Thank you for this comment! I agree, modernity raises the question of value urgently and fundamentally. And yet, perhaps it also offers new avenues to access what matters. For instance, I have two friends who are scientists—a mycologist who studies root-system symbiosis and an entomologist who studies bees. They live in the woods with a gaggle of chickens, bringing their expertise to bear on questions of honey-hive production and soil remediation. Is this, too, a kind of modernism? I hope at least it aspires to be.
That’s also an interesting point, I think they seem to embody a functional modernity that isn’t consumerist in its aspirations, but perhaps focused on the acquisition of knowledge to improve the conditions of the world. Modernity lifts us up as well. Which is easy to forget sometimes when we clash against its dark parts as individuals.
Yes, I like that reading of the situation. Evil is the whole viewed from one vantage point: Nietzsche’s falcon as described by the lamb. I think I’ll write something about this for your consideration.
There's a lot of nut to crack here. I'm taken by that last stanza.
That’s a powerful meditation on what really matters and perhaps how our modern condition removes us from it.
I especially liked the last stanza:
The worms, I think, are still awake
and the eye, the voice, of our love
is a vaster thing than my heart
can hold on the train out of town.
Thank you for this comment! I agree, modernity raises the question of value urgently and fundamentally. And yet, perhaps it also offers new avenues to access what matters. For instance, I have two friends who are scientists—a mycologist who studies root-system symbiosis and an entomologist who studies bees. They live in the woods with a gaggle of chickens, bringing their expertise to bear on questions of honey-hive production and soil remediation. Is this, too, a kind of modernism? I hope at least it aspires to be.
That’s also an interesting point, I think they seem to embody a functional modernity that isn’t consumerist in its aspirations, but perhaps focused on the acquisition of knowledge to improve the conditions of the world. Modernity lifts us up as well. Which is easy to forget sometimes when we clash against its dark parts as individuals.
Yes, I like that reading of the situation. Evil is the whole viewed from one vantage point: Nietzsche’s falcon as described by the lamb. I think I’ll write something about this for your consideration.
I very much look forward to reading that.
Here you go: https://open.substack.com/pub/admitabsence/p/discourse-on-hatred