Prev | Current Page 133 | Next

Dunn, Jonathan

"The Revolutions of Time"


Of course there are a few, isolated taboos that are based instead on
human prejudices, but that doesn't translate into the abandonment of all
the experience of precedents. What comes when there are no longer any
taboos and traditions to break? Destruction. For as is seen time and
again, the rebellion of societies gains momentum, and while their
consequences are slow in gathering, in the end they multiply and force
those societies over the edge of power, bringing only suffering and
ruin.
"And not only are the experiences of the past wielded together into that
euphoria that eludes the rebellious--wisdom--but its constant state
controls the present and the future. What men have seen in the past
leads them in their future actions, and as a result, it is not the
future that controls the present and defines the past, but it is the
past which controls the present and defines the future. What sense is
there in abandoning the mountain of wisdom that the past has built up
and leaping blindly into hazy, unknown actions and institutions? The
past is steady, Jehu, and it is known; it is the only sensible way."
Thus spoke Wagner.
It was then the King's turn, and he said as follows:
"The past is the past, not the present nor the future, its time has been
spent, its part in the theater of life is over, it is extinct.


Pages:
121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145