*Non ti curar di loro, ma guarda, e passa*

Friday, 21 May 1999

(12:54 pm)


My dear Sabrina,

Thank you.  Yes, Dante's *Non ti curar di loro, ma guarda, e passa* may be
one way of dealing with the bestial. It is very difficult though.  Yeats
used to say that the worst are full of passionate intensity, and, if you
take a look at what NATO have been doing you can see that  -- such
intensity of purpose, not questioned once, not reflected upon.  No internal
struggle.  Such people must be Martians.

About Dante  -- I did read a bit of Dante while in the freshman year, on my
own.  I have only meagre knowledge of the Divine Comedy, but am very well
acquainted with its import and its place in the edifice of European
culture.  Non ti curar di loro, ma guarda, e passa -- is, as I said, one
way of dealing with the problem but it takes so much patience, good will
and infinite goodness and wisdom to apply...  And our lives here are
jeopardised every single moment.  Take today for example:  the air raid
warning was off at 5 a.m.,  on at 11 a.m., off at 11:30 a.m., and back on
some twenty minutes ago (ten to one, noon)...  With an impressive array of
weaponry, from cluster bombs, thermo bombs (developing up to 2000 degrees
Celsius -- one of these killed the Korisa Albanians), swine bombs (2.7 ton
monsters), etc., they have been killing and terrorizing us no end.  To what
purpose?

Anyway, my favourite political and epistemological idea is that for one to
really have a point of view is to transcend it.  Only after transcending
one's point of view can you actually see for yourself who you are and what
you stand for.  I am firmly convinced that none of the NATO commanders or
the grey eminence behind them all have transcended their points of view. 
Too bad.  They should be working on it.

Much love, our dear friend.

Djordje