I last read this brilliant book in August 2001, and my main takeaway was that Afghanistan is a place where empires go to die. A few weeks later, the Twin Towers fell, and a few weeks after that, the empire of America got itself entangled there, an act that has yet to prove a definitive conclusion.
Ironically enough I am revisiting this book as America goes to the polls. I have a number of opinions about what direction the country has taken between these two readings. I await the results to see what direction it will turn next.
On the turntable: Grateful Dead, "Dick's Picks Vol. 6"
2 comments:
Hi Ted,
I see you're back in Japan!
I like the new write-up at Deep Kyoto. I've walked down pontocho before on a date, aimlessly strolling, and lovestruck.
Re: America right now and its ongoing decline, I often think of the Bob Dylan line, "Something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you?" I think people there are finding it increasingly difficult to find new channels that can change the dominant system to better their lives.
The dominant system isn't providing any new channels, because it can't, it doesn't know how, or it doesn't want to. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, as they say. I think one reason so many people are depressed and can't do well with solidarity, is because they can't find a way to be alive that doesn't get them in trouble.
Who's on the fence these days? It seems you hardly can't be.
Even for us "Hiders" who posses the magick.
It's all very primal.
ken
https://www.againwilder.com/
Indeed. Every act must be a political one, every thought must take in ecology.
(Wow, what I wrote just now could have come out of Mao's 'Little Green Book.')
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