Tuesday, January 28, 2020

truth and purpose


"We must always take sides.  Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.  Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

~  Elie Wiesel


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------------------- [excerpt, Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad] ------------------------- I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass, then found a path leading up the hill.  It turned aside for the boulders, and also for an undersized railway-truck lying there on its back with its wheels in the air.  One was off.  The thing looked as dead as the carcass of some animal.  

I came upon more pieces of decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails.  To the left a clump of trees made a shady spot, where dark things seemed to stir feebly.  I blinked, the path was steep.  A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run.  

A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all.  No change appeared on the face of the rock.  They were building a railway.  The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.

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{published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1899}

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