Catatan Pinggir

2 ideas

1. Doubt as a defense against absolutism

   Any ideology, religion or revolution that claims to hold final truth tends toward violence, because people who stand in the way of a completed truth come to look like obstacles to be removed. Goenawan's alternative is to treat meaning, God and the nation as permanently 'unfinished'. Keeping them unfinished keeps doubt, dissent and pluralism legitimate.

2. Euphemism and the freezing of thought

   In 'Eufemisme' Goenawan looks at official words such as diamankan ('secured') for arrest, which dress up coercion in bland administrative language. He argues that euphemism cannot actually erase the reality it covers. The danger he names is that speech repeated automatically in such formulas freezes thought.

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