Imbolc Valentine Moon
Kate and I continue to watch House of Cards on Netflix. We’re on episode 11 of 13. I’ve enjoyed it though the cringe factor of reducing opponents to relapse and the casual, I use you-you use me attitudes speak of a world in which humans have only instrumental value, rather than intrinsic.
Still, when the stakes are high, the tactics get messy; I have no doubt of that; but, the world of political intrigue that resorts to the more extreme tactics represented in House of Cards has not been part of my political experience. Of course, I’ve never really left state level politics, so my range is narrow.
Civil Servant’s Notebook, the novel I mentioned a couple of posts ago, has very similar content, though in a Chinese metropolitan context. I promised when I mentioned it excerpts, but they’ll have to wait.
The world view presented in many of the characters is bleak, a sort of aimless grasping propelling many of these bright, capable people. There is also a strange dance between the hardest of hard core realism, e.g. life is absurd and a keen yearning for the pure political actor, impossible to corrupt and acting with the best interests of the people always in mind. At various points the characters come off as actors in a dark political thriller, only later seeking love and friendship, even spiritual salvation. It is, I believe, an important book.
