Bolt upright on the top rung of the great ladder fully extended and reared against the wall the tallest climbers can touch the edge of the ceiling with their fingertips. On the same ladder planted perpendicular at the centre of the floor the same bodies would gain half a metre and so be enabled to explore at leisure the fabulous zone decreed out of reach and which therefore in theory is in no wise so. For such recourse to the ladder is conceivable. All that is needed is a score of determined volunteers joining forces to keep it upright with the help if necessary of other ladders acting as stay or struts. An instant of fraternity. But outside their explosions of violence this sentiment is as foreign to them as to butterflies. And this owing not so much to want of heart or intelligence as to the ideal preying on one and all. So much for this inviolable zenith where for amateurs of myth lies hidden a way out to earth and sky.
- The Lost Ones, Samuel Beckett
—————-
Speaking of “revolutionary art“, Beckett said: It is “an art turning from it in disgust, weary of its puny exploits, weary of pretending to be able, of being able, of doing a little better the same old thing, of going a little further along a dreary road.” It is an art with “nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.” [from David H. Hesla’s The Shape of Chaos]
The obligation to express! *
In Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror, Craig Murray writes: “The thing with tyranny is that, if you don’t try to fight it when it starts, it very quickly gets too strong for you. If you achieve a voice that will be heard, you should use it to speak up for the voiceless and oppressed. If you possess any power or authority, you must strive to use it to help and to empower the powerless.”
* Also blogging @ Filasteen
——————–
“Avatrapment” borrowed from The avatar and the power grid is the avatar used here.
