Exhaustion
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
We are probably going to live as a society exhausted by lies. This year, 2014, is the year of the most brutal elections-brutal in the form of words-in the history of Indonesia since 1945. In this bitter process, we are almost constantly bombarded with 'facts' uttered only to be turned around, rebuttals made with no intention of finding out what is true, and, slowly but surely, the spread of mutual distrust-even hatred. And with this: the loss of serious conversation.
Serious conversation contains the desire to listen to each other, without necessarily having to agree. Serious conversation does not mean humorless conversation: no, humor can be important. In serious conversation it is assumed that words have power in sound and sense, in thinking and feeling-power that is sometimes called 'meaning' or 'maksud'. In Indonesian, the word maksud can mean both 'meaning' and 'intention'. But when lies are uttered constantly, then 'meaning' is carried off-and sometimes drowned-in the flow of jostling sounds that grammar calls (to use Hamlet's expression of irritation) 'words, words, words'
arsip tempo : 173171715916.
We are probably going to live as a society exhausted by lies. This year, 2014, is the year of the most brutal elections-brutal in the form of words-in the history of Indonesia since 1945. In this bitter process, we are almost constantly bombarded with 'facts' uttered only to be turned around, rebuttals made with no intention of finding out what is true, and, slowly but surely, the spread of mutual distrust-even hatred. And with this: the loss of se
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