EARTH ~

JEAN BAUDRILLARD ~ THE SPIRIT OF TERRORISM
(Verso)

Below — Baudrillard is speaking to terrorism and 9/11. It may be attached, as well, to Katrina, Wall Street, foreign desert wars, BP oil and the myriad of destructive tools now at work.

"This is precisely where the crucial point lies — in the total misunderstanding on the part of Western philosophy, on the part of the Enlightenment, of the relation between Good and Evil. We believe naively that the progress of Good, its advance in all fields (the sciences, technology, democracy, human rights), corresponds to a defeat of Evil. No one seems to understood that Good and Evil advance together, as part of the same movement. The triumph of the one does not eclipse the other — far from it. In metaphysical terms, Evil is regarded as an accidental mishap, but this axiom, from which all the Manichean forms of the struggle of Good against Evil derive, is illusory. Good does not conquer Evil, nor indeed does the reverse happen: they are at once both irreducible to each other and inextricably interrelated. Ultimately, Good could thwart Evil only by ceasing to be Good since, by seizing for itself a global monopoly of power, it gives rise, by that very act, to a blowback of a proportionate violence. "

EARTH ~








TERRA



There is evidence of spring everywhere

A pair of geese, into a headwind / point north

The shed door shuts easier now

Rain water comes to the meadows

Planks are thrown down

FINDING OPEN WATER



There are these things

That make lovely creatures

More lovely —

A red-tailed hawk sweeps

From one moment of the hillside to another

Rising mist will not lose him



3 deer wade into the shoulder of a field

They feel safe in the holler of rain



Then you, rolling up your pants

Before a bicycle ride

Your hair just touching the ground

I tell you I will do something with that

Your smile makes the beginning of all this

from Where Rivers Meet, Bob Arnold

photos ©bob arnold
tamarack, planted circa 1975
1st daylily of the year, 15 june '10