I suspect that the notion of democracy held by Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the like is shaped by what each one sees when looking in the mirror in the morning, to wit, that democracy is little more than a tool in the exercise of their own will to power - which, in light of the citizens’ revolt against Obama Care, puts me in mind of a fable.
Jorge Luis Borges authored a curious little work in 1957 called The Book of Imaginary Beings, a short catalog of mythological creatures and exotic folklore. The book includes an intriguing story that originated, I believe, in China, and runs as follows:
Once upon a time, every living creature in the world had an exact double. For ages, all living things co-existed in amity and goodwill, until one day, the beings constituting one set of “twins” decided to wage war against the other set. The aggressors won, and made their defeated counterparts into slaves, condemning them to mimic every movement of their masters; hence, the origin of the mirror.
But it is said that if you listen very closely when standing before a looking glass, you can occasionally hear just the faintest sounds of tigers roaring, and the clatter of spears and the rhythmic pace of marching feet, as the slaves of the mirror secretly prepare to regain their freedom.
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6 comments:
Paco,
I've always loved Jorge Louis Borge.
He said once that Browning (Robert that is) was the pre-cursor to Kafka ... which to me was pretty amazing. I can see how most folk would be completely under-whelmed by that tho.
That is an intriguing statement. I shall have to look more closely into Browning.
This is interesting that the Chinese would have had a story proposing that each of us has an identical twin in the world (yes, yes, mirror, etc). Plato supposedly suggested the same thing (although I can't find the exact reference on Google, and I absolutely am not going to delve into my books). This kind of thing only feeds into my conviction that so many of the world's ideas that we think are unique to us have actually been passed around the world by the so-called primitives in their skin boats and land bridges.
That's a very interesting perspective, Paco. I'll have to noodle upon it.
Oh yeah!
How does this Borges fella account for the Mad Hatter? 'Splain me that, just 'splain me that.
Tres skeptical in Tucson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Browning_HP_Inglis-3.jpg
Cheers
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