Art Helps

Posted by parhad on September 15, 2001 at 00:07:04:

In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (From which Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" was adapted) Kurtz, the crazed white man gone "native" and portrayed by Marlon Brando in the film as a mad Army Colonel who's gone over to the "enemy"...says he realized the white man...the Americans in the movie version, would lose the Vietnem War when he saw a pile of childrens arms which had been cut off because they had allowed some American medical personnel to give them vaccines. The point being that against this sort of grim determination...the White Man has no equal weapon...not if he wants to retain his "civilized" self.

It isn't easy to cut off the arm of a living child...especially your own kind.

Against the kind of determined and patient and dedicated resolve these terrorists showed...and others in furure will shoiw more of...the lily white man who is used to talking tough...also from a safe distance...in a society that actually dreds hearing of a single American casualty...what kind of a match is there for the savage determination of the "other"?

As long as Americans could remain above the fray, they were easy going and complacent about the suffering of others...as if they weren't connected to Humanity but lived on a plane apart. They've been brought down to earth now...but they persist in acting as if only American losses count...only innocent dead Americans are "tragic" figures, while all those others had it coming somehow, or didn't really matter anyhow. America has to go a little deeper into itself.

If we match these sorts of acts, then "America" is transformed into something else...the others win. If we do nothing...they will strike again. The only real hope is to make ammends for the incredible arrogance of power and disinterest this country has shown for far too long for the innocent victims of its "Way of Life".

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: In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" (From which Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" was adapted) Kurtz, the crazed white man gone "native" and portrayed by Marlon Brando in the film as a mad Army Colonel who's gone over to the "enemy"...says he realized the white man...the Americans in the movie version, would lose the Vietnem War when he saw a pile of childrens arms which had been cut off because they had allowed some American medical personnel to give them vaccines. The point being that against this sort of grim determination...the White Man has no equal weapon...not if he wants to retain his "civilized" self. : It isn't easy to cut off the arm of a living child...especially your own kind. : Against the kind of determined and patient and dedicated resolve these terrorists showed...and others in furure will shoiw more of...the lily white man who is used to talking tough...also from a safe distance...in a society that actually dreds hearing of a single American casualty...what kind of a match is there for the savage determination of the "other"? : As long as Americans could remain above the fray, they were easy going and complacent about the suffering of others...as if they weren't connected to Humanity but lived on a plane apart. They've been brought down to earth now...but they persist in acting as if only American losses count...only innocent dead Americans are "tragic" figures, while all those others had it coming somehow, or didn't really matter anyhow. America has to go a little deeper into itself. : If we match these sorts of acts, then "America" is transformed into something else...the others win. If we do nothing...they will strike again. The only real hope is to make ammends for the incredible arrogance of power and disinterest this country has shown for far too long for the innocent victims of its "Way of Life".

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