Sunday, August 25, 2019

Terrible person dies







A terrible person died the other day. And who am I to call a person terrible?

I am the judge and I am the vision.

I will not argue with someone over the sky being blue, over one being less than two, or over David Koch being evil. These are too self evident to cast the complainant in the light of respect. Besides, we are not here to explain, but rather to witness the passing of darkness. The passing of darkness should be observed and rejoiced in. As Gandhi said:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall--- always.

And so why not mark the occasion with a few quotes:

Because there's one thing I know, I'd like to live long enough to savor that when they finally put you in the ground, I'll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down.

-Elvis Costello


Who's next. Mark Twain is here to lighten things back up a bit with:

I didn't attend the funeral, but I wrote a nice letter approving of it.


And as David Koch was a fierce denier of climate change for his own now entirely useless gain and everyone else's despair, I am put in mind here of Max Planck, who said:

Science advances one funeral at a time.


We can hope so. Oscar Wilde said:

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.


Clarence Darrow, remarked, in a similar vein:

I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.


But even as we perhaps rejoice in the death of evil, it is never a happy time. So perhaps we can end on the more hopeful rumination of Simone Weil:

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.










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