{"id":233,"date":"2007-08-15T13:03:45","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T13:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/08\/15\/the-human-abstract-2\/"},"modified":"2007-08-15T13:08:04","modified_gmt":"2007-08-15T13:08:04","slug":"the-human-abstract-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/08\/15\/the-human-abstract-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Abstract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Something happened earlier today that made me think of this rather <em>frightening<\/em> poem by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/William_Blake\">William Blake<\/a>, from his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Songs_of_Innocence\">Songs of Innocence and of Experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<pre>\r\n     The Human Abstract\r\n\r\nPity would be no more,\r\nIf we did not make somebody Poor:\r\nAnd Mercy no more could be,\r\nIf all were as happy as we:\r\n\r\nAnd mutual fear brings peace:\r\nTill the selfish loves increase.\r\nThen Cruelty knits a snare,\r\nAnd spreads his baits with care.\r\n\r\nHe sits down with holy fears,\r\nAnd waters the ground with tears:\r\nThen Humility takes its root\r\nUnderneath his foot.\r\n\r\nSoon spreads the dismal shade\r\nOf Mystery over his head;\r\nAnd the Catterpiller and Fly,\r\nFeed on the Mystery.\r\n\r\nAnd it bears the fruit of Deceit,\r\nRuddy and sweet to eat:\r\nAnd the Raven his nest has made\r\nIn its thickest shade.\r\n\r\nThe Gods of the earth and sea,\r\nSought thro' Nature to find this Tree\r\nBut their search was all in vain;\r\nThere grows one in the Human Brain\r\n\r\n                   by William Blake\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Why frightening? Well Blake often uses the term Mystery to describe, in his view, an oppressive system that enslaves people by abstracting or supernaturalising real natural and cultural forces in order to make slaves of them &#8230; &#8220;<em>And at length they pronounced that Gods had ordered such Things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Something happened earlier today that made me think of this rather frightening poem by William Blake, from his Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The Human Abstract Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor: And &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/2007\/08\/15\/the-human-abstract-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[382,407],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-personal","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}