Does Bizet's Carmen foreshadow the fate of humanity?
She dies at the hand of her lover who failed to privatize her love into his
hand.
Humanity already became privatized at Christmas in 1913, and is dying.
The challenge before us is to reverse history, and resurrect Carmen.
Later that evening, since this was the last evening of Steve and Ushi being with us, we all decided that a cultural celebration was needed. Steve chose the opera, Carmen, by Georges Bizet. He had noticed that Ross had a video recording of it on his shelf. So it was, that in the glow of the sunset Ross' television set was dragged out onto the balcony, external speakers and all.
Steve stood up and made a speech before we put the opera on. He leaned against the balcony railing and raised his hand to get people's attention. Low clouds over the sea behind him reflected some of the remaining glow of the sunset. Some of it still illumined the sky far to the right.
Steve told us that he thought it was quite a miracle that we got through what had happened almost without a scratch. He said it was a miracle, because everything that had been done, apart from a few exceptions, had been done dishonestly and untruthfully. "The miracle is that we survived," he said.
"That's no way to start a celebration!" Tony interrupted him.
"Hey, what do you mean to tell us, Steve?" I added to Tony's remark. "What did we do wrong? We detected the cruise missile, we got it shot down, we succeeded in Venice to the point that the fondi got all tied into knots. Also we had not a single nuclear attack or threat from the Soviets of any kind since we
cancelled the SDI. We also did well in the dessert and again at the hearing. How can you say we did everything wrong? We succeeded at the hearing beyond what I had hoped for. Instead of us doing everything wrong, the opposite happened. The evidence seems to suggest that we did everything right."
Steve shook his head. "Hey, Pete, you of all people should know what I am talking about," said Steve. "Perhaps you don't even recognize your own untruthfulness. You have not been honest with yourself about the truth that you know, which you ignored in your blind zeal of wanting to rescue humanity all by yourself. Thus, the project started out wrong. The goal that you had in mind with your beach project was a noble one, but the path you had chosen to get there was a dishonest one. You denied the very foundation of the goal that you were striving for and did so almost to the end. The scene was salvaged by other people, mostly by Fred, and you didn't even recognize that it happened."
"Me?" I said astonished.
"Yes you, Peter. Hadn't I told you right from the beginning that your beach project wouldn't work? I knew that it wouldn't work, because it couldn't possibly work on the platform on which you had started the project. You sold all you had and poured every penny of it into this project. You said to yourself that's the only way to get things done, by doing it yourself. It didn't work out that way, because you denied a fundamental truth about our humanity, that we all reflect one universal, infinite Soul that manifests itself in a community of principle across the whole of humanity. Did you really believe that you were the only person in the world with the desire and the determination to uplift humanity to a higher level of unity where its safety ultimately rests? Evidently you believed that you were the only one with that desire. You were living a lie. You lived with that lie. That is why you pushed yourself to the limit to do this thing alone. And that is why it didn't work out until a lot of other people changed your platform for you, starting with Fred, and later Ushi in the dessert. You had denied the very basis on which the project needed to be established, which is the universality of our humanity. You should have invited everyone to participate at the beginning, in this vital project that is in everyone's interest. If you had done this, your motives would have been in accord with the truth that all people are human beings with the capacity to acknowledge universal principles. You should have made your project, everyone's project. But you didn't do that. Instead you denied everyone's humanity. Indeed, you denied your own humanity, because truthfulness is one of the great attributes of our humanity, especially in regard to the principles that we behold with the mind, which the eyes cannot see, but which we recognize because we are human. We can't deny these principles. To do that is like denying the universe itself.
