ELIZABETH AND THE DRAMATICAL WORLD | 2006-07-27
Elizabeth says,
"NO SPAM
I've noticed a profound difference between myself and most of the
people in my age bracket: because neither of my parents were
adults or even teenagers during World War II, I didn't get
conditioned from birth with the same assumptions they
were — the ones about the sanctity of Israel, the
greatness of the U.N., and so forth.
While most of my elementary and high school classmates'
parents were "making the world safe for democracy,"
my parents were learning their multiplication tables
and how to use long division
Comment by Elizabeth"
MY REPLY:
Elizabeth keeps talking about how bad her parens were, but here she praises them. There is, for what my opinion is worth, no contradiction here. My father was a disaster. But he had an understanding of reality I stand by to this day.
There is nothing more understandable than for a human being to concentrate entirely on what was done TO THEM. Nothing is more understandable, nothing is more forgivable. If your interest is only what is understandable and forgiveable, analysis ends right there.
Elizabeth is not satisfied by that. I am not satisfied by that.
Gosh, isn't it wonderful that someone can suffer endlessly from the failures of one's parents and still understand some solid virtues that they had?
Well, if your final goal is to be "objective" the answer is "YES, you are a paragon of impartiality!"
And if your final goal in life is to praised as a paragon of impartiality, you have achieved Nirvana.
Can you really imagine that Bob or Elizabeth would consider this paragon of impartiality to MATTER?
Get serious!
I think this is the reason actors are leftists. They believe that reality is drama. Like the Greatest Generation they say, "You haven't EXPERIENCED that!" Reality to them is something called Real Pain or Real Combat.
To Elizabeth and me, reality if simply what IS. Most of reality is NOT dramatic. To Elizabeth and me, however much we may state what hurt us, it is INSULTING to say that what hurt us is our REALITY. Our experiences of being hurt may be something others do not credit sufficiently. They may need to understand it.
But does that mean that we, like Hollywood actors, think that pain is the same thing as truth?
No way.