On 12/03/2012 05:35 AM, Michael Allan wrote:
Jonathan Denn said:
Someone is editing Kurt Vonnegut letters for publication. This was
online today... I'm struck with "editor" meaning "voter" and
"stories" as "candidates"
"...I invite you to read the fifteen tales ..."
I believe whole civilizations have been voted into existence by this
method, more or less. The candidate stories for the collection are
myths of a cherished past (as in The Iliad), or utopias of a hopeful
future (New Testament) or both (Mahabharata). The narrow method is
one of cultural selection; but the larger process, which Vonnegut
seems also to ask of his students, might more pointedly be called
"cultural *e*lection".
Could such an election happen in modern times, do you think?
One should be careful with election by story, though. The worst kind of
modern-day dictatorial regimes have often been backed by stories or
myths to lend the regime legitimacy. For instance, left-wing
authoritarian rulers have claimed power to have been given to them by
the workers or the people, and that the centralization of power through
authoritarian measures is needed in order to protect the system from
vast external enemies that would otherwise destroy it, and so that the
rulers can direct the nation towards a glorious future. Similar
mythology exists on the right: see, for instance, Gentile's description
of the structure of Italian Fascism:
http://www.oslo2000.uio.no/program/papers/s12/s12-gentile.pdf . Among
other things, he notes that totalitarianism provides a single narrative,
then seeks to "politicize" all of life so as to pull it into that narrative.
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