Wisdom from THE BROTHERS K on friendship and culture wars: “‘In order to become a true revolutionary,’ Dr. Gurtzner continued, ‘you must first of all jettison your ability to recall or honor the complexities of a nuanced historic or personal past.
More details explain things more, but less details confuse things less, and a leader out to galvanize thousands of zealous followers must consistently shun complexity, even at the cost of lucidity and truth.
For this same reason, friendships with those who fail to become co-revolutionaries must be eliminated. The revolutionary ideology, once installed in the mind, must be the sole regulator of all human relationships.’”
The chapter in THE BROTHERS K that this quote comes from, “Everett Routs the Ottoman Empire,” is a brilliant dramatization of the problems that afflict all revolutionary countercultures.
In the “culture is downstream from breakfast” department: “Because a Skagit Valley poultry farmer ignored global oppression and injustice long enough to harvest the eggs in our omelets this morning, you and I have the energy to stand here talking.”
Or as Dr. Gurtzner concludes, “I wish that rather than fancy itself ‘counter’ to the culture, its compassionate ideas would take root in the land and people, and begin to transform them both.”
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