ТЕЧЕНИЕ

Tact, like empathy, is based on a certain form of mutual understanding. But while empathy implies the idea of entering someone else’s mind inasmuch as it is linked to the presumption that ‘I know how you feel’, tact exists to create a form of bonding between individuals that is not based on the idea of intrusion but, conversely, on the respect for existing boundaries, and on a willingness not always to assume that one knows. While empathy requires resonance and proximity, tact is there to restore distance, and to accept the difference between the individuals involved in order to protect and preserve their dignity. Tact is based on an attention towards otherness.

Often he was honoured and profusely The Comrade Lenin. Busts there are and statues. Cities were named after him and children. Speeches are made in numerous languages Rallies there are and demonstrations From Shanghai to Chicago, in honour of Lenin. But thus they honoured him The carpet weavers of Kuyan-Bulak A small village in southern Turkistan: Twenty carpet weavers stand there in the evening Shivering with fever, in front of their humble loom. Fever runs riot: the railway station Teeming with buzzing mosquitoes – a thick cloud Arising from the swamp behind the old camel cemetery. But the train, which Once in two weeks brings water and smoke, brings Also the news one day That the day for honouring Lenin lies ahead And so decide the people of Kuyan-Bulak Carpet weavers, poor folk That for the Comrade Lenin also in their village A gypsum bust would be installed. But as the money is collected for the bust All of them stand Trembling with fever and contribute Their hard earned kopecks with wobbling hands. And the Red Army soldier Stepa Jamal, who Carefully counts and meticulously watches, Sees the readiness, to honour Lenin, and is filled with joy. But he also sees the uncertain hands. And all of a sudden he makes a proposal To buy petroleum with the money collected for the bust In order to pour it on the swamp behind the camel cemetery From where the mosquitoes come, which Cause the fever Thus to combat the fever in Kuyan-Bulak, and indeed To honour the late, but Not to be forgotten Comrade Lenin. This was agreed to. On the day of paying respect to Lenin they carried Their battered buckets, filled with black petroleum One behind the other Over there and spread it on the swamp. So they benefited themselves, in paying homage to Lenin and Paid homage to him, in that they benefited themselves and had Therefore understood him well. We have heard how the Kuyan-Bulak folk Paid their respect to Lenin. As now in the evening The petroleum had been bought and discharged over the swamp Stood up a man in the assembly, and he demanded That a commemoration stone be erected at the railway station Reporting these events, containing The altered plan and the exchange Instead of Lenin’s bust the fever eradicating petroleum barrel, And all this in honour of Lenin And they did that too And mounted the slab.

Imperialism has layed its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution.

The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being.