Thursday, May 21, 2009

Eve of the Needle



Transformations:

(I know Obama and I’m no Obama.)

Clarity versus Confusion
transformed into
Clarity and Confusion

Good Guys versus Bad Guys
transformed into
Good Guys and Bad Guys.

Conservatives versus Liberals
transformed into
Conservatives and Liberals

etc.

Violence versus Non-Violence
transformed into
Violence and Non-Violence

Amateurism versus Professionalism
transformed into
Amateurism and Professionalism

Liberal Art versus Liberal Arts
transformed into
Liberal Art and Liberal Arts

etc.

A simple transformation from “versus” to “and”
signifying an interesting tacit transformation in
the transformers who transform opposition into
relationship and are transformed by their
transformations.

Reframing mind-set.
Recalibrating attitude.
Transform and Be Transformed.

Obama demonstrated this kind of move at Notre Dame,
acknowledging the irreconcilable ( and incommensurate)
nature of Pro Life and Pro Choice as opposed to merely
taking sides; not that he doesn’t take a side & stand in
opposition but that he doesn’t deny the opposition its
opposition—

There, there,” he might be seen as saying: I find your
position repugnant and hostile to my own but I will fight
to the death for your right to hold it.

Noblesse Oblige.

“Your good must have edge to it, else it is none” says Emerson,
& “the doctrine of hate must be preached as counter to love when
that pules and whines.”

Beyond Good & Evil.
Love your enemy .
If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.
Faint clues & indirections regarding transformation
of mind-set and outlook.

Without denying or diminishing the opposition (versus’s) and
without letting either win (in one’s mind): how to keep them in
play (wrestling, wrangling, opposing) until a synthesis (not a
reconciliation) is revealed: a transformation of the conflict from
“versus” to “and” without annihilating or covering up the “versus.”

That is the question.

Also: what kind of environmental curriculum provides the
gymnasium and gymnastics needed to transform either/or
& “versus” to both-and & all-told so as to reconfigure
agony to agon: protagonist and antagonist become worthy
opponents, thesymbolical and the diabolical: getting it on—
their marriage of heaven &hell. So to speak.

Content, subject & object matter: token topics galore;
probably the less profound the easier to put opposition
in play. Serious stuff like pro-life & pro-choice are
tar baby issues: the more I swat the stucker I get.

I know Obama and I’m no Obama.

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