I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

From ‘London’ William Blake 1794

NEANDERTHAL

"I only have to pick up this stone with my thumb and the hollow of my hand and the other four fingers that fold over it, and everything is already there, I had everything that others had later, everything others knew and could do later I already had not because it was mine but because it was, because it was already, because it was there, whereas later others had it and knew it and could do it less and less, always a bit less than what might have been, than what there was before, what I had before, what I was before, I really was there then in everything and for everything, not like you, and everything was in everything and for everything, everything you need to be in everything and for everything, even everything wrong that came later was already there in that clank! clank! clink! clink! so what are you trying to say, what do you think you are, what do you mean thinking you're here when you are not, or if you are it's only because I really was and the bear was and the stones and the necklaces and the hammering on the fingers and everything you need to be and that when it's there is there."

by Sam Bassett - a conceptual artist, filmmaker and photographer

“The destructive character knows only one watchword: make room; only one activity: clearing away. His need for fresh air and open space is stronger than any hatred. The destructive character is young and cheerful. For destroying rejuvenates in clearing away the traces of our own age; it cheers because everything cleared away means to the destroyer a complete reduction, indeed eradication, of his own condition. But what contributes most of all to this Apollonian image of the destroyer is the realization of how immensely the world is simplified when tested for its worthiness of destruction. This is the great bond embracing and unifying all that exists. It is a sight that affords the destructive character a spectacle of deepest harmony. No vision inspires the destructive character. He has few needs, and the least of them is to know what will replace what has been destroyed. First of all, for a moment at least, empty space, the place where the thing stood or the victim lived. The destructive character does his work, the only work he avoids is being creative. Just as the creator seeks solitude, the destroyer must be constantly surrounded by people, witnesses of his efficacy. The destructive character has no interest in being understood. Attempts in this direction he regards as superficial. Being misunderstood cannot harm him. On the contrary she provokes it. The destructive character tolerates misunderstanding; he does not promote gossip. The destructive character sees nothing permanent. But for this very reason he sees ways everywhere. Where others encounter wall or mountains, there, too, he sees a way. But because she sees a way everywhere, she has to clear things for it everywhere. Not always by brute force; sometimes by the most refined. Because she sees ways everywhere, she always positions herself at crossroads. No moment can know what the next bring. What exists he reduces to rubble, not for the sake of rubble, but for that of the way leading through it. The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.” Walter Benjamin

REFLECTIONS ON THE ATOMIC BOMB

They asked me what I thought of the atomic bomb. I said I had not been able to take any interest in it.

I like to read detective and mystery stories, I never get enough of them but whenever one of them is or was about death rays and atomic bombs I never could read them. What is the use, if they are really as destructive as all that there is nothing left and if there is nothing there is nobody to be interested and nothing to be interested about. If they are not as destructive as all that then they are just a little more or less destructive as other things and that means that in spite of all destruction there are always lots left on this earth to be interested or to be interesting and the thing that destroys is just one of the things that concerns the people inventing it or the people shooting it off, but really nobody else can do anything about it so you have to just live along like always, so you see the atomic (bomb) is not at all interesting, not any more interesting that any other machine, and machines are only interesting in being invented or in what they do, so why be interested. I never could take any interest in the atomic bomb, I just couldn’t any more than in everybody’s secret weapon. That it has to be secret makes it dull and meaningless. Sure it will destroy a lot and kill a lot, but it’s the living that are interesting not the way of killing them, because if there were not a lot left living how could there be any interest in destruction. Alright, that is the way I feel about it. And really way down that is the way everybody feels about it. They think they are interested about the atomic bomb but they really are not not any more that I am. Really not. They may be a little scared, I am not scared, there is so much to be scared of so what is the use bothering to be scared, and if you are not scared the atomic bomb is not interesting.

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. They listen so much that they forget to be natural. This is a nice story.

Gertrude Stein