In 1936, Camillo Berneri wrote the short essay Madrid, Sublime City; it appeared in the 2 December issue of La Guerra de Class that same year.
What strikes me is how Berneri's commentary of the war in Madrid & his mention of Hitler & Mussolini. Why did America refuse to admit the problems exploding in Europe? How prescient his words seem in hindsight; how similar are his descriptions of war to the situation we see today all over the world.
I'm no catastrophist; I've no religiously-motivated ideal about the End of Civilization. I think Americans are not idiots, despite my constant protestations to the contrary. No, we just have our heads shoved so far up our asses we can't see the world. We're not stupid, we're ignorant. But right now there is a wake-up call; people are seeing the horrors of war in person & they are coming home.
Our news is increasingly formulaic - but there are pirate radio stations with pirate news services where once such an organised revolt would have been unthinkable. The signals are reaching us through direct media: the internet brings us the voices of emilys blogging in Iraq & we hear their voices as individuals.
I see the volcano smoking on that mountain; I think we'd better build our city somewhere else.
No comments:
Post a Comment