Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, animals both domesticated and wild, Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate*.
I woke up this morning to an onslaught of depressing news: North Korea, a country that would love to see the U.S. as a bloodstain, is testing missiles with U.S. government approval; CEO of GM given his walking papers ... by the U.S. government? adding to a financial crisis that still has no course. But at least the war on terror has a new name, "Overseas Contingency Operation," to take away our icky feelings about terrorism. It feels as if we are walking into hell and the U.S. government is our Virgil. Or maybe I feel this way because it's Monday.
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*Abandon all hope, you who enter here - translated by Robert Pinsky.
Or if you prefer a more contemporary view on hope abandonment ...
Later Fiends.
4 comments:
Except, in the Inferno, Virgil leads Dante to the centre of hell so that they may exit into purgatory and then paradise.
Then again, if the American government is Virgil, Virgil isn't allowed into paradise . . .
So who is Dante?
Analogy overload.
My shortsighted analogy ends at Virgil leading Dante into hell with Dante being the American citizens. But yours is a much more realized analogy. Maybe a better analogy would then be that the government is Charon, leading citizens across the Acheron ... but then again Charon only likes to transport the dead across the river ... I see what you mean about the overload.
"Analogy overload" was referring to my own inability to make a suitable analogy.
Will it be easier if America just goes back to chanting, "Yes we can"?.
Yes it will.
Everyone: Yes we can, yes we can, yes we can ...
Guy1: What is it we can do exactly?
Guy2: Who knows, something about marching into hell ... just keep chanting.
Guy1: Right ... Yes we can.
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