-Caveat Lector- An excellent commentary on reasons to not abandon hope.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/11.11B.jvb.silent.htm The Silent World by Jennifer Van Bergen t r u t h o u t | Commentary Sunday, 10 November 2002 It is as though the world around me has become silent. On election day and the entire day after, it seemed no one called, no one wrote. The one or two people I did speak to - one being a doctor who is well-known for his research into the biological and chemical effects of trauma on the brain - told me they were having trouble with their servers or email. An email I had sent late on November 4 and copied to myself, did not show up until late in the day on November 5. But there was not even word from service providers that anything was wrong. Just silence. Whatever the electronic reasons (overloaded lines?), the silence of people is in fact a growing cacophony - like a quiet, little subterranean brook that begins to murmur as it tumbles over underground rocks before it emerges and reaches toward an open precipice. In the writing classes I teach at The New School University (a.k.a. The New School for Social Research) in New York City, there is an exercise I give that involves "two universes of discourse." (I call it the UoD exercise.) I ask students to watch two movies from a list of selected films. The list includes ghost movies such as Ghost, Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes, The Haunting, Always, and The Others. It also includes other selected films such as The Insider, Fight Club, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Communion, Dead Zone, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Frequency, The Mothman Prophecies, and Field of Dreams.1 If you have seen any of these films, you might recognize that each have two "worlds." One is visible, one is invisible. Or rather, people in the invisible world can see both worlds; those in the visible world can see only themselves and their world. (The invisible world, thus, is only invisible to the "visible" world, and the visible world is visible to both.) These movies capture something that is going on now in our country. Indeed, it always goes on, but as common ground is increasingly abandoned, the rift between the two worlds is increasing as well. What are these worlds? For one, Islam and Christian nations. For another, the rich and the poor. Yet another, Republicans and Democrats. And now even the American Empire and the rest of the West. Yet, Republicans now rule Congress. Does that mean there is only one world now? The Republicans (the self-declared people of the bright and light) have finally detached themselves from the clinging umbrage and pushed the people of the twilight deeper into the shadows? No. All it means is that one world has been made silent and invisible to the other. But, if you know anything about psychology, or if you carefully watch a few of the movies from my list, you will know that the invisible world cannot be eradicated by being silenced. Repression causes an increase in the repressed energies. The only adequate solution to the continued co-existence of the two worlds is constant dialogue.2 This is not as easy as it sounds. It requires that we look into the unknown and dredge. Notice how frightening the invisible world is. Ghosts and vampires scare the living. FBI agents scare ordinary people. Alter personalities scare the host. Psychic messages scare the psychic. Communications from an alternate universe or time scare the recipient.3 But this fear exists only until the content of the invisible world is absorbed by the visible one. If the messages of the invisible world are ignored, they increase and increase until some catastrophic event occurs, some explosion, in which the buried information spews out untidily onto the hitherto clean and neat visible world, wreaking havoc. I have spoken about the two-universe phenomenon before various groups here in Florida and last weekend at a conference at Loyola University in Illinois sponsored by Chicago Media Watch. The response I get is not loud. Not yet. People absorb and go off to think about it, as they should. It is easy to think that there must be visible activity for there to be any activity at all. The truth is, most wonderful things in the world grow from inside and underneath. I realize there is an apparent contradiction when I say that repression results in eventual catastrophe, while noting that wonderful things grow from inside and underneath. The point is that wonderful things grow from inside and underneath when they are not repressed, when they are allowed to grow and are accessed as they emerge. How many people have any idea what Islam thinks? Have we read their news or their personal scrips? When was the last time a Republican listened to a Democrat? (The phrase, "Get over it!" says it all.) What the Republicans do not yet know is that they are creating a revolution. It is true that they may also create war, and this is very sad and terrible for ALL of us, with repercussions far into the future. Of course, every thinking and ethical person must oppose this avaricious belligerence. However, every disenfranchisement of a mass of people simply increases their resolve and solidarity. Bush is creating an inevitability that is beyond even a radical's grasp. ------- 1 Note: not all movies with two worlds are proper UoD films. Anyone who wants to check a film with me, feel free to write me about it. 2 By the way, the two worlds are NOT diametric opposites, contrary to popular belief. Note also that these footnotes act in somewhat the same way with respect to the main text as an invisible world to a visible world. 3 This is not to mention how scary is the mere fact of two worlds. By definition, UoD's always involve something unknown and in the dark. Jennifer Van Bergen is a contributing writer for truthout. She has a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, and is a faculty member of the New School University in New York where she teaches in the writing program. © : t r u t h o u t 2002 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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