Makism Gorki quoted Lenin on his "revolutionary" aesthetics:
"But I can't listen to music too often; it affects your nerves. One wants to say stupid, nice things and stroke one the head the people who can create such beauty while living in this vile hell. And now you must not stroke anyone on the head: you'll have your hands beaten off. You have to hit them on the head without mercy, though our ideal is not to use violence against anyone. Hmm, hmm...an infernally cruel job we have."
Great quote.
Now, if only these answers we need were as objective as the question seems to be. But as a Brazilian writer said: you can't organize the world of values——no one can clear up the Devil's playhouse.
After all, he is the master of this world, not God.
Great quotes. While I personally agree with what you're saying here, I think this 'quest' that you seem to have for the 'next' major ideology that would define our age, appears to be somewhat constrained by this very fact...
I think you focus too much on officially-recognised ideologies as a whole without really paying enough attention to the fact that what perhaps truly matters is individual thoughts, sensations, extracts, fragments...things which may not necessarily seem to fall within the boundaries of a particular ideology may just be the ingredients for this 'beyond nihilism' target that you've set yourself here. (Nietzsche of course being an apt example here)
The Romantics for instance, never called themselves 'Romantic' but the term itself was coined later to describe this particular period of history...
That's a good point, of course. My fear though, is that without some pole to rally around, ideas become pipe dreams. Ideologies are constraining, but the human mind needs to categorize or else it is devoured by formlessness. I suppose I'm just impressed by the power of the Futurist manifestos, and how forthrightly they set out their ideas as a challenge to the world.
Commenting by HaloScan
