Overland literary journal

parable of the old man and the young

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 21-12-2009

I've got a piece up at Drum comparing the Copenhagen fiasco with the way Europe blundered into the Great War in 1914. It was partly spurred by that Pew report which found that people over 65 were far more likely to deny that the earth was warming, that humanity was responsible and that this was, like, a problem. Compare Wilfred Owen's great poem:

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him, thy son.
Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,
A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.