Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Dye, Steve" <sldye AT bluegrass.org>]

Well put. One can just occasionally channel surf on to the History Channel 
and catch any number of "shows" about the relationship between Japan and the 
USA since 1930 as an example....and one might even venture to say that the 
relationship (and emotion) between those countries was even more volatile and 
"visceral" then between the USA and the Muslim world today....interesting how 
history "turns out".

________________________________

From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Eckert, Robert G SPC MIL 
USA FORSCOM
Sent: Mon 2/25/2008 1:39 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Re Lit Crit on Percy - Where to Start?



I wonder if Percy ever read DeChardin's "The Great Monad", written in 1918 
when he was with his regiment in Champagne. Even during the horror of that 
war DeChardin found something positive that I believe applies to this current 
clash:


"Mankind in armed conflict with itself is a Mankind in process of 
solidification....
The whole of history teaches us this lesson, that after every revolution and 
after every war Mankind has always emerged a little more self-cohesive, a 
little more unified, because the links that hold its organism together are 
more firmly locked together and hope of a common emancipation has become 
strengthened." (p.184, The Heart of Matter)

In a peculiar way, war is how we get to know other cultures. Americans know 
much more about Islam now than they did in August of 2001. We can hope that 
this struggle will settle, that Jewish, Muslim and Christian people will 
learn to live together peacefully.

If we can survive the initial clash, we can converge.

CPL Robert Eckert

"What's so funny about peace, love and understanding"
        - Elvis Costello


----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Forest <jhforest AT gmail.com>
Date: Monday, February 25, 2008 5:00
Subject: [percy-l] Re Lit Crit on Percy - Where to Start?
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" 
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>

> Thanks, Robert. God knows you're right about the pure horror of
> inflicting indiscriminate harm, whether by bio-weapons or any of the
> numerous other methods that have been developed as a means of mass
> murder. Developments in killing methods this half century or so make
> Genghis Kahn look like Elmer Fudd.
>
> When I was a US Navy meteorologist working with a Navy unit at the
> Weather Bureau headquarters just outside of Washington, DC, one of
> our daily exercises was to plot fallout patterns over 12-hour
> intervalsshould a 20-megaton nuclear explosion occur over the
> capitol. It was a
> sobering task, as you can imagine.Of course all the meteorologists at
> the Weather Bureau would be among the instant dead if it were the real
> thing.
>
> I wonder what Walker Percy would have to say about the word "hero"?
> Was it a topic that ever came up in the numerous interviews that were
> done with him?
>
> One group's hero is very often another groups icon of evil. But there
> are heroes who are beloved across borders. Saints. Now there's an
> interesting word, one that meant a great deal to Walker Percy.
>
> Friendly greetings,
>
> Jim
>
> On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 5:45 PM, Eckert, Robert G SPC MIL USA
> FORSCOM <
> robert.g.eckert AT us.army.mil> wrote:
>
> > Jim is right, of course.
> >
> > Scientists like Dr. Ken Alibek, M.D. who developed bioweapons
> for the
> > Soviet Union are good people.
> >
> > I would still argue that the sort of killer who would use an
> agent like
> > small pox in an attack is not the same type of killer as a
> soldier who
> > engages insurgents firing on a convoy just hit by an i.e.d..
> >
> > The insurgent or the soldier may be your hero.
> >
> > But, who could have as their hero, who could conceive any
> possible good in
> > the use of a deadly contagious disease to indiscriminately
> inflict harm?
> >
> > CPL Robert Eckert
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Jim Forest
> > Date: Sunday, February 24, 2008 5:50
> > Subject: [percy-l] Re Lit Crit on Percy - Where to Start?
> > To: Walker Percy List
> >
> > > An extract from Robert Eckert's posting:
> > >
> > > >> In one interview, Percy, when asked a question concerning
> > > something about living at another time, said he would like to sit
> > > on a
> > > park bench in NYC in the year 2050 to see how we were doing.
> > > To see if we made it.
> > > >> Will we?
> > > >> Percy's questions concerning human destiny are still relevant.
> > > >> Even more so in a post 9/11 age.
> > > >> Bad people possess the capability to inflict inordinate damage
> > > upon you and everything you know.
> > >
> > > I have a feeling that, if Walker Percy were still with us and
> could> > respond, he might point out that it's not only the bad
> people (Them)
> > > but the good people (Us) who all too often inflict inordinate
> damage> > upon a great many people.
> > >
> > > My guess is that his response would be along the same lines as
> > > something Thomas Merton (a writer Percy greatly admired) wrote
> > > while the Vietnam War was gaining momentum.
> > >
> > > Having read Hannah Arendt's book about the trial in Jerusalem of
> > > Adolph Eichmann, the chief bureaucrat of the Holocaust. Merton was
> > > inspired to write an essay: "A Devout Meditation in Memory of
> > > Adolf Eichmann."
> > >
> > > Eichmann, Merton noted, had been declared sane by examining
> > > psychiatrists. This sane man who had been involved in the
> death of
> > > millions seemed to Merton an archetype of all those who were
> > > brilliant perfecters of new technologies of killing. They were
> simply> > doing their job, following orders, being good citizens, etc.
> > >
> > > Merton wrote:
> > >
> > > "The sanity of Eichmann is disturbing. We equate sanity with a
> sense> > of justice, with humaneness, with prudence, with the
> capacity to love
> > > and understand other people. We rely on the sane people of the
> world> > to preserve it from barbarism, madness, destruction. And
> now it
> > > begins to dawn on us that it is precisely the sane ones who
> are the
> > > most dangerous. It is the sane ones, the well-adapted ones,
> who can
> > > without qualms and without nausea aim the missiles and press the
> > > buttons that will initiate the great festival of destruction that
> > > they, the
> > > sane ones, have prepared.... No one suspects the sane, and the
> sane> > ones will have perfectly good reasons, logical, well-
> adjusted reasons,
> > > for firing the shot. They will be obeying sane orders that
> have come
> > > sanely down the chain of command." [Thomas Merton, Raids on the
> > > Unspeakable (New York: New Directions, 1966), 45-53.]
> > >
> > > Of course we regard ourselves as sane, not to mention good and
> > > decent and even God-fearing. In the Hollywood movie we make of
> > > ourselves, we're never the bad guys.
> > >
> > > Jim Forest
> > >
> > > * * *
> > > Jim & Nancy Forest
> > > Kanisstraat 5
> > > 1811 GJ Alkmaar
> > > The Netherlands
> > > personal web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/
> > > *recently published:*
> > > *"Silent as a Stone," a children's book about a community of*
> > > *rescuers in Nazi-occupied Paris:*
> > > http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/books/silent-as-a-stone-
> mother-
> > > maria-of-paris-and-the-trash-can-rescue/
> > > *another new book:
> > > "The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life":**
> > > http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/books/the-road-to-emmaus-
> > > pilgrimage-as-a-way-of-life/
> > >
> > > * * *
> > > Nancy and I have been keeping a journal that follows our
> recent kidney
> > > transplant. A blog has
> > > been set up for this purpose -- A Tale of Two Kidneys. See:
> > > http://ataleof2kidneys.blogspot.com/
> > > * * *
> >
>
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