"There is some level of self-scrutiny too merciless for most of us, some inner corridor too dark."
— Sartwell, Crispin (b. 1958)
Author
Date
May 21, 2018
Metaphor
"There is some level of self-scrutiny too merciless for most of us, some inner corridor too dark."
Metaphor in Context
There is some level of self-scrutiny too merciless for most of us, some inner corridor too dark. We are mystified, or purport to be, by mass shooters, for example. What could possibly motivate a person to want to kill -- everyone? What could turn them so against their own species? I suggest that to answer a question like that we must look within ourselves -- at our own violent fantasies, the ways we hate or negate the world, our moments of imagined annihilation of people we fancy to be our enemies, our feeling at times that we are being arbitrarily persecuted or misunderstood. Perhaps, if we were witheringly honest, we might see a school shooter within us, or a bully or abuser of the sort that helped create people like that.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Crispin Sartwell, "What's So Good About Original Sin?" The New York Times (May 21, 2018). <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
05/21/2018
