We take much of the value system of our society for granted, but we each have responsibility to participate in working to purify our part of the world. In Purity and Danger, Mary Douglas says, "We select from all the stimuli falling on our senses only those that interest us and our interests are governed by a pattern-making tendency, sometimes called a schema." Expected events fit easily into the pattern but each culture is responsible for providing a means to approach ambiguous or anomalous experiences or they will forfeit their confidence. We must have the health and vitality to name what does not fit and define a way to excise it or fold it back into itself. (Pages 45-48)
Two nights later, I watched Dear Comrades! a film about KGB violence against an uprising in a small town in Russia in 1962. As the state turns against the protagonist, she says, "If I can't believe in communism, what can I believe in?" Confidence in the goodness of the Russian state had to be left behind; it was entirely excised and she was left to reinvent her life.
Two nights later, I watched Dear Comrades! a film about KGB violence against an uprising in a small town in Russia in 1962. As the state turns against the protagonist, she says, "If I can't believe in communism, what can I believe in?" Confidence in the goodness of the Russian state had to be left behind; it was entirely excised and she was left to reinvent her life.
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