Something Else A’Comin’ . . .

every once in a while a window opens up and things can happen

  to wake us from our dream state, an act of resistance which gives voice to the buried past/the dream is one which commodity culture has created to divert attention from reality.

the potential of orienting a new consciousness of alterity

· "In a jazz key, the future is that which is beyond our control, that which one never arrives at, and that which therefore eludes the grip of mastery and control. It points towards a different logic of space and thus a different social arrangement. To speak of the future in this sense is to speak of difference, alterity, creativity, and surprise as part of the goodness of creation. Such a future shapes and forms us by orienting us toward that future, the ungraspable future present that has irrupted in our midst. This reality of the future that disorients so as to reorient the present, this future present […]."*

"The destructive character knows only one watchword: make room. And only one activity: clearing away. His need for fresh air and open space is stronger than any hatred.

The destructive character is young and cheerful. For destroying rejuvenate, because it clears away the traces of our own age; it cheers, because everything cleared away means to the destroyer a complete reduction, indeed a rooting out, out of his own condition. Really, only the insight into how radically the world is simplified when tested for its worthiness for destruction leads to such an Apollonian image of the destroyer. This is the great bond embracing and unifying all that exists. It is a sight that affords the destructive character a spectacle of deepest harmony.

The destructive character is always blithely at work. It is Nature that dictates his tempo, indirectly at least, for he must forestall her. Otherwise she will take over the destruction herself.

The destructive character sees no image hovering before him. He has few needs, and the least of them is to know what will replace what has been destroyed. First of all, for a moment at least, empty space – the place where thing stood or the victim lived. Someone is sure to be found who needs this space without occupying it.

The destructive character does his work; the only work he avoids is creative. Just as the creator seeks solitude, the destroyer must be constantly surrounded by people, witnesses to his efficacy."**

"Something Else A’Comin’ . . ."
J. KAMERON CARTER
May 31, 2019
"The Destructive Character," 
**Walter Benjamin, Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings
see also:
Jazz Is Built for Protests, NY Times

 image: Margaret Bourke-White/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images