Revolution Controversy

"We are not yet aware of the consequences of that event. We are too near it." -Coleridge, pg 36

These words hit me like a ton of bricks the other day. Coleridge used them in reference to the Revolution after just a few years. A profound effect is captured in just a few words that is equally profound for any influential instance in time. After reading the entry, I admit that I had to go back to read the words leading up to that close as it was all I could remember. It caused me to consider all the periods or eras that have been influential in any way. Each revolution, war, crisis that has unfolded left a mark that is always attempted to be captured into words and more recenlty, on film. I have never before thought deeply as to how much is really captured while leaving so many details behind. When I read Coleridge's words, "we are too near it," I thought about the world today and the last 26 years that I have experienced. I have lived through two wars and several conflicts and yet feel little in consideration. I even played a semi-active role in a conflict or two. I wonder if I, along with the world, have become desensitized or if I am just too near these events to comprehend. I felt more of an impact reading about the revolution and revisiting the history of leaders under the guillotine than I do for my own surroundings. I am not someone who strays from the issues, I just can't seem to feel an affect for them the way these writers have given cause for me to think about the past. I am anxious for the writings in years to come that will reflect our own time, and I hope they do it justice. I read the section on Percy Shelley before reading this section on the Revoution Controversy. Although a brief introduction, it reminded me of the issues at hand influencing Shelley's behavior as well as words. I would quickly condemn him a swinger and much worse, but perhaps he was just rebelling against an oppressive system full of social inequalities. Well, he was a bit extreme either way! The point I am trying to make is that it is so difficult to grasp what is right in your face, but these writers have opened a portal to the past to include the reader as if we experienced the events ourselves. I will elaborate in a separate blog on Helen Maria Williams.