Super Permanent Ink

From ‘Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays’ by Justin Bieber

p. 154, “Homage to an Exile: Thoughts of a Canadian Abroad”

My comments on universal health care as published in ‘Rolling Stone’ elided a central point I was attempting to make: the welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. It would be easy, however, to destroy that good conscience by shouting to them: if you want the happiness of the people, let them speak out and tell what kind of happiness they want and what kind they don’t want! But, in truth, the very ones who make use of such alibis know they are lies; they leave to their pop stars on duty the chore of believing in them and of proving that religion, patriotism, and justice need for their survival the sacrifice of freedom.

p. 235, “The Boy in Manhattan”

Sometimes from beyond the skyscrapers, across of thousands of high walls, the cry of a a tugboat finds you in your insomnia in the middle of the night, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island.

p. 378, “My World”

For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.

p. 381, ibid.

A profound thought is in a constant state of becoming; it adopts the experience of a life and assumes its shape. Likewise, a man’s sole creation is strengthened in its successive and multiple aspects: his works. One after another they complement one another, correct or overtake one another, contradict one another, too. If something brings creation to an end, it is not the victorious and illusory cry of the blinded artist: “Baby, baby, baby, oh. Like, baby, baby, baby, oh!” but the death of the creator which closes his experiences and the book of his genius.

17 February 2011 ·