肖莊的"An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation- No. 37. "The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot reminds me of an essay I wrote many years ago. In retrospect, my thoughts then are still relevant now. Anthony Hopkins' supple redition lightens Eliot's sullen pontification with a subtlety of self-depreciation Englishmen are known for. Listening to this poetry recitation by the fireplace is an intellectual treat on a wet and cold Friday night. Thank you, 肖莊。
The Death of Western Intelligentsia
by Lostalley
Today, western intelligentsia has disengaged itself from the long-held moral heritage as “the conscience of society”. Idealism is long gone in the western hemisphere, along with those lofty souls we used to so admire: Canadian doctor Norman Bethume in the trenches of China’s Anti-Japanese War; American journalist Edgar Snow in the caves of Yan An; Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in the mountains of Bolivia….
Most sadly, today’s western intelligentsia has degenerated from an untamed eagle of conscience into a domesticated chicken of complacence with two wimpy wings---those who prosper as spokesmen for the Establishment; and those who survive as negligible sub-cultures. The more able seek to squeeze into circles of their former enemy, while the less fit are forced to mingle with the fringes they used to despise. The former are bountiful and competitively heartless, while the latter are harmlessly combatant and hardly spotted. I am not sure where and how to find them, Berkeley? Soho? With tattoo on their rears, rings piercing their noses and “The Catcher in the Rye” in their underwear?
The world is still suffering. The gap between the rich North and poor South is ever widening at a faster pace. And the majority of world’s worst problems are related to the evolution and direction of this immoral gap. Are western intelligentsia still capable of generating enough steam to lead in an ongoing enlightenment movement as it did in the recent past? Or, are eastern intelligentsia, especially the Chinese intelligentsia capable of taking such a lead to create a new civilization as they did in the distant past? Or, rather, are western and eastern intelligentsias capable of working together for betterment of the entire mankind?
On a sunny afternoon last week, I was sitting on a park bench by the lakeside with Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot. In an early autumn breeze with geese rippling in the lake, I was musing on Eliot’s question in his “The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.
“And indeed there will be time to wonder",
"Do I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare“?
The 21st Century may be an era of giants. It may be an era of dwarfs. More likely, it may be an era of mediocrity, with everything of fancier packaging yet lesser substance, and everybody of more glittering appearance yet dimmer conscience.
But do we dare?
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