The Violence & Hate, Scourge of Humanity...

Well...

I think I jumped a little early (see previous post). Reading a bit more deeply into the text of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," (1985), I realize it's a bit deeper and more inclusive than I realized, it's a novel about universal Human barbarity. Jean Paul Sartre's "Hell is other people," comes to mind. And, I suppose living with other people is a certain Hell. The violence, the gore, the horror, comes from all peoples, all sides. There are no "good guys." Everyone, all people are implicated in the sins of violence, cruelty, & hate. Sure there are the sins of the white peoples conquering America, (slavery, genocide, deep in the bone racism), but any people, any tribe, any mob at war with "the others," will quickly unleash & descend into the yawning maw of blood and guts. Are we ever past that kind of thing? Probably not. Look around the planet. Humans destroying other Humans. It's one of our most common occupations. We build churches, we pray & sing, but often we then turn to kill one another at the drop of a hat. The "in" group, easily turns on the "out" group. Must be built into our genetic heritage. We build these civilizations, we act like civilized beings, but the violence, the hate is not far from our grasp. It's close by, waiting, always waiting. That's just the reality. Of course, the folks fanning the flames, calling for cruelty & punishment? Those who gladly divide us? The murderers, the war-mongers? Those are the conscious, bad-actors, malevolent, evil-doers amongst us. Can some of us look past the blood, the gore, the murder, to see a certain Light? Aye, there's the rub. Maybe with a bit of luck & pluck, one can live a life beyond, but it's likely an "accident" of circumstance, time, place, & nature. Ha. At least that's what I think Cormac McCarthy is presenting to us. You are in Cormac's world. It's beautifully constructed, with a bleeding heart of horror at the center. A novel of hard, cold-blooded truth. Where is the beauty? Descriptions of the land, the mountains, the streams, the hard plains, the Light. If there is any kind of redemption it is to be found in little sparkling flashes. That's it.