Darkness has completely descended onto the landscape and I stood up and stretched my arms above my head and I wondered what it would be like if it were a perfect world. Only god knows. And he is dead.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on despair and existential questioning of an ideal world while pondering the absence of divine guidance.
In this poignant statement by David Wojnarowicz, the speaker confronts a landscape shrouded in darkness, symbolizing despair, chaos, or hopelessness. As they stretch their arms in search of a better world, it prompts a deep reflection on the nature of existence and the unattainable notion of a 'perfect world'. The mention of God being dead suggests a loss of faith or support in navigating life's challenges, leaving the speaker alone in their yearning for meaning amidst darkness.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the challenges of creating a better society.
Research shows that if people are talking and listening to like-minded others, they become more dogmatic, more unified, and more extreme. Personalized Facebook experiences are a breeding ground for misunderstanding and miscommunication across political lines and, ultimately, for extremism.
Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.
From the day of its birth, the anomaly of slavery plagued a nation which asserted the equality of all men, and sought to derive powers of government from the consent of the governed. Within sound of the voices of those who said this lived more than half a million black slaves, forming nearly one-fifth of the population of a new nation.
Soldiers have many faults, but they have one redeeming merit; they are never worshippers of force. Soldiers more than any other men are taught severely and systematically that might is not right. The fact is obvious. The might is in the hundred men who obey. The right (or what is held to be right) is in the one man who commands them.
The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty, it hits someone else. As every crime creates a law, so in turn every law creates a crime.
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
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