As a culture may be its language and the possession of its history in language, the argument over succession is unresolvable from the outset, but that the perception of the prize inspires so much animosity, contempt, and jealousy spells a dismal future for either hewing to such a legacy or, as discomforting but less absurd, retreating from the same.

While Hillel goes unremarked (“This which is distasteful to thee, do not do to another”), the greater world goes on around this schism that mires its humanity in its own sealed environment, which is more essentially an environment sustained in the poetry known to its own mind.

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A book is a world, a movie a mirror of our own character in community.

The work of creative writers partially involves showing us to ourselves.  Some criticize their societies.  Some patronize them.  Of the two, I would prefer honest critics.

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