Civilization."

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:41:58 -0800

From the same article: "...manufactures a war out of materials so inadequate and so fanciful that they make the boxes grieve and the gallery laugh, and he tries hard to persuade himself that it isn't purely a private raid for cash, but has a sort of dim, vague respectability about it somewhere..." Maybe history doesn't always repeat itself "but it sure does rhyme"

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:59:02 -0800

Wow, good FPP homunculus. I've somehow managed to get through life without reading much Twain, I'll have to remedy that. What a voice, his disgust is not implied, it's a presence in the room that you can reach out and touch. TLF, that was the same passage that really hit me too.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:02:04 -0800

I should re-read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It's been awhile. And maybe try some other writings of Twain's. I'd forgotten how biting he could be when he wanted to.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:03:35 -0800

Can anyone identify the music in the first link? All the credits say is "music arranged from a piece of J. S. Bach."

By: kozad

kozad — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:20:23 -0800

Nice set of links. Twain never grows old. History is "rhyming" today, and it never makes the front page (of the paper that is).

By: washburn

washburn — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:07:35 -0800

from "a piece of Mark Twain"? What piece?

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:34:09 -0800

"To the Person Sitting in Darkness" (see the second and sixth links).

By: Huplescat

Huplescat — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:45:49 -0800

On the one hand its wonderful that a hundred years ago Twain eloquently and absolutely nailed something that's as fresh as tomorrow's news from Bagdad. On the other hand its horrible that, a hundred years ago, Twain eloquently and absolutely nailed something that's as fresh as tomorrow's news from Bagdad.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:53:35 -0800

Great post and excellent links, homunculus. I haven't read Twain for a long time, and I had never read this essay. As others have said, how amazing and frustrating that by changing a few names in that essay it could easily apply to Bush's government and American foreign policy today.

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:20:15 -0800

Maybe history doesn't always repeat itself "but it sure does rhyme" Like a terrible song that keeps repeating itself in one's head.

By: any major dude

any major dude — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:56:13 -0800

We cannot stop it by going after George Bush or Dick Cheney because they are mere shadow puppets in this game. Corporations are the true enemy of civilization and are the nation-states of modern society. They pay telegenic people (yes at one point Bush was telegenic) to do their bidding - hell when they can't trust that person sometimes they just install themselves as his puppetmaster (Cheney). Now that we have more transparency due to the internet we need organization. We need to expose corporations and hold them accountable by withholding business and voting out their puppets in Congress. Corporations only do these criminal acts because they increase profits. Once we make it unprofitable for them to go into Guatamala with hired death squads to stop a banana strike they will stop doing it.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 22:56:33 -0800

How Wars of the Future May Be Fought Just to Run the Machines That Fight Them

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 09:36:11 -0800

U.S. Officials Have Absolutely No Clue about Iraq's Oil Law