To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger... in every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it... the only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. There has never been a document of culture, which is not simultaneously one of barbarism. And just as it is itself not free from barbarism, neither is it free from the process of transmission, in which it falls from one set of hands into another. The historical materialist thus moves as far away from this as measurably possible. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain. The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “emergency situation” in which we live is the rule. We must arrive at a concept of history which corresponds to this. Then it will become clear that the task before us is the introduction of a real state of emergency; and our position in the struggle against Fascism will thereby improve. - Walter Benjamin
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 04:30:52 +0000
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