"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 think this theory needs to be tested empirically and consistently and repeatedly over a significant body of evidence. It could take years of work to establish baseline data. Let’s discuss methodology and funding!
;) Perhaps we could combine methodologies with this experiment next month, it would add to the ethical impact of the study enormously …
:P
I think you’re on to something there! We’ll try and time the, err, good vibes.
Thanks for your postcard from Lebanon btw, sounds like a really exciting trip.