The elevated see further

On page 66, I note that while everyone can see, and project themselves upon, the grain elevator, only a few people get to see the view or project themselves from the grain elevator. As Walter Benjamin asks, "For in those days who besides the engineer [who built it] and the proletarian [who worked there] had climbed the steps that alone made it possible to recognize what was new and decisive about these structures: the feeling of space?" Only a few get to explore the "galleries" of these elevated spaces while they are in operation. The same thing is true, even after their owners have closed up shop and abandoned their towering structures, only the engineers and supervisors have been replaced by security guards and the climbing workers have been replaced by "urban explorers." The similarity to a religious, royal or economic elite is striking: only a few can attain the dignity, the eminence and the loftiness -- in a word, the elevation -- necessary to comprehend, appreciate and give proper praises to the supremely elevated (God, the sublime or immortality). Everyone else is doubly low: beneath God's chosen elite and beneath God Himself. This certainly explains the grandiosity of the videotape I posted about the grain elevator in Stalingrad: the music doesn't celebrate the triumph of the Russians over the Germans, but the ego of the man who has managed to climb such a tall building and can now look down upon his surroundings.

But what goes up, must come down; even the dignified, the eminent and the most lofty must fall on their faces.

OTTAWA – Saskatchewan residents may have been surprised yesterday to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper muse publicly about what it would take to defeat the province. The Prime Minister appeared to be on a war footing while at a press conference to announce a highway project in Nova Scotia.

"We have to define what victory means in Saskatchewan," said Harper, when he was asked about Canada's role in Afghanistan.

He quickly retreated from the slip of the tongue.

"I don't know why I said that. I have no idea," Harper said.

Everyone at the press conference had a good chuckle, including the Prime Minister. But even so, Saskatchewan residents might well be advised to barricade the grain elevators just in case he wasn't kidding. At least they will have the advantage of seeing the invaders coming for days.

Reported by Richard J. Brennan on 7 March 2009 for The Toronto Star.