29 April 2007, Cervera de los Montes
My wife gave me Umberto Eco's A passo di gambrero - a collection of his recent essays. Eco writes about war and peace and makes some interesting remarks on neowar, how he calls the conflicts involving the United States since the first Gulf War until the War on Terrorism. Surprisingly, Eco feels nostalgia for the Cold War. I chatted with Erkka about it and he agreed with Eco and said that then the world was in balance. Is the balance always positive? Do people really miss the equilibrium of the nuclear bombs? I just remember being afraid of the World War III constantly when I was kid.
It's macabre to choose between the horrors but I prefer the Global Civil War (Paul Virilio's concept) to the Cold War. Still, I believe that nostalgia for a horror scenario like an atom war is even worse. Now I'm doing for Umberto, Erkka and other people yearning for the past a big painting called Cold Was Cool.




