[Dialogue] Fw: Politics in perspective

[jim rippey]

HOWEVER:  it seems pertinent to note that Solzhenitsyn had suffered in and
fought against a totalitarian state where most of the freedoms we value had
been snuffed out.  A small example:  we get this quote and all sorts of
other religious and philosophical insights via our Dialogue.  In
Solzhenitsyn's Russia, even copy machines were guarded to prevent the
"illicit" distribution of the kind of ideas we take for granted,
particularly via Dialogue. I suggest that in our society, the chief source
of pettiness is the materialistism which our TV constantly presents
seductively and shallowly.  And much of the "political" opinion with which
we are saturated reflects that pettiness.  It seems to me that the
political/value oriented commentary on Dialogue is exactly what we need to
counter not only that pettiness, but the very real danger that we may well
reelect leaders who will further curtail our freedoms, promote greater
inequality, undermine the independence of our justice system and cynically
encourage and manipulate religious bigotry.  These concerns are not "small
and irrelevant."

Jim Rippey in Bellevue, NE

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sunny Walker" <sunwalker at igc.org>
To: "Dialogue" <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 9:50 AM
Subject: [Dialogue] Fw: Politics in perspective


Now this is a great observation and points to what to do instead!
Sunny

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Roger Alexander
I found this in Sojourners.
Roger


Politics in perspective

"I must say that among educated people, politics occupies far too great a
proportion of time. All the periodicals, all the newspapers are saturated
with politics, although many of the objects they are discussing are very
transient and short-term. Of course, many people do occupy themselves with
higher themes.... But in general, modern humankind is characterized by the
loss of the ability to answer the principal problems of life and death.
People are prepared to stuff their heads with anything, and to talk of any
subject, but only to block off the contemplation of this subject. This is
the reason for the increasing pettiness of our society, the concentration on
the small and irrelevant."


- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


Found at: The Daily Dig
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