A moment in history

 If Dante returned to life he would add in these words to the Gates of Hell.


Who -me?
Oh no, not me
I'm not evil
-pleeease.
Tickets, tickets, tickets please.
It's just my job five days a week
nothing personal you see
-come.
This way, this way please
it's only orders
from higher up
not my responsibility, honestly.
Hurry, quickly now
show time starts so very soon.
I'm only the usher here at Aushwitz
this place is not of my design.
Tomorrow I might look for a better job.
Until then-
Next, next one please.

This was one of the first poems I had written and I would do it as a performance piece trying to channel my inner Joel Grey as the Master of Ceremonies from the movie Cabaret.

Yeas ago this poem would get such a visceral reaction. I recently recited it for old times sake and notice how only the older members of the audience reacted. One young man in his early twenties approached me afterwards and said "this Aushwitz place, I should know what it is, it sounds familiar".

I guess evil in the world is such a perennial theme in history because often great evils are built upon many little mundane actions done by ordinary people. The other reason why evil constantly revisit us is evil is depressing to look at. All the atrocities beg to be buried, then memorialized and slowly allowed to fade into the background as people return to their everyday lives. As the history fades so too the lessons that history has to offer fade away.

"A watch computer never boots" That what Benjamin Franklin posted on his Poor Richard's Blogsite.

Part of the power of the disutopian world of 1984 was the control over information, actually the ability to erase history and recreate an indisputable and entirely self-serving narrative that was divorced from the truth and beyond scrutiny. Orwell's vision is the world of North Korea, which seems clunky and kind of quaint -as though it was a comical side show to the practice of brutal despotism.  

Today the fog of memory isn't in the suppression of information but instead the clutter of noise and entertainment. Where any inconvenient truth can be covered over with an avalanche of claims, counter claims, fashion news and Hollywood gossip. Or as John Steinbeck pointed out in the passing thoughts of Kate, in East Of Eden, how you can kill a person with enough candy as though it was a daily dose of slow poison.

Big Brother is now your Facebook pal.