Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Come, then, comrades; it would be as well to decide at once to change our ways. We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged, and leave it behind. The new day which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent and resolute.
We must leave our dreams and abandon our old beliefs and friendships of the time before life began. Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration.
And yet it may be said that Europe has been successful in as much as everything that she has attempted has succeeded.
Europe undertook the leadership of the world with ardour, cynicism and violence. Look at how the shadow of her palaces stretches out ever farther! Every one of her movements has burst the bounds of space and thought. Europe has declined all humility and all modesty; but she has also set her face against all solicitude and all tenderness.
She has only shown herself parsimonious and niggardly where men are concerned; it is only men that she has killed and devoured.
So, my brothers, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than to follow that same Europe?
… . The Third World today faces Europe like a colossal mass whose aim should be to try to resolve the problems to which Europe has not been able to find the answers.
But let us be clear: what matters is to stop talking about output, and intensification, and the rhythm of work.
No, there is no question of a return to Nature. It is simply a very concrete question of not dragging men towards mutilation, of not imposing upon the brain rhythms which very quickly obliterate it and wreck it. The pretext of catching up must not be used to push man around, to tear him away from himself or from his privacy, to break and kill him.
No, we do not want to catch up with anyone. What we want to do is to go forward all the time, night and day, in the company of Man, in the company of all men. The caravan should not be stretched out, for in that case each line will hardly see those who precede it; and men who no longer recognize each other meet less and less together, and talk to each other less and less.
It is a question of the Third World starting a new history of Man, a history which will have regard to the sometimes prodigious theses which Europe has put forward, but which will also not forget Europe’s crimes, of which the most horrible was committed in the heart of man, and consisted of the pathological tearing apart of his functions and the crumbling away of his unity. And in the framework of the collectivity there were the differentiations, the stratification and the bloodthirsty tensions fed by classes; and finally, on the immense scale of humanity, there were racial hatreds, slavery, exploitation and above all the bloodless genocide which consisted in the setting aside of fifteen thousand millions of men.
So, comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions and societies which draw their inspiration from her.
Humanity is waiting for something other from us than such an imitation, which would be almost an obscene caricature.
If we want to turn Africa into a new Europe, and America into a new Europe, then let us leave the destiny of our countries to Europeans. They will know how to do it better than the most gifted among us.
But if we want humanity to advance a step farther, if we want to bring it up to a different level than that which Europe has shown it, then we must invent and we must make discoveries.
If we wish to live up to our peoples’ expectations, we must seek the response elsewhere than in Europe.
Moreover, if we wish to reply to the expectations of the people of Europe, it is no good sending them back a reflection, even an ideal reflection, of their society and their thought with which from time to time they feel immeasurably sickened.
For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man.
Frantz Fanon, “Chapter 6: Conclusion,” Wretched of the Earth
45 minute wait for brunch at Chavela’s, but this combination of hot apple cider and fly inspirational art has me feeling magnificent.
Now, how can you LIVE without owning a genuine Conway Twitty Tribute Pistol? I know I wanna be firing off some live ammo when I hear “It’s Only Make Believe….”
Gimme
Drogba interviewing Adebayor after the Tottenham-Chelsea game. Hahaha!
Currently driving through the creation scene from Tree of Life.
“This book should have been written three years ago….But these truths were a fire in me then. Now I can tell them without being burned. These truths do not have to be hurled in men’s faces. They are not intended to ignite fervor. I do not trust fervor.
Every time it has burst out somewhere, it has brought fire, famine, misery…And contempt of man. Fervor is the weapon of the impotent. Of those who heat the iron in order to shape it at once. I should prefer to warm man’s body and leave him.”
Frantz Fanon, the introduction to ‘Black Skin, White Masks’
I’ve interacted with an entirely unacceptable number of humans this past week. Hanging out with these guys until further notice.
Steve McQueen on making a follow-up to ‘Hunger’
You did once say to me, that you’re not sure you want to make another film
SM: You’ve got to get the same passion. You’ve got to get the same rage, you know—the sort of reasons to sort of be alive. Often it’s the case, I feel, that movies aren’t usually made for any other reason than to glamorize certain situations. I think, you know, there’s a real reason to be a human being, within movies.
So, you’re telling me you need that to make another movie—that impetus.
SM: Yeah, that and a lot of fucking money.
