Tuesday, March 23, 2004

"He considers a fair number of his works disastrous failures and bad enough to be burnt. As he has already destroyed a fair number, it is perhaps a good thing that many of his paintings are in the hands of others and that he loses so much gambling. He has to paint to keep up with the debts." --abt F. Bacon on British TV/ in Art Monthly Jul-Aug '85

Capitalism wouldn't work if it was a 100% rip-off. But 90%--and people praise it unstintingly.

Do good-ism & real aid. Real aid usually requires consent, hence it is rarely possible except in crude or trivial instances. do goodism refuses to admit these limitations. In a way, it is spiritual materialism. All that matters is "the amount of good done" --Capital in heavenbank. Real aid, on the contrary, is gratuitous; compassion meets opportunity. Without that opportunity, still compassion isn't wasted. (Tho' opportunities are often wasted on no-compassion.) Because it is part of an internal process aimed toward freedom. Mechanical dogoodism is a trap. Guilt is evidence of the trap when one has refused its compulsion. It is possible to dogood for the feeling of relief that comes from temporarily having avoided guilt. Or for the indulgence of the pity-distance. (Empathy is the opposite of this. Which can also be a compulsion.) How to distinguish compassion? It is like a zoom lens. You are able to be objective, and then to identify. That doesn't free you from sorrow. Joy does. Whereas guilt remains afterwards. Thus may you know them.
  --i wanted to test my sadness, so i danced.--

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