"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against
the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better,
but leave it either as it was, or sometimes perceptibly worse
than what it was, before the crusade began. By thinking
primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions,
to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
-- Aldous Huxley
"The only war that matters is the war against the imagination.
All others are subsumed by it."
-- Diane DiPrima, "Rant", from Pieces of a Song.
"It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there"
-- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"
I can never figure out if we’re turning the corner or staying the course. It’s almost as if the course has a lot of corners, like, say, a maze.
That’s a nice visual rendition there.
Thanks Curt, my understanding of the phrase was that “turning the corner” pertained to entering a new phase, ostensibly more successful and less bloody, so that both “staying the course” and “turning the corner” applied.
Of course I wish the US-UK troops would literally turn the corner right outa there but this is not a realistic expectation when an administration is afflicted with a very severe case of Vietraq syndrome, is it? (sigh)