kevan·ish, adj. Reminiscent of or pertaining to Kevan.

“a Kev’nish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.” Hamlet, Act IV, Scene II.

Modern usage: Here is a Kevanish web site.

And here is the opposite of what I just wrote about — a thoughtful non-polarized commentary. To read it, if you’re not a salon.com subscriber, you must look at an ad for 10 seconds; but it’s worth it for it is a very good article. I really like it when he says [. . .] for many of us who oppose the war, it has induced what almost might be called a kind of moral schizophrenia.

This is what war does. I’m struggling not to start crying myself — I am at work, so it wouldn’t look well if I did — for there is no other possible reaction than helpless tears. And that doesn’t mean I value a museum more than a human life; this is not a matter of comparison of evils. The desctruction in two days of one of the world’s most important keys to history is an evil that isn’t necessary to set in relation to anything else.

But there is more than this. Read the comments to the posting I linked to — that’s what war does, too, it polarizes humanity, there is no room for greyscale or nuances of opinion. If you think the war was necessary, then you think it’s good and that no evil can come out of it. If you think evil came out of it, then you also think that any amount of tyranny and repression was acceptable. I detest that kind of ascribing opinions to somebody else, it means that people don’t listen to one another; it’s something that is always going on of course (oh for the reasonable and reasoning communities of Kim S Robinson!) but war makes it worse, it makes opinions stronger and more absolute and people seem to be less forgiving than ever when they talk about war.

And I see it in myself too. I tend to agree with many of the things the author of Making Light argues, in particular concerning this war, and so I refuse to read her detractors’ posts properly, I just look for ammunition to use against them, I don’t try to see their point of view. There are blogs I refuse to read because I disagree with them — well, there are reasons why I shouldn’t: I want to read many blogs, and see no reason to fritter away time on blogs I don’t want to read. And it seems pointless to consciously do things that I know will make me upset. But still. I want to live in a society where people can have different opinions and be free to voice them even if they are not particularly vocal. And not listening to what other people have to say is the same as working against the idea of that society. This is something war does, too. It stops us from listening to others’ opinions, for if we don’t feel 100% certain of what we think we can’t go to war.

Went into town. Bought a couple of birthday presents, a book and some other stuff. Set a restaurant menu on fire. Returned home.

So just your basic Saturday then.

The war in Iraq may or may not be over, it is a matter of definition what you want to call the state of general plundering and armed unrest. Bombs are still being dropped and as for what will happen to the Kurds, if they will rise or not and what Turkey will do if that happens, nobody knows. Meanwhile, SARS (SAL, as it is known in Sweden) may or may not be under control, but only the other day new cases were found so it seems unlikely.

So I bury myself in books on multivariate linguistic analysis, and set up a blog for my cat. But I’m not hiding under the bedcovers — I just don’t think that the world will necessarily become a better place if normal life is suspended and random silliness is banned until war and disease are things of the past.