 |
| "Close examination of unbiased truth" Painting by William Girometti (Italy, 1979) Photo Silvia Girometti (via Wikimedia) |
“Surely, we want to be objective if that means telling the truth as we see it, not concealing information that may be embarrassing to our point of view. But we don’t want to be objective if it means pretending that ideas don’t play a part in the social struggles of our time, that we don’t take sides in those struggles. Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral."
The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.”
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
 |
| Yellow Emoticon Neutral Face Button by Granny Enchanted |
 |
|
neutral countries
disputed neutral countries
historical neutral countries
|
Midweek Motif
Neutrality / Objectivity
Neutrality / Objectivity
Neutrality and Objectivity are not equivalent, but they share the qualities of being relatively good or bad, possible or impossible and revealing or obscuring truth. A neutral position is good in a yoga class, but bad in a debate. Do you agree?
I picked this topic because today is a Celebration of Neutrality in Austria, one of several countries which have adopted a UN Declaration of Neutrality. But as a member of the European Union, how neutral can and should it be?
Your Challenge: Create a new poem that explores one instance of neutrality or objectivity. Try NOT to be either neutral or objective.
Excerpt from Goodbye to Tolerance
Excerpt from Goodbye to Tolerance
Related Poem Content Details
Genial poets, pink-faced
earnest wits—
you have given the world
some choice morsels,
gobbets of language presented
as one presents T-bone steak
and Cherries Jubilee.
Goodbye, goodbye,
I don’t care
if I never taste your fine food again,
neutral fellows, seers of every side.
Tolerance, what crimes
are committed in your name.
. . . .
(Read the rest HERE.)
Genial poets, pink-faced
earnest wits—
you have given the world
some choice morsels,
gobbets of language presented
as one presents T-bone steak
and Cherries Jubilee.
Goodbye, goodbye,
I don’t care
if I never taste your fine food again,
neutral fellows, seers of every side.
Tolerance, what crimes
are committed in your name.
. . . .
(Read the rest HERE.)
Neutral Tones
BY THOMAS HARDY
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
- They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird-a-wing...
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
- They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird-a-wing...
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ The Day of the Dead.)
