Our false oracles have failed. We need a new vision to live by

The Times of London ^ | October 20, 2008 | Ben Okri

[AfricanChristian]

(Published three years ago. Still important today).

The crisis affecting the economy is a crisis of our civilisation. The values that we hold dear are the very same that got us to this point. The meltdown in the economy is a harsh metaphor of the meltdown of some of our value systems. A house is on fire; we see flames coming through the windows on the second floor and we think that that is where the fire is raging. In fact it is raging elsewhere.

For decades poets and artists have been crying in the wilderness about the wasteland, the debacle, the apocalypse. But apparent economic triumph has deafened us to these warnings. Now it is necessary to look at this crisis as a symptom of things gone wrong in our culture.

Individualism has been raised almost to a religion, appearance made more important than substance. Success justifies greed, and greed justifies indifference to fellow human beings. We thought that our actions affected only our own sphere but the way that appalling decisions made in America have set off a domino effect makes it necessary to bring new ideas to the forefront of our civilisation. The most important is that we are more connected than we suspected. A visible and invisible mesh links economies and cultures around the globe to the great military and economic centres.

The only hope lies in a fundamental re-examination of the values that we have lived by in the past 30 years. It wouldn't do just to improve the banking system - we need to redesign the whole edifice.

[cricket]

These oracles he speaks of, are the gods of Marxism and this man 'still' believes. He imagines an enlightenment, whiles suffering classic Marxist myopia - and the shallowness of thinking, that goes with it.

An altogether, empty sharing here.

[AfricanChristian]

I disagree.

Can’t you see the references to Christianity?

[cricket]

Will reread and check back. Interpreting a matter of one’s ‘lights’ and so there is much in Bible that ‘speaks’ to Marxism, if one is so inclined, and thus the Bible is ‘used and abused’ -and misconstrued - by those needing to do just that. Whether Marixst or not, for that matter.

[GOPJ]

LOL - well, the subject matter at hand seems to call for ‘the Future’ - but “I’m Your Man” is great too - or better yet, Hallelujah...

[GOPJ]

LOL - well, the subject matter at hand seems to call for ‘the Future’ - but I like “I’m Your Man” too - or better yet, “Hallelujah”.

[Deb]

“Hallelujah” is wonderful, but “If It Be Thy Will”, written during Cohen’s days in the monastery, has me in tears every time I hear it. “The Future” scares me.

[GOPJ]

If it be your will? Here's some commentary from his newest book (Leonard Cohen - Poems and Songs ) - by Robert Faggen:

In the prayer "if It Be Your Will" it is hard not to be stunned by a stanza that builds from a parallel but disturbing conditional line to three joyous exhortations and then falls to an enjambed line with a terrifying vision of suffering:

If it be your will

if there is a choice,

let the rivers fill,

let the hills rejoice.

Let your mercy spill

on all these burning hearts in hell,

if it be your will

to make us well.

No less remarkable are the lines in the next stanza, "in our rags of light,/all dressed to kill,". These lines like so many in Cohen , are searingly bright with the clarity of madness. They heal and tear asunder and heal again. And they keep us listening.

[Deb]

"...the clarity of madness". Wow. That exactly defines Cohen's work.

I caught his live show recently and I have no idea how a man his age has the stamina to perform for so many hours and then do endless encores. It was fantastic. Of course, he did collapse in Europe, but then continued on. Amazing.