DJ> "The Invisible Messenger"
" Individual human beings are distinctly different from
one another...
...But, in the mass, we all seem to march to the same drumbeat.
We conform, almost as if an invisible messenger appears among us
from time to time and gently whispers commands that we all
proceed to follow without reason.
This is one of the most important lessons that we can learn from
history. Human beings, in the mass, have alternating periods of
elation and depression. They become belligerent in cycles, producing
wars, revolutions, and civil strife; this mass murder is then
followed by periods of passiveness, constriction, and inaction.
At one period they will flock to the financial centers of the
world and risk all their holdings on tulip bulbs, resort land, and
that intangible called a stock certificate. At other times they are
overwhelmed by plagues of doubt and they stampede to convert
their assets into cash and gold.
During one swing of the millennium's pendulum they elevate creativity
to a function approaching godliness. The artist, the
musician, the poet, become the prince of heaven. Later, ambitions,
instincts, and morality are submerged in the darkest of ages.
Why does our behaviour alternate with such regularity ? "
- from Cycles, 1971, p.46 ...
...book I picked up in an old shop in some small town while on vacation last week with MadameGonzo in the NoCal wine country; a quick and curious read (went well with Pinot Noir :) ultimately his thesis begs the question: cause, or effect ?
-Steve |
