* This line from “Levon”, by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, has always bothered me. It was in fact, Time Magazine that had this (as a question rather than a statement) on it’s front cover.
Any reference, whether correct or not, featuring this kind of statement always leads us back to Nietzsche.
Today’s incursion Behind the Lines of Unreconciled Doors is “Locus Delecti” (Scene of the Crime) and takes a literal, cartoonish look at how a philosopher could kill a concept.
The first line sets the scene, the German father of Nihilism filling God with “lead”. Here I meant the lead of a scribe’s stylus, rather than a bullet.
His tools of termination were a ” brain, an unkind protestant upbringing, and a pencil”.
Nietzsche, perhaps because of his childhood in Saxony, excelled in Christian Theology at school. It may be a case of “know your enemy”.
His theories on organised religion and his prophetic, apocalyptic reasoning of what would happen when it declined in popularity and decayed, were proved all too accurate in the century of war that followed his death.
A 20th century of “big” (awful and inhumane may be better inserted here) ideas followed and a loss of life on a previously unimaginable scale.
Before his works were re-appropriated and re-tooled for an evil empire in his homeland by his sister Elisabeth (supermen etc) following his death, much of Nietzsche’s core theories actually mirrored those of Buddhist thinkers and Catholic mystics.
I completely disagree, however , with his assertion that “prayer was an invention of those without thoughts of their own” and so had to put it into this piece.
There is so much we do not know about positive intention, meditation and the communal power of thought.
I also regret not putting a question mark at the end of the concluding line in today’s piece before it was published-
” Flashbulb. Chalk outline. God is Dead”
Algo.
If you like and if you can, having being delighted by this daily dose of dissonance, maybe Buy Me a Coffee please ,or even better, order Unreconciled Doors, so you can read along with Behind the Lines.
Unreconciled Doors is available to order in Kindle format now on Amazon for just $€£ 0.99
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 