och storhetsvansinniga
hela mänskligheten är storhetsvansinnig
vart vi än ser
ser vi storhetsvansinnig mänsklighet
vi är mitt
i en katastrofal fördumningsprocess
(Thomas Bernhard, his official home-site)
my amateur-translation:
The human beings are cruel my child
and megalomaniac
the whole of mankind is megalomaniac
wherever we see
we see megalomaniac mankind
we are in the middle
of a catastrophic dulling-of-the-intellect-process [so true!!! Does the power think people are stupid?? Arrogantly acting over our heads?]
---
We live in a political world
Love don’t have any place
We’re living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don’t have a face
We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last
(Bob Dylan)
I have had a book (among many!) lying here and started to read it yesterday. It’s by the Swedish author Bodil Malmsten (living in France since six years). Her blog (in Swedish) here. I used to be fonder of her earlier. Laughed a lot when I read her former book three years ago. She is in denial about the severity of childhood experiences I think. But that’s another question, and another posting?
Anyway, I want to quote her.
She reacted a lot against Nicolas Sarkozy who said fall 2005 during the revolts in France that if certain immigrants don’t like France there is no reason for them to stay!!! Something that became a law spring 2006 as she writes!
She writes that if a foreigner is judged for rebellious behaviour – rebellion - the one in question looses his/her long-term residence permission (uppehållstillstånd) and is given – if the person is lucky – a temporary residence permission which has to be reconsidered (omprövat) yearly (årligen)!
The same destiny befalls those immigrants who don’t show due (tillbörlig) respect (!!!) for the French flag and national-hymn!!
How is this possible? How come this is opportune today?? How can one say such things? Why don’t people react? And react MUCH MORE? And much louder!
Malmsten says she is stricken by how invisible Sarkozy succeeded being then (before he was elected president 2007), especially when things were burning, then he managed to look as if he didn’t belong to the unpopular government! But usually, or in all other occasions he succeeded in being nearest all cameras and microphones she writes (quite ironical, and yes, she watches French TV-news? So she must see more than we do)!!!
A radio-reporter Anne Sinclair with a lot of routine makes comparisons between today’s demonstrations and the demonstrations 1968. 1968 the youth demonstrated with a hope for the future. The students rebelled against the old, reactionary and hardened (förstockade), while the youth of today rebels of fear for their future. Doesn’t sound good!! This is horrible I think.
I will quote more when I come back from work later today. Really want to write more about this.
After work, continuation (sidetrack: maybe I could learn something from her: namely writing much more briefly!? Or?):
She writes more about the demonstrations in
“That’s what’s so good with murmurs of discontent (missnöjesyttringar) as yesterday’s demonstrations.
For if all these students, employees, people connected with the trade-unions and people not connected with them, younger and older who demonstrated in Paris yesterday, had stayed at home and got out burnt each one of them, then the government hadn’t become forced to take the time for dialogue as is necessary in a democracy, before the changes which affects a whole people are carried through .”
She writes about her sister’s cat lying at a hospital in
One chapter has the title “Why are you so angry, Bodil Malmsten?”
And she answers for instance (my a little free translation and interpretation):
“Why I am angry?
I am not angry.
I am exhilarated and grateful for living in a world more complicated than I myself am./…/
I fear all groups more than everything else and all sorts of grouping.
I am against the family as a power factor but for the individuals in it; I love my family – the whole humanity – but I have difficulties with a lot of people.
But not all, not all the time, not at all.
I love all respecting the security-distance /…/
I hate hierarchies.
A woman at the top or not – it’s the power structure I am against. /…/
I am against Nicolas Sarkozy /…/ and everything he stands for – harder grips and bang! at the weaker.”
We live in a political world,
Love don't have any place.
We're living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don't have a face
We live in a political world,
Icicles hanging down,
Wedding bells ring and angels sing,
clouds cover up the ground.
We live in a political world,
Wisdom is thrown into jail,
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail.
We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank,
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank.
We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last.
We live in a political world.
The one we can see and can feel
But there's no one to check, it's all a stacked deck,
We all know for sure that it's real.
We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear,
Little by little you turn in the middle
But you're never why you're here.
We live in a political world
Under the microscope,
You can travel anywhere and hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope.
We live in a political world
Turning and a'thrashing about,
As soon as you're awake, you're trained to take
What looks like the easy way out.
We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all,
It's turned away from the door to wander some more
Or put up against the wall.
We live in a political world
Everything is hers or his,
Climb into the frame and shout God's name
But you're never sure what it is.
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