Well, it becomes an ideal I guess. And on that I beg to differ with just one of Haydi's dot points. Haydi said: "Ideal , when reified, is no longer ideal."I would have thought that when an ideal is reified, then it attains the most stable of all possible forms of reification. That pile of rocks, if exumed 2000 years later, may still exhibit the properties of a cathedral if the thought was put into action by Saint Exupery.
For 2012, I guess I look forward to the deepening economic decline of Europe and the US putting pressure on China to stimulate its domestic market, and thereby lend more power to the rising tide of resistance among ordinary people demanding the rule of law in their country. And I would dearly like to see Syria join Libya and build something worthwhile from the ashes of their previous efforts to shake off imperialist domination. And it would be good to see Iran join the Arab Spring too. And keep the US the hell out of intervening in that country.
Andy mike cole wrote:
I want to join the voices for wishing all "present" the best of fortune in the new year. We now reach from Invertebrates to God in our modest explorations of the processes of human development. :)) The following thought came to me in thinking about what ensues if one accepts the invitation to imagine what will happen in the next year -- what you hope for, what you fear, what you could not expect and so can't think about. It is from St. Exupery. A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. Antoine de Saint-Exupery<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/antoinedes161736.html> Its an interesting thought, but "negative" in the sense that it tells us what a rock ceases to be but does not specify what it has become "the moment it a single man contemplates it." It seems apt to the discussion. An awful lot takes place in that moment! Happy New Year, mike
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Andy Blunden* Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1 Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857 __________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca