The Archbishop of Fontleberry has done it again.
He really does live in a fantasy world of his own making (twinned with the fantasy world of Roman/Jewish making). The logic seems to be based on the numbers game, again: If enough people support something, it must be respected. I suppose that's a form of democracy.
But I was reading about Camus, this morning. I don't know how I've managed to avoid him for so long, although I disagree with him regarding Kafka's failure as a writer of the absurd (because, he claims, there is a glimmer of hope in Kafka's work).
If anyone has managed to spot that glimmer, can you let me know where to find it? I mean, doesn't The Trial end in a pretty similar way to The Stranger?
Camus says, in an indifferent universe, the individual makes his own meaning. So who can criticise the old Archy Bishop for having a crack?
Friday, February 08, 2008
Law Unto Himself
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4 comments:
The Muslim personal law and the indian Penal Code has been co-existing in India for decades....without the need for people like The Archbishop of Fontleberry commenting on it.
I never found Kafka or Camus too engrossing....they were too immersed in their own quirky and heavy-headed worlds. Wilde,O Henry,Saki...with the dark humour is just perfect.
PS:
Visiting ur blog after more than a year. The last time I visited it I was an agnostic....now I am an atheist....
Cheerio!
Hey there Sujoy
Is there much difference between agnostic and atheist? Popular concesus is an agnostic is undecided but actually it means a person who believes it is impossible to know for certain, one way or the other. In which case, I am agnostic.
But I also don't believe in gods, so I'm an atheist. ('Not believing' doesn't = 'certainty')
I think Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a great story and not particularly 'heavy-minded'. The dark humour in it is just perfect, I think.
I waited for 23 long years to find any signs of the existance of God....but then enough is enough.
"If enough people support something, it must be respected. I suppose that's a form of democracy."
"Might makes right."
You can have arbitration, and advocacy. If you want a different law, or if you want your legal system to attempt to dictate morality to a greater extreme than the cultural center would dictate, move. There are plenty of oppressive places to live if that's what turns you on.
This discussion reminds me of the fate of Martha's Vinyard. It was a real nice place once. It attracted a large number of rich people because of its charm. They needed their McMansions, and roads and strip malls and Starbuck's, so now it has no charm at all. Same can be true of a country where you flee to find opportunity and peace. Don't try to make it over into the shithole you left behind. Nostalgia or superstition is not worth the price.
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