Eliot’s masterpiece and the political economy of nihilism
Here is my final post – for now – on the poem Burnt Norton by TS Eliot.
In it I include some clips from the longer videos I published last Friday by way of introducing the poem, which I go on to read out in parts.
The reason I am doing this is because Eliot’s work and life in general and this poem in particular can help you to understand what is wrong with our world and what is missing from our lives – and how to restore it all.
We are encouraged to consider all the wisdom of our culture, religion and ancestors as the work of a bunch of outmoded fuddy-duddies having no value beyond a grotesque historical curiosity.
This is because that wisdom is superior to the trash we are supplied in its place today – a point which I think is amply demonstrated in Eliot’s Burnt Norton.
It is a poem about the destruction that is sin, that we may freely choose it or redemption. It presents an alternative to the condition of modern man who is liberated from objective morality and meaning into the trap of the self.
This, of course, is called progress today.
Continue reading…
https://www.frankwrighter.com/p/burnt-norton-escaping-the-mad-cult
