in response to the newly minted description of our blog, namely, ""IF THERE IS A HARD, HIGH WALL AND AN EGG THAT BREAKS AGAINST IT, NO MATTER HOW RIGHT THE WALL OR HOW WRONG THE EGG, I WILL STAND ON THE SIDE OF THE EGG." - AUTHOR, HARUKI MURAKAMI
a loyal reader wrote:
Dear Oracle, why would you defend and support the egg against the wall, if the wall were Just and Good, and the egg a despicable crook or murdering egg? This defense of the "weak" leads to patronizing policies that hurt everyone, especially the eggs.
Dear Loyal Reader,
Haruki Murakami who made the above quoted statement when he received the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society could have easily omitted the phrase "no matter how right the wall or wrong the Egg". So why did Mr. Hurakami include it?
Here is what he said:
"Why? Because each of us is an egg, a unique soul enclosed in a fragile egg. Each of us is confronting a high wall. The high wall is the system which forces us to do the things we would not ordinarily see fit to do as individuals."
Mr. Murakami went on to say:
"I have only one purpose in writing novels, that is to draw out the unique divinity of the individual. To gratify uniqueness. To keep the system from tangling us. So - I write stories of life, love. Make people laugh and cry."
Or as the Oracle might say: Uova Ergo Sum - I am an egg therefore I am.
The Oracle very much appreciates your question and considers it to be a very central question and may even put its finger on the fulcrum that divides so much of discourse, political, ethical and otherwise.
The Oracle also wonders if whether when a high and hard wall is Just and Good its not a wall - it's an egg.
Hat tip to Ben Casnocha at Ben.Casnocha.com who brought Haruka Murakami to the Oracle's attention and to another reader who pointed out that Mura means wall in Italian.
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20 hours ago
did my comment just go through? Here it is again, no doubt slightly different....
ReplyDeleteif each of us is a unique egg, all of us little eggs with souls encased in our fragile shells, then the AIG executives, and Dick Chaney and George Bush, and the bankers and hedge fund managers are all little eggs too, hurling themselves against the WALL in their own way, based on their genetic make up and their early child hood experiences, etc.
Do these eggs deserve our sympathy and love too? They too are little souls fighting against the repressive wall of reality, are they not?
My answer would be yes, as people they certainly deserve our love for their egg (ness). Their political stance however is anti-egg and therefore politically their wall (ness) should be torn down. As the Jefferson Airplane, put it years ago in their Volunteers album when they sang: "Up Against The Wall ..." How would Ken Keasey have put it?
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