#manichean

"Tragedy is only possible to a mind which is for the moment agnostic or Manichean. The least touch of any theology which has a compensating Heaven to offer to the tragic hero is fatal." - I. A. Richards, ‘Principles of Literary Criticism’ (1924)

Never done /his/ requests before, but there was a drawthread so I thought I’d try it out. The request:

Guardians Of The Galaxy

This spectacle will get your pulses racing.

Indeed, it's a testosterone fulled treat

Of the highest order. Heroes chasing

Villians across the galaxy sounds neat.

Some might claim that it is Manichean,

In a world that is very polarised,

But most like to stereotype the human

You don’t often see the word “Manichean“ in political journalism. But I have a feeling we may be seeing it more in the next few months.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s address was more forceful than emotional—a sweeping condemnation of President Donald Trump that framed the election in Manichean terms of light versus darkness and hope versus despair.

If you think strongly about what’s at stake for this country and the world, it’s time to speak out and become more active. Lives are at risk.

Biden acknowledged his goals from the first day of his administration would be managing the disease the nation faces today, one that will likely be worse in the immediate future.

“We’ll develop and deploy rapid test results available immediately. We’ll make the medical supplies and protective equipment that our country needs. We’ll make them here in America, so we will never again be at the mercy of China or other foreign countries in order to protect our own people,” Biden said.

“We’ll put politics aside, we’ll take the muzzle off our experts.”

In the past seven months over 174,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. That’s 3.5 times the death toll of the worst year (1995) for fatalities during the AIDS pandemic in the United States.

The choice for president in 2020 is between a rational future and a counterfeit past.

   Of or pertaining to the Manicheans.    

On apprend qu’avant de devenir chrétien, Saint-Augustin était manichéen. Les manichéens sont végétariens et privilégient les aliments vecteurs de lumière (par exemple les pastèques, les grenades, les citrouilles).

MANICHEAN MEMORY MACHINE

Memory is a funny thing. Certain periods of your life are remembered as all good and others are recalled as all bad. In reminiscence, college years, for example, seem a golden age whereas a marriage is thought, at best, iron. You know that in school, you were a teenager dealing with new freedoms and their consequences, so it couldn’t have been all good. And you know that you wouldn’t have gotten married unless you thought it was going to be worth the effort.

Your memories are not bits of life recorded, date/time stamped and stored waiting to be recalled in order and unaltered. You only recall the bits of the past that fit into your present. You recollections are less a memoir and more like an unfinished novel with an outlined plot, a sketched protagonist and roughly visualized settings. Only the memories that fit into this scheme are allowed to be conscious.

Reminiscing about your career is different. It, unlike your college years or marriage, might still be ongoing. If it is, you will still need to hold multiple contradictory opinions of it if you are going to be able to react to it in a successful manner. You can idealize a past epoch of your career as a golden age while still being cognizant of currently living in an iron one. But once you career is history, it will be remembered as either gold or iron and all contradictory memories will disappear.